Mushroom Hunting Season is drawing nigh!

[dragonhead]

i know, i found that on line and it is one of those thinks you can never forget.

 

[Mycanid]

Well, no complaints ... other than the fact that the mushroom growing didn't get more "time".

Another day of raining, which bodes well for the future potential mushroom crop. It also has cooled down quite a bit, which means the possibilities of the blewit mushroom beginning to pop up. They like cool, wet weather and are insanely delicious.

They also are one of the handsomest of the mushroom (IMO of course). Here is a link to one:

http://mushroomexpert.com/clitocybe_nuda.html

The latter, by the way, is a fairly good website for all you budding fungophiles and newbie hunters!

 

[dragonhead]

wet and cold where i live.
grow my preties, grow.

 

[Mycanid]

You a fungophile too?

It is warm today now ... so perhaps those blewits will begin to blossom. Fried up chicken o' the woods this morning and slightly burned them. Phooey. It only went with a low-grade "stir-fry" thingama, but still ... one of my cooking rules is: "Burn not the fungus!"

 

[Pielorinho]

I had a professor in college, Mike Beug, who was an ardent fungophile. He would take our environmental studies classes out on walks in the woods, have us fan out and find mushrooms to bring back to him; whatever we brought back he'd identify, tell us its distinguishing characteristics, tell us how to cook it (if it was edible) or what it would do to you (if it was poisonous). He was awesome, pure awesome.

In Olympia, WA, the mushroom crop this time of year is great. We'd go out harvesting chanterelles as big as baseballs, bishop's mitres that you could smite a pope with (say it out loud), and one time a beautiful, brain-sized cauliflower mushroom that we turned into an exquisite casserole. It was the best thing about autumn.

Here in NC, the mushrooms are rarer. Finding a chanterelle the size of a shooter marble is difficult; while they're plentiful, they're mostly the size of a lima bean. Poisonous amanitas are far more common, and distinguishing between the edible and inedible russulas is something I've never learned to do.

But there's one compensation:

The horn of plenty mushroom, or black trumpet, a type of chanterelle with a flavor as rich and dark as its color. It is beyond compare, far and away my favorite mushroom. It's also very difficult to find, being somewhat rare and camouflaged very well against the deadleaf forest floor of Southern deciduous forests. When we find them, though--once every couple of years--we have a feast!

Daniel

 

[Mycanid]

Yes, yes, yes! We also get chanterelles around here! Mostly the dark yellow/orange ones though - no horn o' plentys here ... very tasty.

We also gets PILES of russula. The lovely, form white sort ... these are characterized as primarily "better kicked than picked" by many or "J.A.R."s ... i.e. Just Another Russula's. I think they are beautiful things though. And they can get so big!

How WONDERFUL to finally stumble across another ennie who understands me! (At least who understands me in this regard....)

Alas ... mushroom hunters are indeed a rare commodity here in the ole USA.

 

[Pielorinho]

We also gets PILES of russula. The lovely, form white sort ... these are characterized as primarily "better kicked than picked" by many or "J.A.R."s ... i.e. Just Another Russula's. I think they are beautiful things though. And they can get so big!

Better kicked than picked, better chucked than plucked, better eyed and eschewed than fried or stewed...I love Mushrooms Demystified. Such nerdy humor.

Russulas are supercommon here. I really need to learn the edible varieties. There are also a fair number of boletes, which are even more important for me to learn. I've eaten a few of them, when I probably shouldn't: boletes are never deadly, although some can make you ill. I've been like 95% sure I was eating a good one, but even the good ones didn't impress me that much.

I found morels only one time, on me and my wife's honeymoon in Norway. We found dozens and dozens, and I'm sure I danced like a leprechaun. Alas, we were out hiking without a source of fire, and so we never did get to eat the delicacies.

Daniel

 

[LcKedovan]

Well since it pertains to wilderness survival I do like mushrooms, sadly a proper expert has never taken me on a hunt and since mushrooms can be quite dangerous if you eat the wrong ones I haven't wandered out too much on my own for them. My wife is European and has gone mushroom hunting before she moved here with me. Mind you, I have been known to make a fine salad using young bullrush shoots .

-W.

 

[Mycanid]

The only bolete I am aware of that is poisonous is the "satan's bolete" and it has a bright red stringy stem.

We also get plenty of boletes out here ... and lots of slippery jacks too. Not quite as tasty, of course. Most of the boletes we get are the bitter boletes. I am kinda surprised we do not get manzanita boletes as there are manzanita plants EVERYWHERE around here. :\ Ah well.

Yes I know what you mean about dancing like a leprechaun! Do you know what I mean about the "joy of the hunt"? Half of the fun for me is just to find them ... the creatures are often so beautiful!

My biggest catch was a 28lb. chicken o' the woods. (I kid you not.) My arms got sore just carrying it back home.... That's what you get for looking for mushrooms on a long walk, eh?

Are you aware of Arora's All that the Rain promises ... book? His fieldguide format book. And yes the humor is truly awful. Yuck - that's what makes it so good.

Thanks sir - you made my day!

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Hehe, whenever I eat mushrooms I think of you Mycanid.