Mushroom 101

David Trammel's picture

Mushrooms are a great addition to your diet. You can grow them yourself, or go out into the wild and harvest them. If you do though, its important to understand what you're likely to find, and to be extra careful on getting eatable mushrooms and leaving the ones that are dangerous. Here's a place to start your mushroom information at.

The Beginner’s Guide To All Things Mushroom

Sweet Tatorman's picture

Last week I found 4 1/2 lbs of Oyster mushrooms in prime condition on my morning walk.

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ClareBroommaker's picture

Astonishingly beautiful! I've never seen such, clean fresh, youthful looking oyster mushrooms. I wish I knew mushrooms to collect in the wild. I'm a skeeredy-cat.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

If you chose to learn just a few, these should be on your short list. None even remotely similar would do you really serious harm [on the list for liver transplant]. They are relatively abundant, fruit throughout much of the year, and are quite tasty. I have even found them during warm spells in the Winter.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

I have been foraging fungi for over 50 years but it has been only in the past 10 years or so that I have really spent much more time on it and greatly expanded my knowledge base. There are still mushrooms that I would like to find or find enough of to have a proper serving vs just a taste. In the later category are Black Trumpets [Craterellus fallax] which are in the Chanterelle family [Cantharellaceae] but not the Chanterelle genus [Cantharellus]. I have tasted them twice in very small quantity. On both occasions I was foraging with my #1 mushroom buddy. Technically I have never found them. My #1 mushroom buddy is a younger woman with better eyesight and also I think better visual pattern recognition. Only once she points the first one out can I see the others nearby.
Yesterday we did a mushroom hike and were having a pretty good day. After 3 miles or so her eyes happened to notice some Black Trumpets. Lots of Black Trumpets. Now attuned to their presence she spotted several additional patches in the next few miles. Jackpot! These are a really great tasting mushroom and nothing at all like those species I would call regular Chanterelles which also great tasting mushrooms.
In photo below, the Black Trumpets are the very dark mushrooms. Off to the side those yellow-orange ones are a mix of a couple Chanterelle species, Golden Chanterelle [Cantharellus cibarius] and Smooth chanterelle [Cantharellus lateritius].
BTW, there is a very similar looking species, Craterellus cornucopioides, also called a Black Trumpet by some that is reported to be equally tasty. I have the impression it is mostly found in the Western US.

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

Cooked, these are even darker than as picked.

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

Cauliflower mushroom, Sparassis crispa [taxonomy on these a bit murky, species names radicata and a couple of others are seen].
Not a common mushroom in my experience. I generally only collect it once or twice a year. Fortunately it does fruit in the same location for a number of years. I have a spot on the route of my morning walk that I have now collected from at least four years in a row. They develop slowly and I typically will watch it for a week or so before gathering. I finally gathered this year's fruiting a couple of days ago. These are delicious with a "nutty" flavor. Nothing looks remotely similar.

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

Common names include Sulphur shelf, Chicken mushroom, Chicken of the Woods. Young specimens are very good but get woody and tasteless when more mature. It is very popular but comes with the caveat that a small minority of people have trouble with it. Don't eat a whole plateful on your first go with it. Texture and flavor(to a lesser extent) like chicken breast meat. Try cutting into strips and sautéing in butter and garlic. If you have it on hand add a bit of chicken stock. Good with soy sauce also. With the advent of inexpensive genetic sequencing they have determined that these are actually a complex of at least 7 species which formerly were thought to be variations in the one species. Nothing else looks remotely like it.

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