The Advantage of Hunting with Others

[Kevin Hoover]

Admittedly, most of my mushroom hunting is done alone.  Mostly because I’m retired and hunt during the week, while most of the people I know who hunt mushrooms are either working or don’t live very close to me.

Occasionally, I’ll get the chance (outside of club meetings) to hunt with others.  Sunday was like that.  I had several club members who had never picked Hydnum (hedgehogs or sweettooth).

We had a club meeting scheduled close to my house for Sunday afternoon.   Several member showed up at my house during the morning, as I had invited them to hunt Hydnum umbilicatum, so they would recognize it in the future.

I have a good Hydnum umbilicatum spot close to home, which I have been hitting the last several years.  Although I’d seen other mushrooms there, I’ve been pretty focused on the hedgehogs.  None of the members who I showed this spot to lived within an hours drive of it.

So, I took them back to it, and we found hedgehogs not 30 feet from the car.   Had a pretty good morning, and they all got a nice batch of hedgehogs.

One of the guys found Blewits, and they pointed out winter chanterelles that were pretty much all over the area ( most a little old, liked like they got frosted).   I never noticed them before, but are definitely on my list to look for next year. That helped me get a firm grasp of their identification.

So it was a good morning, and we all learned mushrooms that we weren’t familiar with.   Funny thing was that one of the guys found Hydnum umbilicatum that afternoon on the club walk.

You don’t need to limit your hunting to hunting with an expert identifier (though that helps too).   Each of us know a set of mushrooms, and each of our sets are different.   Walking with practically anyone is beneficial in learning new mushrooms.