by Paula Muellner

Mushrooms. Mushrooms seem to be a complicated vegetable to figure out. Some people just love them, while others just hate them; some people would say they are an acquired taste while others only eat them if prepared a certain way. No matter what we think about mushrooms we know that they are good for us. I tried for years putting mushrooms in the chimp’s dinner bags. I cooked them, mashed them, sautéed them, blended them…there wasn’t a thing I could do to them that would bring the chimps to liking them. I didn’t give up. I know that mushrooms are just a healthy veggie that everyone should enjoy eating. So I tried again. I put a handful of giant white capped mushrooms in each one of the chimps lunch bags – completely raw and untouched. After serving lunch I watched Thiele start in on her avocado and Topo started peeling his juicy orange. Just as I was about to head out the door I turned and watched Patti, of all chimps, devouring a giant mushroom. I couldn’t believe it. Patti eating mushrooms? I squinted my eyes and refocused and sure enough it was a mushroom. I was so amazed that I grabbed the closest volunteer, Fabian, to bear witness to Patti eating mushrooms.

The chimps must really be turning over a new leaf this year. It was just merely a week or so ago that I posted Thiele eating turnips and now Patti is enjoying mushrooms.