Gathering has begun in oh so many ways, even open with a flyrod after trout, firing a .410 shotgun at a turkey poult, if only one could find the shotshells, picking the few shagbark hickory nuts from among a bed of leaves, clipping a twig from a bittersweet vine after not finding wild grapes, and cutting a very, very young sulphur fungus from a red oak tree bole.