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Mushroom hunting open thread
Any mushroom hunters here? What have you been finding lately? Anything interesting popping up in your area? How did you get into the hobby?
Any mushroom hunters here? What have you been finding lately? Anything interesting popping up in your area? How did you get into the hobby?
I actually just got back today from a mushroom foray/camping weekend. The group found a lot of lobsters and chanterelles, which we all donated collectively to a group meal in the evening. The event organizers invited a chef who brought a portable pizza oven, so we had mushroom pizza. I kind of prefer letting the mushrooms shine on their own with just olive oil and salt, but the pizza was good. We also grow oysters at home and our friend brought the shiitakes she grew, so we sauteed those as well and shared with everyone.
Besides the edible mushrooms, I also found a few poisonous amanitas.
We also had a few bands play concerts on Friday and Saturday night, where more special mushrooms were enjoyed.
Altogether, a fantastic weekend. I love mushrooms and mushroom people.
Edit: As for how I got into it, mushrooms are just a huge part of the sub-cultures I interact with (hiking/camping, veganism, and music festivals.) It's harder to meet people who aren't into mushrooms than people who are, haha. We have a few friends where everything we do with them revolves around mushrooms. Mushroom book clubs, mushroom festivals, vacations planned around mushroom hunting seasons and locations. Fungi have overtaken my life. Lucky me. :)
Were the musical mushrooms foraged or cultivated?
Oh right, I didn't mention that, a friend of mine cultivated them. I'm actually not sure if psychedelic mushrooms can be foraged where I am in the Midwest, I haven't looked into it and haven't heard of that being a common occurrence.
AFAIK chanterelles can't be cultivated. Not sure about the lobster mushrooms.
I think @NoblePath was asking about the "special" adults only kind they ate while they listened to music during this trip
I believe those are wild in the south in the US
Can confirm, it's humid and hot enough down here for certain species to literally pop up overnight. We used to hunt for them in cow fields, sometimes we'd get lucky. Ah, good times in the middle of nowhere without a fast Internet connection.
I've been gathering Chanterelles for a few years, but last year I started looking for more varieties. By winter I think we had tried 31 different types in our household. Currently we're having a bumper crop of Porcini after a very dry early summer, which is fun. I'm also finding a lot of Miller, Grass-green Russula, and various scaberstalks.
Cool!
I live rurally in chanterelle country. At the same time next to no-one here picks mushrooms for some reason. I can go back to the same areas every two-three weeks and pick just as much as last time. No-one else goes there anyway. The limitation is how much I can eat, not finding them. Frozen/dried chanterelles just aren't the same.
There are a number of other species in the area that're good too, but it's a little early in the season here. Give it a couple of weeks and I'll be all over the albatrellus ovinus, Albatrellus confluens, Suillus luteus, Boletus edulis and funnel chanterelle.
There are many other edible variants here too, like Leccinum versipelle and Leccinum scabrum
, but they aren't nearly as good tasting as the previously mentioned. These two grow in huge numbers so it's always impressive to people you walk with that you can just bring butter, pepper and a frying pan on a long walk and serve impressive meals for the whole group.
It's also the start of berry season here, with bilberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, black crowberries and bog blueberries galore.
This time of year I always bring bags and containers for mushrooms and berries, and a berry picking rake when hiking.
The main reason I only hunt one mushroom type is I'm too scared to get it wrong as there can be consequences if I try to eat the wrong mushroom. I am guessing a lot of others are in similar boats which is why you have free reign on harvest.
I appreciate you sharing some edible types, maybe I'll consider expanding my horizons here.
I completely agree that mushrooms aren't something to take risks with.
In my region the eight listed species above are really safe because there are no semi-dangerous mushrooms that look remotely like them. That could be different elsewhere.
Coincidentally, I would never in a million years pick any of the massive amount of common button mushrooms that grow here, because of the tiny, tiny chance that I'd be picking the rare Amanita virosa instead.
I'm having ratatouille with Leccinum versipelle today :-) Albatrellus confluens tastes quite bitter to me. Do you prepare it in any particular way to make it less bitter?
The trick with Albatrellus confluens is only eating the small ones. It's when they age/get big they get bitter. One easy way of doing this is picking all the shrooms, and only eating the small ones. Now you'll only have small ones when you come back in a week or so.
If your Albatrellus confluens tastes bitter or you think they might, cook with some vinegar, with lemon or in brine. I generally always bring them to a boil for 30 seconds in water/brine or with vinegar if they're larger however I'm actually going to prepare them later (throwing the water away).
Most bitter taste-molecules are bases. That's why lemon juice or other acids make them less bitter. Our sensitivity to bitter tastes seem to vary quite a bit, especially if it's not a taste we've grown up with, like several other tastes.
Thanks for the advice. I threw out some Albatrellus confluens, including some small ones, last week after cooking the big ones and finding them inedible. Oh well, I'll soon find more I'm sure.
Wow how do these ones taste? Have you ever undercooked any? How do you cook these and others?
They taste quite similar to Leccinum scabrum. I find describing mushroom flavors very difficult because they don't really taste like anything else that's not a mushroom, if that makes sense?
I haven't ever undercooked Leccinum versipelle. Just stick a lid on a pan/pot and let them sit for 30 minutes. You won't see a difference in texture if you boil them for 15 minutes or 40 minutes, so why risk boiling them less?
Like with many other mushrooms (And some legumes), boiling and throwing away the water gets rid of a bunch of compounds that are difficult for some to digest. With mushrooms, you can always bring to a boil and then do what you'd planned to do with them, with very few exceptions. Even with things like Portobellos.
I kind of feel the same about mushroom smell. Outside of one or two extremely distinct smelling ones, most mushrooms I smell, my brain categorizes as either 'strong mushroomy' or 'weak mushroomy'.
Im trying to train my nose by smelling every mushroom I come across, since its often described as an ID characteristic, but it's slow progress :)
I know where there will be chanterelles soon but I haven't gone there yet -- maybe this coming week.....
got two large shiitake this morning, but they're cultivated so that doesn't count :)
I'm very very new at this and sticking to super obvious ones like boletes, inky caps, chanterelles. I know boletes are safe but the ones i found last year were bitter and slimy so maybe I prepped them wrong :|
I think there are oysters in this area too but they could look like angel wings which are "iffy", I heard?
I love foraging and went on guided walks a few times -- one time I found a beech rooter and it was tasty. On my own I probably would have left it cuz it looks like a lot of other similar mushrooms to my beginner eyes.
Did you grow the shiitake yourself?
There are some in-edible (but not dangerous) boletes in my area, like Tylipilus felleus which resembles the porcini/Buletus edulis.
Several people with kidney disease died after eating Angel wing mushrooms in Japan some years ago, so some authorities advice to avoid them. I have eaten them (and lived), but I give no advice about it :)
Oh yeah I also located some hedgehog mushrooms last year as well, some distance from the chanterelles :)
My holy grail is still a giant puffball. I know they're not the tastiest but many many years ago I was in a rush to go to work and cut through a soccer field, and found this ....bigger than a basketball white ball. I had to rush and didn't even think it could be a mushroom back then, and wanted to come back and look after work was over, but sure enough it disappeared.....
It was on a city soccer field so it wouldn't have been edible anyway. But I still think about it.
One day.
On a hike last year I found a nearly basketball sized puffball! We ate it for days afterwards. They're not necessarily tasty, but they're also not ...not tasty. I found it to be similar to tofu, bland but good for adding flavors to.
A chef here says that confit-ed giant puffball tastes like camenbert cheese. I haven't tried it, but I will if I find one.
If I ever find one I'll hit you up for that recipe.
Speaking of which do you have favorite recipe or sites or default way to cook?
Yes the shiitake spawn was purchased from a store and innoculated into wind fallen logs :) so they're safe
Yeah I even have some old mushroom books that list angel wings but I guess people have to be extra extra safe....
I've been learning to ID mushrooms casually for a couple years. This year has been my first for harvesting edible mushrooms, though I've only found a couple species I've felt confident enough to actually eat. Still, I'm excited whenever I'm fairly certain I've correctly ID'd an edible mushroom but not harvested it, so I can add to my mental models of what these species look like and where they live, and return in future years :)
What got me into it? I'm decent at ID'ing local plant species, but a few years ago, I was going for a fall walk and saw a HUGE number of incredibly interesting looking mushrooms. I realized I had no idea what any of them were beyond "mushroom" and I set out to change my ignorance.
I also grew up with a strong sense of 'mycophobia' (which seems to be common among north americans), and I'm trying to unlearn that through education :) I'm still too reluctant to do taste-and-spit tests for boletes and russulas, though I think I'll get there soon as I continue to learn and read about others' experiences and expertise.
In my country the local mycological association does digital identification on species digitally all summer. You upload photos and they ID what you've sent them. If they want different angles/cuts etc. to be certain of identification, they ask. This has cut poisonings down tremendously, especially among advanced mushroomers, who're the folks who stray from the most obvious species.
As long as I separate different shrooms so they don't mix, it's a superb service, and free. The volunteers who run it are often old people who can't get out much and love contributing to their hobby and seeing all sorts of shrooms.
Surely there has to be something similar in your area too, or apps that list local varieties or something?
Here there are still events with physical checks too every now and then, set up in foraging areas for a day or two.
Oh yes, ive joined several local online foraging groups (and mushroom ID and discussion groups also). I follow others' posts to get a sense of season and appearance, and have uploaded some of my own photos to check if my tentative IDs are correct :) (100% of the time before eating). I have joined an association, but my schedule has been to hectic this year to coordinate with others in real life!
Im just unbelievably cautious by nature, and also simply enjoy the challenge of attempting ID, so Im not bothered if I dont end up foraging anything after an excursion!
Thank you for your ideas and advice :)
There's a cultural east-west split in mycophilia/mycophobia. If you draw a line between Sweden and Finland, touching Denmark, and crossing the English channel, you'll can expect to find mycophobes on the left side, and -philes on the right. I wonder how it came about.
I think North America just has a higher risk for look-alike Amanita species.
I went out on a training forage about 10 years ago, with a mycology professor in the tent to identify what we brought back. He's picking through the bags, saying things like "that's delicious", "those are great, but don't drink alcohol for a day" (some mushrooms contain an Antabuse-like chemical), "that's probably illegal, can I have it", and finally, "that will probably kill you". The "that will probably kill you" looked exactly like half of the mushrooms we all brought back. It turned out that I was one of the four people (out of 12) who brought back Amanita species.
If it's not lion's mane, shelf fungus, chanterelle, morel, or oyster, I won't touch it.
Do you remember the reason he told you it was an amanita instead of what you thought it was?
I don't know a lot but I was taught to cut open white puffball and look for gills inside (amanita baby) or solid white marshmallow texture (puff ball)
Interesting perspective - I didn't realize the divide included some parts of western Europe also. Though, I have heard of different types of mushrooms (like Russulas) being quite popular in one region but nearly ignored in others.
Mushroom picking really starts from Poland and onward. The Chernobyl disaster put a halt on mushroom picking for a while and Germany never recovered. The Netherlands never really had a picking culture to begin with.
We found a jelly mushroom last weekend, which was a first for me. Tons of cinnabar’s as well, but too small to be worth picking.
I picked wild mushrooms commercially last year and the year before. I was mainly going after morels, but I also picked pines (matsutake), chantrelles, lobsters, chicken of the woods, chaga, as well as huckleberries, saskatoon berries, and fiddleheads. I managed to find a few king bolites (porcini), bear tooth, cauliflower mushrooms, and puffballs, but not in quantities enough to sell, so those all got eaten.
I must say I must have eaten thousands of dollars of morels over the past couple years. We were eating them every day, adding them to everything. Sauces, soups, put them on burgers, anything. We'd stuff the big ones with apple brie and bacon, or ground beef and cheddar, or chorizo and sauteed onions, then bread and fry them. With the babies we'd basically make popcorn shrimp with them. Absolutely to die for. When we were prepping some for drying we'd end up cutting the stems short and ending up with all these rings which we'd bread with panko and deep fry, add some lemon juice, sliced onions and tzatziki, made an amazing faux-calamari!
I ended up breaking my hip which cut my season short last year and forced me to get a desk job, but I've been longing to go back to the forest. Unfortunately it's been crazy dry all summer here so it might be a while before anything starts popping.
I read the book "The Mushroom Hunters" a while ago, about professional mushroom foragers. It made the work seem both stressful and very hard for those who try to do it full time. But the amounts they were finding, holy crap. I might get a kilo or two on a good day. My record is about 5. But these people were picking 50 or more.
Oh, it's pretty crazy. It's insanely stressful but also incredibly lucrative if you can pull it off. For me the biggest costs were gas and car repairs, which was substantial. We broke down many, many times, and I had to learn a ton of mechanic skills to prevent it from bankrupting us. In the end it nearly did anyway.
My personal record is 55lbs of morels in a day, at a time buyers were paying $18/lb, so I made out with nearly a thousand dollars in a 6hr day, though I probably picked closer to 70 that day but damaged a bunch because I had to put them in my shirt and they took some damage going back down the mountain. I've heard of people making over $2000 a day for a couple weeks every morel season. Then they move on to other mushrooms or berries and average over $500 a day any time they're working.
The problem is the amount of vehicles you go through, tires you go through, gas you go through. We were towing a 5000lb trailer so we kept destroying transmissions, and gas was $2.50CAD a litre. Any time we broke down during the peak of the season were were not only shelling out thousands of dollars for repairs, but losing thousands a day in missed opportunities.
For me, it nearly killed me. I broke my hip trying to climb over a log, 50km into the forest, 150km from the nearest hospital. If I was alone I'd be dead for certain. Luckily my partner happened to find some campers nearby. Since it was a holiday that led to an unusual number of people camping in the middle of nowhere, and two of them happened to be trained paramedics. They were able to build me a stretcher out of what was on hand and carry me to the car.
Yet still, I can't wait to go back. Next year should be crazy for fire morels. The sheer number of wildfires in the mountains of BC this year means I'll be able to pick thousands of pounds, even if it means the price will go down to $5/lb. Still worth the adventure if you ask me!
Crazy story, I hope you recover well. I've read that in Italy, more people die from falls and exposure while looking for Porcini, than from eating poisonous mushrooms.
Oh my stars I thought you meant, like, drive up to Grouse and walk around for a few hours.
The trailer means this is a serious several day affair, into some very back country setting right? Have you looked into one of those satellite distress signal GPS units?
It's fun to read what everyone is writing and trying to guess their area!
I grew up in the city that (dare I say) the most famous mycologist in the world did a lot of his work. Fungi Perfecti is a hometown name for us and I was taught foraging, and safety is part of (alternative) school. Later when my interest grew I learned the details of spore prints and identification as well as cultivation from older acquaintances and friends in my high school years.
Nowadays I generally stick to chanterelle, lobster, morels, porcini, with the occasional C. Azurescen or S. Crispa.
It's been hot and dry at my usual haunts but I will start checking them out towards the end of next month.
We have two very old pine trees that apparently have some quite extensive roots, because we get a ton of saffron milk caps in a large area around them. They grow in crooked lines that radiate out from the trees. I also see a small number of slippery jacks, but I think the saffron milk caps have them pretty out-competed.
I believe there could be edible field mushrooms around as well, because my mother-in-law tells me that her family used to eat them regularly when she was a little girl. However, she can't remember exactly where they grew. There are tons and tons of field mushrooms all over the place, many of them in fairy rings, but so far all the ones I've checked have been yellow-stainers.
There are likely some other edible mushrooms as well (we are on 80 acres, and there are so, so, so many different kinds of mushrooms that pop up in autumn), but I am not a mycologist and so I'm pretty paranoid of eating anything I'm not basically 100% certain of (I take spore prints and everything).
It's fun to read what everyone is writing and trying to guess their area!
I grew up in the city that (dare I say) the most famous mycologist in the world did a lot of his work. Fungi Perfecti is a hometown name for us and I was taught foraging, and safety is part of (alternative) school. Later when my interest grew I learned the details of spore prints and identification as well as cultivation from older acquaintances and friends in my high school years.
Nowadays I generally stick to chanterelle, lobster, morels, porcini, with the occasional C. Azurescen or S. Crispa.
It's been hot and dry at my usual haunts but I will start checking them out towards the end of next month.
Any one in Texas know where I can mushroom hunt? I’m thinking the weather may be too hot but I love growing mushrooms and mycology. Forging for them would be awesome.
I don't, but experts in your area will know! I'm not sure if these are the right areas for you since Texas is so large, but here's Northern Texas Mycological Association and Central Texas Mycological Society. You can also search reddit threads, I saw a few in different Texas city subreddits about this.
Huge Thx 4 this !!!
How does one get into mushroom hunting? I'd like to take my kids mushroom hunting but I'm concerned I'm going to pick the wrong ones and make someone really sick.
Our local mycological society has an app where we can send in pictures of our mushrooms, and they will identify some safe edible mushrooms for us. They also run ID stations on weekends, where we can take our mushrooms and get them identified. Maybe there's something similar in your area? You are very right to be concerned about picking the wrong ones, some mushrooms are deadly.
There are a lot of foraging classes and workshops as well.
I was also taught the paranoid way to try your first already ID'd and 99% sure okay forage, to get to 100% sure:
Aim for species that have no poisonous look-alikes: if you mess up it just tastes bad
check with a field guide or iNauralist or other fungi app that what you think it is does grow in your area and at this time of the year
Take pictures of the mushroom in its natural habitat as well as close ups and undersides. How they grow and where they grow and what they're feeding on will give experts a lot of info.
send pictures to other hobbyists and or mycologists for confirmation
Keep one specimen whole and uneaten in the fridge gently wrapped in paper towel. Worst comes to worst bring this whole specimen to the hospital with you.
put two mushrooms, gills (or teeth or pores or etc) side down on a piece of aluminum foil and on a piece of black paper, cover with a glass bowl and a small piece of moist paper towel. In a bit the mushroom will release spores onto the papers. Note color of spore print.
if all the preceding steps yielded positive results, THEN, cook a corn kernal size piece and eat. Wait 24 hours and if nothing else feels weird, yay congratulations on your delicious find!
I'm a wannabe mushroom hunter, but there's not a ton where I live. I do manage to find couple morels each season, but nothing like other foragers who get baskets full. But the ones I do find taste so good crisped up with some butter!
I've always liked foraging for berries (primarily huckleberry, haw, service, and current), and things like mint so mushroom hunting was a natural progression.
The only mushrooms I have ever hunted for is Pine mushrooms. They grow everywhere around here, and there are a lot of people that pick them to sell. Its a pretty good gig if you know what to look for
:D Found so many chanterelles a few days ago, going back for more this weekend
You guys got favourite recipes? I just butter-garlic-chicken broth them...
Also! what are your favourite plants and fungi foraging book recommendations? There are so many now and some are just blogspam wannabe copied materials...
I've heard this year has been huge for chanterelles (at least in my area), but i didnt find any :(
As for books, what general region are you? I picked up the latest audubon edition , which is i think meant for all us and canada. There are a few minor things id like improved but the actual descriptions seem quite good. The other 2 field guides i own so far are both for eastern north america.
Then, i supplement these with online resources like mushroomexpert.com, bolete filter, russula filter, and some forums.
Atlantic Canada -- which I'm not sure if it's similar to New England zone....?
our chanterelles are not apricot-smelling and hard-wood loving - they grow in softwood mossy areas. :D
I'm going to look those resources up thank you :)
Ah, well I also have Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada. I like it for easily scanning the photos, and its small portable size. It's divided by spore print, which is an interesting approach. I actually bought it while in Nova Scotia :)
The other book is Boletes of Eastern North America, which has been great at helping me learn how to differentiate boletes (it even offers a key, though i often have to backtrack). But, last I saw the price has become much more expensive than I remember paying.
Not hunting mushrooms but I've been attempting to grow some recently. They can be over finicky