One of the most easily recognizable edibles out there is the lactarius indigo or blue milky. Usually they are rare and I only turn up five or six a year, but this summer in Mid-MO they seem to be more abundant than ever. While out hunting with Jon and Michael today, we came across a nice patch where they were growing in clusters of threes and fours. The blue gills and the blue juice they drip distinguish them from all of the other milkies. They also bruise green which makes them a very colorful mushroom in your basket.
I brought some home to eat and show the kids and my son proceeded to make me a very nice picture by breaking off small pieces of one and using it to smear on his creative images. A most ingeneous use for an indigo in my own very partial opinion.We also found a good mess of chanterelles of all varieties, including a few fresh black trumpets. I really like it when I can find a nice variety of chants. Cooking them all together really adds a lot of color to a dish. Michael picked several nice chestnut boletes and a mess of fresh old man of woods. He seems to like those things even though I won't touch them. Says they cook up a nice jet black.
5 comments:
Great pics!
For a mushroom that I figured I'd have to really look for due to their relative rarity in this area, I sure am seeing a lot of them lately. They are some GREAT eating!
...and yes, I do eat the Old Man. On his own, he's really bland and meh. Mixed with other mushrooms or veggies, he's not too bad. One way to help the flavor I have discovered is to dry them first, then use them for cooking.
We were hiking late last summer at Washington St. Park and found a bunch of blue, purple, and green mushrooms that looked quite similar to your blue shrooms.
Blue and Green
Purple
I had never seen mushrooms in these colors before, so it was exciting. We hunt morels pretty extensively but having no idea what species these were we left them alone.
Hey Jess, boy those are some pretty ones. I am not sure what type they are just by looking at the cap, but if I had to guess, I would say some sort of Russala. The green and purple ones especially.
There was a another blue mushroom in your Flickr photostream right after the purple and it was a blue lactarius, but the the blue one with the green one was something different. They sure were some pretty mushrooms.
It's a lactarius
Two days ago I found the frost blue mushroom that I ever found in the woods in Phelps county.
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