Today there have been a series of Russia connections in my morning.   In the NEW YORKER over coffee I read a story about a fellow who took a road trip through Siberia.   The traveler/writer, Ian Frazier, commented that in Siberia the term for forest food products is podnozhnii korm, literally meaning "food found underfoot".  (NB  I couldn't raise a defition of podnozhnii korm with Google, but I did find the web site "foodunderfoot.com which reports on eating wild things like bbq prickly pears and sumac tea)

When I was going by a park about an hour ago I saw a man with a basket walking around and bending down picking mushrooms out of the lawn and leaves.   

Very cool - podnozhnii korm  right here in NEO.

I ambled over to talk with the fellow - thinking two thoughts:   1. he would be reluctant to let me know about the mushrooms he was collecting - and 2.  he would have a different cultural background than me.

I was wrong about No 1, and right about No 2. 

Alex, the mushroom gatherer, was from Russia and knew mushrooms.   I caught some video which I will upload later.