Mushroom Articles
Follow me as I learn more about mushroom hunting and identification.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Morel
When in Colorado, I spent hours walking our mountain land each Spring looking for morel mushrooms. There are two types in Colorado, a “yellow” or “white” morel that grows at lower altitudes, usually along stream banks under Cottonwood trees. And, the black morel—a mountain mushroom that grows in mixed forest—a rare treat indeed. I never found a sample of either!
Imagine my surprise and excitement today when I was planting a few flowers by the front door of our house in New Jersey when I discovered this treat:
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Saturday, October 06, 2007
Shrooms of October
Okay, you saw my first NJ fish.
Now it is time for my first NJ mushrooms.
We signed up for a mushroom foray for today at a local farm. What a pleasant surprise when we got there. Wonderful people, wonderful land. And a great “honor system” organic store where we bought some jam, tomato sauce, squash and onions. And, she had eggs and lettuce and…
But wait, before we go to the afternoon foray…
It was time to walk the dogs this morning. We walked toward Green Turtle Pond. The road is closed below our street for a while (what a pain), but that means no traffic for a while. As we walked in the “no car zone”, Lynne noticed a group of mushrooms growing on a tree a bit off the road.
I thought it was a Hen of the Woods and got pretty excited since that is a choice edible mushroom. But, after returning home and doing some research, it turned out to be a Chicken of the Woods—even better! Lynne went and took pictures. I went with a knife and brought it home.
It was 2 pounds of choice mushroom! (Which I am sure will end up on Lynne’s blog too.)
Okay, this mushroom is going to get washed, cut into strips and frozen. It will be great in a risotto, soups, etc. Since it “tastes like chicken”, you can use it anywhere you would chicken.
Now, to the afternoon. Our goal was Honey Mushrooms. Yum. And, we found some. Since it has been so hot and dry, there weren’t a lot, but this is the only time of year you see them, and we found enough to make some pickled mushrooms to serve on toast.
If we are here to post after eating them, we’ll let you know how they were 
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Good News, Bad News, Good News, Bad News
Last Saturday I walked down to Green Turtle Pond with my fishing gear to try my hand (once again) at catching an edible fish. When I got home I told Lynne I had “good news, bad news, good news and bad news”. Clearly confused she asked for the story.
The good news is that I saw lots of wildlife. On my way there and back I saw several groups of turkeys and a red fox.
The bad news is that I didn’t see or catch any fish.
The good news is that along the east side of the lake, where I was fishing, it is very wooded and lots of mushrooms were growing. (We like searching out wild mushrooms).
The bad news is that if you are walking along the trail with your head down looking at mushrooms, you might just walk up on a bear!
That is what I did. I was walking along a not-so-well-worn path with my head on a swivel looking down and side to side when I heard a “hummmffff” sound. I looked up and about 20 feet in front of me, coming toward me on the path was a fairly large black bear. My heart sunk into my stomach and I said some foul words. I stepped behind a tree to keep something between me and the bear. He just stood there hummmfffing at me for a couple of minutes and decided to pass me by going up the hill a ways. He took his time though, and I just kept sidestepping around the tree as he moved by. When the coast was clear, I came home to tell Lynne the news.
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Thursday, October 06, 2005
Novice Mycophagist #4 “Fall Harvest”
I really should have posted this article back in late August when the story takes place, but I am running behind.
During the third week in August I was very interested in finding a Matsutaki mushroom, which I’ve never seen or “smelled”, but I think should grow on our land. And, I am quite sure we have some King Boletes on the property, because I’m positive I collected one several years ago before I started paying attention to mushrooms on our land. So, with some advice on what to look for and where to look for it from Norm (of the Colorado Mycological Society), we scoured our 74 acres.
But, it has been a very dry year. We found some oyster mushrooms earlier, and really enjoyed them. We have not had the quantity and variety of mushrooms this year that we had last year.
Last year we found dozens and dozens of different varieties and they kept us busy throughout the Summer and Fall attempting idenfications and speculating on edibility. However, this year was pretty boring in comparison.
Still, I would not give up.
We decided one day to concentrate our search along Bart’s Creek, which was dry by then, but still the wettest part of the land. As Lynne and I followed the creek and scanned the forest floor we found a few little brown mushrooms (LBMs) and other unidentifiable mushrooms. At one point, we were almost on hands and knees scouring the ground when Lynne noticed something.
“Look, Rick” she said.
I, (very grumpy at this point), asked what was so damned interesting.
“Raspberries”, she said!
Sure enough, along the road where it crosses Bart’s Creek were a bunch of young raspberry bushes. In the more than 15 years we’ve owned the property, I’ve never seen a raspberry bush before! And, they were loaded with ripe, wild raspberries. We picked them all, and they did not make it back to the cabin. We ate them all on-the-spot.
So, mushroom hunting can be very frustrating and disappointing—especially in a very dry year. But, we still benefitted from the hunt with a tasty raspberries harvest.
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Novice Mycophagist #3 “The Oyster Tree”
Last year, while walking our southern property at Sand Creek Park, I found a dead, fallen Aspen tree that had a few oyster mushrooms growing on it. It was mid-August, I think, and the mushrooms were well beyond their prime. So, I made a mental note to check the tree, which I dubbed “Oyster Tree” (I have a habit of naming things on the land—there is Picnic Rock, Bart’s Creek, Dick the Tree, and so forth), the next year.
We spent four days at the cabin in late July and on the second day we hiked to Oyster Tree.
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