Beautiful Blewit

Today I spent the majority of the sunlit hours wandering in Raccoon Creek State Park looking at the ground, you know...like you do.

The beautiful Blewit!

The first find was a little Clitocybe nuda, commonly known as a Blewit. They typically grow in numerous dispersed groups on the forest floor so I frantically scoured the area to no avail. It was a lonely little guy but boy was he tasty!  After confirming that I didn't inadvertently pick up the similar poisonous Cortinarius iodes by spore print. I saw a rosy white spore print as opposed to the dark rust of the Cort, so into the frying pan it went! It was one of the most delicious mushrooms I've ever tasted.  I'll definitely need more, good thing the season just started.

The beautifully bitter Gym

This guy was solo as well. At first glance I thought I had a Bolete by size, shape, and the look of the stem but there's gills under there. It tastes bitter and it's spore print is a rusty dark orange. After some digging and help from my online friends it was ID'd as Gymnopilus luteus. I'll not be eating this one.

So soft, you want to pet this one

These gorgeous velvety shelves are Ischnoderma resinosum.

Nope, not bubble gum.

This isn't candy sprinkles, it's Lycogala epidendrum or Wolf's blood slime mold. If you poke these bubbles, pink slime oozes out Ghostbusters II style. Actually looks kinda yummy, but I'll pass.

Root

This was a cool one. Xerula radicata is a rooted mushroom with a sturdy woody stipe. Supposedly it's an edible but I left it behind (I actually replanted it).

This little fuzzy guy is Tyromyces caesius or the Blue Cheese Fungus. No mystery there.

Desert Pennsylvania

It's so dry! There's literally visible cracks in the dirt between the tufts of grass in the the yard. We have seen approximately 2 days of real rain since June. It's all around us but here in SW PA we're so thirsty that even the hardy weeds are drooping. I may have to start bringing a watering can to my shrooming spots. 

I keep seeing posts in my various shrooming groups of people hauling boletes, chanterelles, and even early Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa) out of their woods. Meanwhile, my hen tree still has last year's shriveled remnants clinging to the roots. 

Pretty much the only things growing are the inedible deadwood growing shrooms like the currently prolific black-footed polypore (Polyporus badius), and old dried out COWs (apparently, I missed a couple).

A couple weeks ago, a friend sent me a message about an enormous mushroom growing in his basement window well. So, naturally, I ran over to see if I could eat it...like you do. It turned out to be a monster Black-staining Polypore (Meripilus sumstinei). And yes, I ate some of it. Not choice, but not bad either. It doesn't smell great fresh, very intense musty mushroomy smell, but anything thrown into a pan to soak up some garlic and butter tastes pretty great. Good to know in case all other good edibles become sparse. I tossed most of it on a long dead stump in the backyard.  

(Forgive the cellphone pics, I brought my DSLR but found the card slots empty upon arrival to the woods.)

It's ALIVE!

Several weeks back I won a case of 8 MyCO2 oyster mushroom kits (go check them out they're pretty awesome and the contest is totally legit). After I let the mycelium grow for a few weeks I cut the first kit open to start the fruiting process. As soon as I saw the tiny pins I set up a timelapse and ran it for 76.5 hours, (exposed every 30 minutes). It was amazing to see the growth in just 30 minute intervals. I am concerned that I may have set the little guys back by leaving the light on those 3 days for photography purposes. That one cap sure is happy, but we'll see if the others catch up now that they'll be on a normal light cycle.

I'm super excited about growing mushrooms. These are pre-prepared kits but in the near future I plan on starting my own small farm that including mushrooms (and chickens and bees and goats and...).


...I'll probably have to start another blog.

The other white meat

Just a follow up on my last post about the Chicken of the Woods.

Tuesday

I went back to check on the baby chicken I found last Tuesday. It's now Friday and boy has he grown, check him out! And I totally nailed the baby ID, it is definitely Laetiporus cincinnatus or the "Pale Chicken of the Woods". 

 

Friday

I could have left him to grow a bit more but it's not supposed to rain much this next week and it's probably already soaked up the one day of rain we had this week. So, plucked him and we had BLACTs (bacon, lettuce, avocado, COW, and tomato) sandwiches for dinner. I found more chicken in the woods today than ever before. My basket was overflowing and I ended up freezing a gallon size ziplock bag even after dinner.


I found this next big guy just a couple trees over from the one above. 

I did find a small specimen of Laetiporous sulphureus and my daughter and I did a taste test between them. She actually preferred the Pale Chicken (cincinnatus). I'm very lucky to have children with adventurous palates. I'd say that sulphureus tastes most like a fried piece of real poultry while cincinnatus tastes very similar with but more mushroomy flavor. The cincinnatus was also softer while the sulphureus was more chewy (not at all tough though).

To illustrate the difference I took pictures of the undersides of both my finds today. Sulphureus has the bright sulfur-yellow pore surface while cincinnatus is bright white.

Laetiporous sulphureus

Laetiporus cincinnatus

Honey Honey

On my hike today there were several little clusters of golden/tan, gilled, and stalked mushrooms around the base of several trees. I initially thought they were Honey Mushrooms but having never encountered them I pulled out my trusty guidebook and found that I wasn't too far off. They were Ringless Honey Mushroom (Armillaria tabescens). I bagged two whole large clumps, leaving at least three smaller clumps to grow. I keyed out the characteristics from a couple other sources before I was confident in my ID. Now that I've tasted them, I'll be going back for the rest. The true Honey Mushroom, Armillaria mellea, is reported to be a "choice" edible while this one is only listed as "good". Ringless Honeys apparently grow just before the real Honeys start popping up so I guess I'm looking forward to finding those soon.
All the info I've found about these say to cook for at least 15 minutes to avoid gastrointestinal issues. I sauteed them in olive oil and a little garlic for about that long and they were delicious! I'm going on 6 hours since then and I'm feeling fine.

Identifying these can be slightly tricky if you don't know what to look for. They can resemble Jack O Lanterns to the untrained eye but if you've ever seen and ID'd them you'd never mistake these for Jacks, which are bright orange while these are tawny brown. The caps have darker brown scales or hairs more toward the center, the stalks are long, thin, darkening towards the bottom, and attached tightly together at the base. The gills are close and run down the stem slightly (decurrent).

Spore prints

The spore print is creamy white.

RELEASE THE SPORES!

The sun was at the perfect angle at the time to catch these spores taking to the wind. This mature specimen was really pumping out the spores, not sure if messing with it stimulated the spore release but it seemed to increase when I touched it.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

I have been a bad blogger, life is busy. I've been out shrooming several times but can't seem to find the time to sit here and share with all (three) of you my mushy finds. My last two posts were time consuming and verbose but I'll be doing shorter posts in the hopes that they'll be more frequent.

Today I'd like to tell you about wild chickens that likely lurk in the very woods near you. They're brightly colored and come in several shapes and sizes. They're very easy to sneak up on and all you need is a knife to bag them. They're much easier to prepare than your slimy germy farm raised chicken and they're totally vegan as well. This fungus is super meaty and can be used like any other mushroom but it makes an amazing chicken subsitute, it's not just the name.  I'm talking, of course, about Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) or just "Chicken Mushroom", as some call it.

My first COW 

My second and largest COW

My first Chicken of the Woods find was in early July and was just this one lonely shelf. My hiking friends and I chopped it up and fried it with chanterelles, eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast tacos. We brought our camp grill out and ate it in front of many drooling children at our neighborhood pool.


My second COW in late July was this big beauty! Ifound it in the same neck of the woods as the first. As you can see in the second picture, these things stick out like a sore thumb (or a bright neon orange mushroom) in the woods. This is where the general population's mycophobia comes in handy for the savvy mycologist. This one was just a couple steps from a frequently traversed trail, it was even facing the trail. I'm surprised it grew this large without some kid (or adult) smashing it for sport.

This big Chicken called to me from way off

This one provided several meals. We had fried chicken (of the woods) "fingers" and buckwheat pancakes one night for fun. We put it in a breakfast frittata. But my favorite recipe by far has been beer battered boneless buffalo chicken (of the woods) "wings". We've done that one a couple times now, in fact I'm currently digesting a buffalo chicken (of the woods) sandwich.

Today's COW

Chicken of the Woods (COW) grow directly on dead (or dying) wood. Typically found in these vertical shelf-like colonies, but sometimes growing in a large round rosette shape on the ground (on buried wood or roots) or at the base of a tree. These pictured are all Laetiporus sulphureus due to the bright "sulfur-yellow" pore surface. Another variety frequently found is Laetiporus cincinnatus, which has a white pore surface and is generally paler overall, thus garnering the name "Pale Chicken of the Woods"

Baby COW

This fungus I believe to be a young COW, possibly Laetiporus cincinnatus. I'll check on it again after a few days, maybe this weekend.

Old dead COW

This is an old dead COW, such sadness. No one but the bugs enjoyed this big one. Take note of where you find all your chickens growing (dead or alive) and check the same spot next season.

Glow in the dark

I had a fantastic weekend Camping at Cooper's Rock State Forest in West Virginia. When we arrived to the camping area, the first thing I noticed was that there were mushrooms EVERYWHERE. Just from the car I could see spots of orange at the mossy foot of the many oaks, large brown and tan caps in the grass, and many little pops of red and yellow mingled with them all.
Upon inspection I found many Chanterelles (Cantharellus lateritius), several species but mostly Bitter Boletes (Tylopilus felleus), and abundant Russulas and Lactarius species. 

I also found another Old Man of the Woods... and I take back all of my previous tasting compliments, it was appallingly bad tasting. A combination of moldly rot and dirt. Possibly, it was just past it's prime but it looked just like the last one I ate. I'll give this shroom one more try before I cast a final judgment.

Black Trumpets (Craterellus fallax)

As I was looking for a place to put the tent I wandered not 10 feet from my car and found a small patch of Black Trumpets (Craterellus fallax), FINALLY!  These little guys were so delicious with their bold meaty mushroomy flavor. There wasn't enough to bring home but I would have dried them for preservation. I'm dying to find more. These are usually found under oaks but it's very hard to distinguish them from the surrounding leaf litter unless you're right on top of them. I've heard they like runoff areas in the forest but I've had little luck with that tip. These were very small and I was a bit south of my home so I'm hoping they'll be popping here in abundance in the coming week.

Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata

My next find wasn't particularly rare but so far this season I've only found the Yellow Amanita (Amanita muscaria var. guessowii). The Amanita muscaria (Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata in N. America) is arguably the most distinctive mushroom, being the inspiration for the Mario Bros favorite shroom. This one is listed as "dangerously poisonous" but it might just be a pretty good time if you know what you're doing (not personally recommended).

Russula sanguinea

This little malformed pink Russula (Russula sanguinea?) has a second tiny cap growing upside-down on top of it, very odd.

Jack O' Lanterns (Omphalotus illudens)

Next to the Cooper's Rock visitor center parking lot there was a stump that was mostly covered with huge clumps of these large gorgeous orange mushrooms. I've never knowingly seen Jack O' Lanterns (Omphalotus illudens) but I knew right away that these were no Chanterelles. Among other features, their fully formed and prominent true gills give them away. These would give you quite the bellyache and worse if you fried them up with your eggs.
So, I wanted to come back and photograph them at night but the gates close access to the area after dark. I plucked the one on the left in the picture and my daughter had orange hands by the time we made it back to the campsite (we washed right away, don't worry). I placed it at the foot of a tree away from the fire and anxiously waited for full dark, you see, Jack O' Lanterns are bioluminescent and I wanted to see just how bright this phenomena was. When it was full dark I ran over and allowed my eyes to adjust from the firelight, I peered at the foot of the tree where I knew the mushroom was and looked hard. I could actually see a very faint glow! It was just barely bright enough that I knew I was really seeing it. The next thing I did was grab my camera, tripod, and intervalometer to capture this magic (mostly because my daughter and I were the only ones that could see it naked eye). I shot a 30 minute exposure of this thing and was floored when I saw this photo, take that Michael Kuo, I'm part of the conspiracy now!

Omphalotus illudens illuminated