Recent nifty shrooms

Clitocybe nuda "Blewit"

Clavariadelphus unicolor

This gorgeous purple mushroom is currently all over the woods. I dare you to go into the woods for an hour and not find a Blewit. There are several [arguably] toxic lookalikes. The genus Cortinarius has a few purple mushrooms that grow in the same areas in the same season. To differentiate you need only to set a cap on a sheet of paper and wait until you see a rosy pink spore print, Corts are dark rusty brown. Also, if you see a wispy cobwebby covering over the gills or a remnants on the stem it's surely a Cortinarius. I've been told by knowledgeable people that all purple Corts are edible just not palatable, so the lookalike danger may be negligible. I'll not bother to test that theory.

These are my current favorite mushroom. They have a bold but not offensive flavor, meaty and savory. So good sauteed and added to nearly anything. Just cook them, they are toxic raw.





These pretty club fungi were covering a very small area. They are Clavariadelphus unicolor. Some club fungi are good edibles and this one is said to be medicinal (don't get me started on medicinal mushooms, lets just leave medicine to doctors) so I decided to try it. It tasted slightly bitter and maybe a little sweet so I threw it in the frying pan. When I placed the cooked specimen on my tongue it was immediately rejected and went into the [luckily] nearby trashcan. Possibly the most unpleasant bitter flavor I've tasted, and I love Campari and gin. They're still pretty though.

Entoloma abortivum

These weirdos are commonly called Aborted Entoloma or Shrimp of the Woods. They have since been found to actually be Armillaria being attacked by Entoloma. So really they should be called Aborted Armillaria or maybe Aborting Entoloma.

Either way they are tasty. You can pan fry them with butter and garlic, basically just find a shrimp scampi recipe and forget the shrimp. They don't have a very intense shrimp flavor but they definitely feel like shrimp in your mouth, it works.






Now back to the woods, I haven't found my Hen of the Woods yet!

...to be continued...