theberzh

I found these in late fall in Connecticut. They are growing in wood chips. Maybe around October November. They are still there right now in January, only they are a little more aged and weathered because the winter hit them. Some caps are small about the size of a penny and some are larger the size of the palm of my hand. They have that wavy cap. I'm sorry, I didn't get a spore print when I took these pictures because I didn't think they were anything, but then It later hit me to post them up on here for some help with identification. I'm not sure if I can get a spore print now because they are all soggy and half rotten. Can someone please help me out with what they might be?

Has anybody had any success re-growing wild mushrooms indoors and then continuing to save that mycelium for future growth? Is there a trick to saving the spores so they don't have any outdoor bacteria on them? Is there a trick to saving them cleanly?

Mushrooms are popping like crazy here in CT. So much so that the guy up the street picked way more than he knew what to do with. He ended up driving some down to me later after dark. In his cooler, on top of the most beautiful Maitake was a pile of Jack O Lantern mushrooms. I know that Jack O Lanterns are poisonous so I'm not going to touch them. I don't know how long they were touching each other. They could have both been in the cooler all day long. Would you eat the Maitakes if they were delivered to you in this way? Even if you washed them really good?