As Winter Approaches...

the mushroom season is slowly come to an end. The cold nights and lack of moisture the last few weeks have marked the end to an incredible fall season of mushrooms. Normally, I name the year at this time. Like 2007 was the year of chanterelles, as I found them in record numbers. This year I would say it was the year of the hen, but it was really the year of the mushroom here. With the constant and unusually high amounts of rain we received all year, I picked record numbers (for me at least) of about everything from morels in spring, to chants and sweettooth in summer, and of course hens in the fall. I even found more chicken of the woods this year than I have in the past. My cupboards are full of dried mushrooms and I have a nice section of my freezer full of everything from partially fried morels to several pounds of some excellent mushroom duxelle (which takes about 10 hours to make by the way, but well worth it.)

The season drawing to a close does not mean that there will be no more mushrooms. I am sure if I looked hard enough I could still find a hen or two especially if I went a little bit further south, but I am literally henned out so I probably won't be heading out anytime soon to look for more.

And in a few weeks, I'm sure I will get the urge to walk the woods again. There are two mushrooms that you can find in abundance during the warmer spells of winter. The first I will mention only in passing. It is the velvet foot or Flammulina velutipes mushroom . I DO NOT recommend that novices hunt and eat this one as it has a very poisonous look-a-like, the deadly galerina. Although many mushrooms are poisonous, few are truly fatal, but the galerina is one of them. Look at the pictures on the right. The first one is velvet foot and the second one is the deadly galerina.
Can you tell the difference? This is one case where you have to take a spore print to be absolutely certain. Velvet foot should give you a white print, galerina will produce a rusty brown spore print. Until you really know what you are doing, it is best to just stick with the cultivated version of this mushroom, Enoki, pictured last. You can hunt it down in the produce aisle of you local grocer or some of the finer restaurants in town.
It took me about five years before I trusted myself to properly identify this mushroom and I still pass on it many times I see it just in case. However, they are quite tasty. If you have ever had tried enoki then you know a little bit of what I mean. Though they look completely different and even taste different they give you a hint of the flavor of those found in the wild.

The mushroom that you can find around here all winter that is good for beginners is the oyster mushroom or Pleurotus ostreatis. I usualy find these in woods with more softwoods (elm, willow, and maples) so I hunt for them in the same locations I hunt morels in spring. Look for downed logs in these areas and check them even if there hasn't been any rain. The cold nice and frost often provide enough moisture to keep them flushing as long as the daytime temps are in the 40s. Oysters can survive temps down in the 20s, so even hard freezes have little effect as long as the days warm up a bit.

So if you didn't get your fill of wild edibles this year, do not fret, there is still a chance to find some nice oysters. I tend to avoid older specimen who have that slight fishy smell, but I know plenty of people who eat them as well. In my opinion they aren't quite as tasty and the texture can leave something to be desired, so I generall only pick the younger ones, especially those still in the button stage. The one good thing about hunting in winter is NO BUGS so not only do you not have to worry about ticks and skeeters, but your mushrooms are nice and larva and beetle free so you can keep all you find.

Another reason I mainly look for oysters where I hunt morels is that you can never start scouting too early. Finding that dead elm or recently blow down or chopped off cottonwood, sycamore, or maple and making note of it can pay huge dividends come spring when you can be the first to these trees with the potential to produce 50 to 100 morels. If find some of these, check them early and often come April, especially those with lots of exposure to the sun. Last year I found a nice mess of morels around one of these trees. So, even if you don't find any oysters, a winter walk in the woods can be well worth the effort.

Fifty Pounds in one Day

OK, so you have just hiked to the top of a steep hill and find yourself looking at oak after oak to no avail when you come across this. I spotted this one at nearly 100 yards out. It was huge, literally the size of a beach ball.

This has been an incredible year for hens and this one topped all. I had never seen one this large in my years of fall hunting. And get this, I didn't even pick it. I just took some photos showed it to some hunters to be, that were with me and walked away.
I know what you are thinking. How could you do that? How could you turn your back on such a marvelous specimen? Well, there were several reasons so let me lay them all out for you.

First, take a look at this picture. This thing was bigger than my backpack and probably approaching 30 pounds. Hauling that back down the hill I scrambled up and back to my car seemed like more of a chore than I wanted.
Second, the underneath of many fronds were just turning yellow. Yes, it wasn't too far gone for eating, but it was on its way and let me move on to my next point.
Third, did I say I had already found 14 other hens that afternoon and had over 20 pounds in my vehicle?
In the end I only picked about 8 of the 15 or approximately half of the 50 pounds or so I uncovered today. I only came home with two nice hens and gave the rest away to the hunters to be. They were eager to try some, though I cautioned that they only try a bit at first, to make sure they were not allergic, as a few are.

I also came across a small patch of sweet tooth that were big and bug free. Like the ones I found a few weeks ago, these were atop a rocky ridge right above the outcroppings. They were a nice treat. I saw some hericiums of all three varieties, purple gilled lacaria and some oysters but all were too old for the table.

I managed to find one very fresh hen on a nice slope so I could take one of my favorite "uphill underneath" shots. The fresh hens I found today were very dark and brown, however they varied to light tan, as seen in the one above. There were plenty of small ones that I left behind so unless the cold really sets in, the hens may be here for a good while more. So, keep checking those oaks. If anyone is in Mid-MO and wants to try some hen, just let me know. I have plenty to spare.
Happy hunting.

The Halloween Mushroom

Well not too much out in the woods these days as the rains has become fewer and farther between and the night and days grow colder. However there are some good fall edibles still in abundance. The kids and I returned to the scene of our first hen hunt yesterday only nine days after walking it previously and found a new flush of hens on several trees. With the lack of rain and being so fresh these were some of the cleanest, I have picked and took record time to clean. That is an often unmentioned downside of finding a 20 pound hen of the woods, the 3 to 4 hours it takes to clean is from bugs, dirt and to trim of embedded debris.

We also came across a nice chicken that had sprouted wings since last we had visited the trail. The kids really got a kick out of how "Halloweeny" the mushroom was. Anyone need a costume idea?



Here they are with their Halloween find. Notice how well the mushroom goes with my daughter's pants. Thanks to Jon Rapp, once again, for such fabulous photos. He is really spoiling me.

Sulfur Shelf - Chicken of the Woods

Normally, when I do find some nice chicken of the woods mushrooms they are Laetiporus cincinnatus or the white pored variety. But I had a few minutes to spare so I thought I would check one of my sweettooth patches out real quick and see if anything was still up. Unfortunately there were no sweettooh but I did find some pretty yellow fungal fingers beginning to stick out of an old dead snag. I left them alone and returned 4 days and a good rain later to find some real beauties of Laetiporus sulphurues.
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Here are a few pics that Jon, a local hunter, he takes such great photos I rarely use my own camera anymore.









In the end I came home with three nice one pound clusters of some of the freshest chickens you can find. Made for some good eating and even had enough left over to dry some for winter.

Fall "Fowl"age

The colder nights not only bring on the glorious fall foliage that Missouri is known for, but it tends to stir up some most delicious fowl as well. This is not the traditional birds that most hunters seek out, but rather the fungal variety that us mushroom hunters are hoping to track down. Namely Grifola Frondosa or the hen of the woods mushroom. In Japan it is called the Maitake mushroom, where it is sought out high and low as a delicacy and medical remedy for many forms of cancer and other health conditions. Maitake literally means dancing mushroom, which is what happens when you first come across a nice clean one.

I happened out with my kids today. They love to hunt mushrooms but being only a month shy of turning four, they are not quite ready to traverse the woods. However, that is the good thing about hen of the woods. They are so big and in this area no one else really hunts them, so you can usually spot and pick them right off the trail when conditions are right. And right they have been for the past two weeks. So I was not surprised when a known hen producing tree had a nice beauty sitting at its base. That is a bonus of finding a hen, note that tree for years to come because they grow year after year in the same spot. The one we found today weighed in at a little over 2 pounds (another bonus of finding them, lots of mushroom). The one in the picture measured about 13 inches across by 10 inches wide by 9 inches tall. I usually find mine at the base of oak trees but they do show up around other trees as well. When prepaering for the table, brush of any dirt and cut or break off the fronds. If it is a young specimen you can also use the central stem, however, I find it a little tough unless you prepare it slow like in a stew. I prefer to lightly saute mine in oil and serve over fish or on a salad. But they are excellent grilled, baked and about anyway. It has a taste that is hard to describe but many, including myself prefer it to morels, so it is a worth a try if you are lucky to find one. See http://www.mushroomexpert.com/grifola_frondosa.html for more information.

We also happened on some chicken of the woods or sulfur shelf mushrooms. These would have been ripe for the table had I been out last week. They were beginning to fade and a little long in the pore so we left them behind. But that is another fowl fungus that can be readily found in fall and the bright orange really stands out. I usually find them on old black fallen logs and stumps, but you can also find them on scars and breaks in live trees (primarily oak).

If you haven't managed to get out in the woods, it is time to get hiking before the winds of winter move in and end the mushroom season for good. Hen of the woods dries very well and is a good mushroom to store and eat on those cold winter days.

Ahistory and kids on the maitake trail (photos by Jon Rapp)

Time to Get Back Out There...

Well, if you have stayed away from the woods, like I have the last few weeks, now is prime time to get back out there. The recent rains have a flourish of mushrooms flushing from summer varieties to the start of the fall ones. I haven't found any honies or hens yet, but they are sure to be a week or so away, especially with all the rain in the forecast due to hurricane Ike.

I did manage to get away and walk some local woods at lunch the last two days. Found corals, indigo milkies, some blue-green clitocybe, black trumpets, chants of all types and sizes, and one of my favorites, sweet tooth or hedgehog mushrooms. They are one of my favorites and I have never found them in much quantity, so it was a pleasent surprise to stumble across some nice size patches. I will definately be checking these areas again next year.

What was great and this really highlights the benefits of hunting summer and fall mushrooms versus the elusive morel, is that these were right off the trail and only minutes from the parking lot. In spring with all the morel hunters you'd have to be first to pick these areas, but in summer you can take your time because the competition is non-existent and there are plenty of shrooms for all. So get out there and keep your eyes open for some tasty finds.

Too Many Mushrooms - Anyone up for a trade?

Boy the rains have made for bumper crops of just about everything. In addition to mushrooms, my family and I have been picking gallons of berries. Right now, the wild blackberry bushes are overflowing and the berries are larger than ever, swollen with all the extra rain. Been busy canning jam and jelly all week. Probably have to go pick some more to make a pie or two.

I give mushrooms to family and friends and, often in return they give me stuff from their garden. This week it was beans and tomatoes, and they are oh so good. It got me thinking, if anyone close by has some extra veggies or fruit from their garden and would like to trade for some fresh chanterelles, drop me a line. I have several pounds of nice fresh chants (picked yesterday morning) just sitting in the fridge and for the first time, I must admit that I have about had my fill of them and I definitely have enough canned for winter. It would be great to get some local produce and share some tasty chants. I really would like to find a local grower's coop who would be interested in me providing edible wild mushrooms in exchange for some fresh veggies.

No mushroom hunting this weekend. Just too dang hot, but let me know if you find anything. The patches of smoth chants look like seas of orange right now, and are easy to spot. So if you can stand the heat, it is a good time to scout out new areas. If the chants are there you will finds them easily. Happy hunting and let me know if you find anything good.