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At first, Matt Williams thought someone might be stealing his mushrooms.<\/p>\n
The tops of the wine cap mushrooms growing on his Wisconsin farm had been removed at the stems, the way a forager might slice away a meaty morel. But when closer inspection revealed evidence of nibbling on the stems and tracks in the dirt, he knew he wasn\u2019t dealing with human trespassers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like, \u2018Where\u2019d all these mushrooms go that I was gonna pick today? Well, they\u2019re all gone because the deer and the turkeys were in here.\u2019 And that\u2019s where it really all began,\u201d says Williams. \u201cAt a certain point I began to sit back and say, \u2018You know, I\u2019m tired of fighting with these deer.\u2019 Why are they eating these [wine caps]? There\u2019s alfalfa and silage corn [nearby], the neighbors have food plots and brassicas, and all these things that they\u2019re supposed to love. And the deer are eating this<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n \n