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Jess Liotta 🍄

@jessliotta.bsky.social
1.4K followers 452 following 5.8K posts

Dual class 🇺🇸/🇮🇹 (siciliana, e imparando italiano). I’m a mushroom forager, parent to two very cool kids, silken windhound owner, and food obsessive; be ready for me to be annoying about all the above. PNW now, CA before, PNW before that. She/her

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Reposted by Jess Liotta 🍄
Josephine Riesman @josie.zone · 11h
Your drunk liberal aunt is ready for civil war
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Reposted by Jess Liotta 🍄
Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 10h
we should let every candidate pre-game at least one sitdown like this. I feel like I’m watching Drunk History in real time
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
A small section of my van with a couple favorites
A few bumper stickers on a red van door

THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IS NOT TO MY LIKING

Donkeys are magic
OREGON DONKEY
SANCTUARY

PREMIERE
LEVEL (skeleton of prehistoric beast)

MILF
Man, I Love Frogs
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Eating can be quite good sometimes! (I find it pretty dann annoying about half the time myself, but the other half of the time it sure can hit right)
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
(Also present: Ina G style lemon herb garlic sauce and a ton of chanterelles roasted underneath, and accompanied by a very nice white bean broccoli situation courtesy of pal Kate)
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Theydies and gentlethems, may I present: This roast chicken
A near goddamn perfect roast chicken on a pan next to its already broken down twin, Kate’s white beans and broccoli and a bowl of lemony roast chanterelles behind
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Hamburglar-ass flag, omfg
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
You hear that, everyone? Terrestrial ball rolling BEFORE it was cool
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
the world is very good, actually
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Despite a life-long love of creatures with this form I had NO IDEA about the (a) existence of pill millipedes & (b) the convergent evolution that made them identical to pillbugs, aka the roly poly we all adore. They're about as closely related as, idk, a garden centipede and an ocean barnacle. Wow!
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Caper may be 29 pounds of skin, bone, and fur but his russian borzoi ancestor genes sure do express themselves every so often
Caper, a silken windhound made of hair, looking pleased as hell to be alive
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Time for bed, but hmm, where’s the dog? Oh, of course. He is sleeping blissfully on his cool air flow porch bed in the 40-something-degrees-Fahrenheit cold, on our first frost warning night of the year. Where else would he be
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Oh yes absolutely. (Although my grandfather wasn’t my mom’s biodad; that was a previous husband of my grandma who I never even met who was allegedly a real asshole. AND I know for a fact that I have aunts & cousins I’ve also never met and have always been curious about)
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
the second line of this post is almost verbatim what I said to my 16 year old yesterday when we were trudging around in the pouring rain in the woods scouting the site for the mushroom class I taught today lol
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I loaned Kai my old wilders hoodie today and he looks so much like one of my old dirtbag [complementary] [mostly] staff members it’s breaking my brain
Kai walking across a street in my old wilders hoodie
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Nary a russet to be found for love or money
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
And 10 of them will have the word “crisp” in their name. I fucking swear to god my joker origin story has 50/50 odds of including an anecdote about the fall apple section in allegedly good PNW grocery stores
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Me too, now, dang
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Kinda feel like if we teamed up, between the two of us we could probably do a very tidy fall mushroom business entirely on Bluesky dot app lol
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I have written so many words on so many bland federal governmental forms (which, although dull, are for something potentially pretty exciting)! OTOH. The question now is if and when I will like, sleep, tonight
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I woke up early enough to take my adderall then I had coffee and then Colin brought me a latte so I reckon I've either overshot and destroyed my whole day OR I'm about to have the most productive day ever Let's see what happens if I aim myself at this 24+ page government form I have to complete!
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Reposted by Jess Liotta 🍄
Maybe It Will Happen Today @today-maybe.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
A somewhat janky digital rendering of the 60s version of the USS Enterprise rendered in greenish grays with orange highlights on the front of the nacelles and the deflector dish. There is a burst of whooshing rays behind it but the background is the default natural paper color I’ve been using and not space black. Reddish-orange text around the ship set in a Star Trek TOS font reads ‘Maybe it will happen today’.
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Under enrollment can ironically lead to crowding. My kid’s PPS 5th grade class had 30 something kids bc they didn’t have enough to split into 3 like previous years. (I mean, god forbid we have 3 classes of 21 or 22 5th graders, butI guess that’s just not even close to penciling district-wide :/ )
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The closures are awful but I think it’s important to note that it is the ANNOUNCEMENT that could come at any time. Actual plan would be voted on in December and they’d close at the end of this school year with consolidations next fall
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
We didn’t have many movies around. But thanks to great aunt Effie’s satellite dish & family bootleg VHS distribution scheme we had The Neverending Story & The Last Unicorn. I needed an adult to fast forward through the Gmork scenes in TNS & the Red Bull scenes in TLU because they were too scary!!
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Hey @billhookunion.beanyear.com wake up there’s new PNW heirloom apple news dropping
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“a mouthpiece to sway public opinion”- what does this guy think an influencer is, exactly (don’t worry I know that’s not a real question worth asking lol)
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Olympic national forest & park has some amazing tree stands. So much of our forests are second and third and more growth and it’s easy to forget that a real mature, multi age multi species conifer ecosystem should look like. It feels so different
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Just a reminder that the PNW is fucking jaw dropping. Cascadia primacy 4 ever
A trail through mossy mixed growth temperate rain forest Sunlight through conifers in an abandoned decommissioned campground in the Olympic national forest. The moss was so thick it felt like a springy carpet
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I didn’t finish the fries but tbh they weren’t all that special and came out lukewarm so I won’t take blame for that
A demolished two dozen empty oyster shells, empty chowder cup, and half eaten fries
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I did indeed walk in as a single and immediately ordered 2 dozen oysters and chowder and fries and a local matsutake altbier(!!) and I regret nothing. There are no goblin children to steal these from me! If they were free I could down another dozen EASY and probably keep going after that
Chowder, beer, fries, hood canalTwo dozen shucked oysters on ice with lemon and mignonette (hammersley, hama hama, summer blue)
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They take reservations here for parties of 2 or more with an included 2 dozen oyster minimum. I emailed and asked if I could reserve as a single if I can easily eat that. They replied and said “2 dozen is a lot for one but we can easily seat single walk ins” and. lol lol lmao
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Folks behind me in line at Hama Hama oysters were debating wine bottles, and I unsolicitedly turned and was like “they have a Sicilian grillo and if I wasn’t by myself I would absolutely get it, you never see it here and it’s made for seafood” They did & liked it so much they shared some with me 🥲
A glass of grillo and hood canal and oysters
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
At trackers we always used solid but v affordable walkies from Baofeng, which were just as good as much more spendy ones. Nb my knowledge is 7 years out of date but maybe still applicable?
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
(I also shucked and ate a dozen perfect Hama Hama blue pool oysters as a wee snack, but that’s between me and my god)
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Also, if you ever have a chanterelle windfall (Costco or forest acquired lol), you can tear into pieces, dry sautee in a hot pan ‘til the moisture comes out and cooks off, then freeze indefinitely (vacuum sealed or tight ziplock). Practically indistinguishable from fresh
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The PNW is having a banner early fall season. I’m sure they’re going all over the US, and with recent rain that should continue!
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
btw this takes 3 hours to cook and during that time I ate two big Persian cucumbers and an apple. I do eat my vegetables and fiber I swear
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
By FAR the thing I make with the widest delta between its photogenic-ness and taste is the kachka braised chanterelles in smetana & cream. It looks like a pile of brown split glop but it tastes like actual magic. Paired here with QFC bakery bread & a pan seared commodity pork loin chop. Heaven
The described foods arrayed on a plate but still basically brown on brown on beige on beige
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Reposted by Jess Liotta 🍄
Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
5. The tell tale matsutake cinnamon funk scent is potentially helpful supporting info, but these can grow literally right next to each other. It’s theoretically possible for the amanita to pick up some of it. Unlikely, but possible! But as a pretty subjective ID feature scent isn’t best here anyway
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Reposted by Jess Liotta 🍄
Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
3. Matsutake will always have a podzol covered grey sandy “foot,” the amanita will be pointier and more duff-dirty 4. The cross section of an amanita will show a faint outline of the mushroom cap near the top (see photo) and the matsutake will mostly BE cap and stipe
Cross section of amanita egg showing faint outline of mushroom at the tippy top
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Reposted by Jess Liotta 🍄
Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There are a few differentiating features from a smith’s amanita egg & a wee matsutake! 1. The fluffy veil remnants on the outside of an amanita will be loose and likely come off/stick to your hands. It’s schmutzy 2. It will be brittle if squeezed; a matsutake is FIRM and will not explode to bits
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I did this with a similar state raccoon carcass awhile back and it worked out, I’ll probably put it somewhere slightly protected from constant PNW deluge though
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
5. The tell tale matsutake cinnamon funk scent is potentially helpful supporting info, but these can grow literally right next to each other. It’s theoretically possible for the amanita to pick up some of it. Unlikely, but possible! But as a pretty subjective ID feature scent isn’t best here anyway
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
3. Matsutake will always have a podzol covered grey sandy “foot,” the amanita will be pointier and more duff-dirty 4. The cross section of an amanita will show a faint outline of the mushroom cap near the top (see photo) and the matsutake will mostly BE cap and stipe
Cross section of amanita egg showing faint outline of mushroom at the tippy top
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There are a few differentiating features from a smith’s amanita egg & a wee matsutake! 1. The fluffy veil remnants on the outside of an amanita will be loose and likely come off/stick to your hands. It’s schmutzy 2. It will be brittle if squeezed; a matsutake is FIRM and will not explode to bits
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
But man I pulled like 30 lbs of chanterelles out of the forest here in the last 3 days and I absolutely didn’t even have to try. Ridiculousness
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I technically in Washington now on the east side of the Olympic peninsula but frankly it’s like there down in Oregon right now too, this year is going hard
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
💀💀💀💀💀💀
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Jess Liotta 🍄 @jessliotta.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
DUDE YES, I legit saw it from a ways away and out loud gasped
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