Shortly after former Editor-Extraordinaire Beverly Harris read my recent blog posts on “Mushrooms in the Lawn,” she walked out the back door of her home at Clarewood House and spotted this fairy ring.
She sent this picture to former Food Editor-Extraordinaire Ann Criswell with the instructions to stare at it long enough to see an elf emerging from the circle. If you do, you can capture the elf!. How? Beverly suggested pepper spray.
Actually, that is an old legend . . . about capturing the elf inside the fairy ring, that is.
First, about fairy rings, they are just a type of mushroom that happens to send up its “fruit” in a circular pattern. No mystery. Just fun!
Ancients believed these were either the gateway to an elf kingdom or a spot where elves, or fairies, liked to dance. Can’t find that they ever recommended using pepper spray tho.
But the story goes that if you step inside a fairy ring, you might just be spirited into that elf kingdom. But when they sent you back, you’d have no memory of the experience.
It would just be as tho you stepped in, and then stepped out again. So there!
Others said if you turn your hat backwards, the fairies will become confused and won’t be able to pull you into their world.
We used to delight in the fairy rings that appeared in Hilly Park, our favorite gathering place in Riverside Subdivision.
As with any mushrooms, they only appear when the ratios are perfect of weather to moisture to soil organic matter. Soon as one factor changes, they’ll disappear.
