OT Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms.

H

hollowdweller

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Sep 22, 2003
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I was wondering around in the woods yesterday and saw a huge clump of bright orange fungi. Got me excited because I thought They might be Chicken of the Woods. Getting about the right time of the year for them. Unfortunately it was gilled so not.
Have any of you ever tried them? They are great.

The main species of edible fungi in my area are morels, chicken of the woods, the giant puffballs, and oysters. We cultivate shiitake also.

Any of you all that live in other locales: Do you all have the above mushrooms? What edible ones do you have in your area?
 
Lots of morels here. May be other varieties as well, but I'm not familiar with them.
 
Same in Wisconsin: morels.

It's been a couple of years, but I remember fondly the TWO bread-loaf bagsful of morels I took home, battered, and fried in butter. (Pause here for slight salivation.) Fattening...but may be among the best foods in the world.
 
The only wild mushroom I've eaten is hen of the woods, what the first-generation Italians around here called "pinelle." Kind of the same clump as Chicken of the Woods, with a stalky cauliflower or bamboo shoot consistency. We'd stew it in spicy tomato sauce and jar it.
 
I've had hen of the woods. Tasty. I have never seen them growing wild here, but you can cultivate them here. One of these days I'll order some spawn plugs and get some going. They dry well too.
 
Gym?

Morels are very distinctive in size and shape. Puffballs that I've seen are unique, also. I'd presume most 'room hunters check VERY carefully.
 
Originally posted by GYMBOOEE
How do you distinguish poisonous mushrooms from the non-poisonous varieties?
Click to expand...


Here's and old adage for you:

"There are old mushroom hunters, and
there are bold mushroom hunters, but
there are no old, bold mushroom hunters"


http://www.cris.com/~Czere/mush1.shtml
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3303.html
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/General_Principles/gpin004/gpin004.htm

A google search for wild mushrooms will turn up all the info you can possibly read. If you eat a wild mushroom and don't become ill or die, it wasn't poisonous. :p
 
"How do you distinguish poisonous mushrooms from the non-poisonous varieties?"

Knowledge of the macroscopic characteristics of different varieties/species and exeprience go a long way... but to be sure you must visualize a spore print under a microscope.
 
I've never picked mushrooms myself. My grandfather learned to identify the "pinelle" from his father, and now my Uncle hunts for them. There aren't many good spots around here. This type seems to grow under oak trees.
In June after the heavy rains, I found some very strange fungi growing in the leaf litter. Orange three-pronged tentacle spores. I sent photos to a guy who studies fungi at a Canadian college and he couldn't identify them. "Probably some kind of stinkhorn" he said. Except they didn't stink, like stinkhorns do.
Me & my friends call it the alien fungus.
 
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