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Please help with identifyng


Oldgamer

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Location: Staten Island, New York

Time: ~ Late October

Every year around this time, late October, I can see a lot of mushrooms in my backyard and on the same place. They all appear in the same time for 3-5 days and then just got old and disappear leaving messy grease . I always wanted to know if these mushrooms are edible or not. This year I collect two buckets of them when I just cleaned the backyard. I made some pictures, so probably somebody can help.

Thank you in advance!

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Most --if not all-- of the mushrooms seen here are species of Armillaria, Honey Mushrooms.

This is a very popular edible, despite the fact that some people are allergic to them. Those who are sensitive to them experience very unpleasant flu-like symptoms. I believe that par-boiling/draining these before preparing as food helps to remove the mild toxin. I know three people who have been sickened by a meal of Armillaria, and in each case the mushrooms were not par-boiled.

Back to my first comment... specifically the use of the word "most." In my area (NE PA) these mushrooms are popular. Locals call them "popinkies" which is an Americanization of the Polish word "opinki." They often occur like the ones seen here, in medium to large groups. It is tempting to gather them quickly. But this may lead to inadvertently harvesting a different type that's growing along with them. This type of mistake has been responsible for mushroom poisonings in my area.

Armillaria mushrooms grow on wood, but often they appear to be terrestrial if growing on buried roots. They are best when still in the button stage, with the white cottony partial veil (covering over gills) intact. The partial veil eventually forms a whitish ring on the stalk. Some dangerously poisonous Amanitas have rings on their stalks. Also, some poisonous Inocybes, Tricholomas, Pholiotas, or Gymnopilus have scaly cap surfaces that resemble Armillaria. Another mushroom to learn is the wood-inhabiting Galerina marginata (deadly).

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Thank you so much, Dave!

I am very positive that all mushrooms I collected yesterday are of one kind, because they all appear together in the same time, in matter of 1-2 days. What is really wonderful for me that probably I can check calendar by them. Always in the same time of the year, very narrow time frame. I am sure looking on my broken English, you can see that I am not from US originally. I am from Moldova (former republic of USSR). Mushroom picking is very popular in Russia, but in Moldova we did not have so many great mushrooms as in Russia (Moldova is on a South), but still, some people do mushroom hunting. I was surprised how few people do mushroom hunting here.

I can not tell I was a mushroom hunter, always did with some other people guidenning me.

My wife knows a bit better, so in the big park close to us we did some picking, but she was not sure about these mushrooms in our backyard.

You said, polish call these mushrooms opinki - which does sound very similar to russian "openki". I will tell my wife about it. I don't remember now, but I guess I tried once to fry couple of these mushrooms (I boiled them at first just in case), ate and nothing bad happened. But I think I fried them too long (probably was scared? :deepthoughts: ).

Again,

Thank you so much!

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My friend from Moscow called these by name that sounds like "up-yet'-a."

Do not assume that all the mushrooms that appear at one time are all the same species. This is a dangerous way to think about the mushrooms. Exactly my point about the bad mistakes people have made.

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Yes, "upyeta" > "upenki">"openki">"opinki".

You are right, it is a dangerous way to think that all are the same species. I assumed that because usually I do not have mushrooms in my backyard whole year, and only this time in a middle of October every year I got them, and visually they are all the same. But again, it is a dangerous way to think. Every year I got more and more of these mushrooms.

This time, after I got to know that they are "opyata", I went outside and pull out some mushrooms of black bucket you can see on a picture and my wife sauteed them with onions, mayonnaise, and sour cream (after I boiled them a bit just in case). It was delicious! Then my friend visited me in the same day, I told him the story and he also took some mushrooms home from the same bucket. Actually, he told me right away they are good. Too bad I crashed too many mushrooms already, as I was ready to trash all of them to my compost bin when I did not know they are edible. Then we started to look around on my backyard and find more. Total it was about 3 big buckets from my small yard (it is only 20'x20'). I would never believe this!

So now I know that exactly in a year I will have a 3 bucket of nice mushrooms. Wow.

Also, we have a nice park in a walking distance, a wild one, as a wood, where we once collect nice amount of boletus, and also I saw shaggy parasol and morels couple times.

I saw there also in a fall or late summer some large mushrooms of white color, but I did not know what it was. I would take a picture of them and post. There were many of them and I was sorry I did not know if they were edible.

Thank you and have a good mushroom hunting!

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  • 2 years later...

those are nice fat honeys. one tip, the outside of the stems are usually tough but you can cut them in half up the middle of the stem and peel out the delicate inside. kinda looks like string cheese and is the most delicate part of the honeys and really absorbs sauce or flavoring in stirfrys

forgot to mention they pickle well. what kind of mushrooms did you pick in Moldova. i hear its beautiful and inexpensive to visit

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Guys, I'm Russian. Yes its o-pya-ta. In Russian "опята" as plural....."опёнок" in singular. I seen them as a kid and I think they are only picked in very young stage of growth. After Google search: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1188&bih=537&q=опята&oq=опята&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1021.1021.0.2517.1.1.0.0.0.0.71.71.1.1.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.1.70.cHRxqRwrLPs

Looks very similar. Any thoughts if the same species?

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"Honey Mushrooms" represent a group of different (but very similar) species in genus Armillaria. Some common species are A. mellea, A. gallica, A. solidipes, A. ostoyae. These are all considered edible (for most people), if well cooked. I always par-boil mine for about 5 minutes before preparing or freezing. People where I live --NE Pennsylvania-- call them "popinkis", which is an Americanization of a Polish word. 

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3 hours ago, Dave W said:

"Honey Mushrooms" represent a group of different (but very similar) species in genus Armillaria. Some common species are A. mellea, A. gallica, A. solidipes, A. ostoyae. These are all considered edible (for most people), if well cooked. I always par-boil mine for about 5 minutes before preparing or freezing. People where I live --NE Pennsylvania-- call them "popinkis", which is an Americanization of a Polish word. 

In the Ukraine, they are called "pidpenki". This is not a westernization of the word, as relatives in Odessa and area that we are in frequent contact with have told us. They insist the word is the same in Polish, and it is a slang term used throughout Eastern Europe for honey mushrooms and pholiotas (which they eat over there).

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Thanks for the info, GCn15 and troutdicted. Actually, I have wondered how much different is "popinki" from what is said in Poland. Interesting that in some places Pholiotas are lumped in with Honeys. Spore print colors are dramatically different. Even if one doesn't bother to examine prints, sometimes seeing a print on a cap surface in-situ is obvious. 

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On ‎2017‎-‎01‎-‎07 at 0:58 AM, Dave W said:

Thanks for the info, GCn15 and troutdicted. Actually, I have wondered how much different is "popinki" from what is said in Poland. Interesting that in some places Pholiotas are lumped in with Honeys. Spore print colors are dramatically different. Even if one doesn't bother to examine prints, sometimes seeing a print on a cap surface in-situ is obvious. 

They don't lump pholiotas in with honeys. The term is just one used for all stump mushrooms and those are two of the varieties they eat. Any edible stump mushroom is known as pidpenky. They do know the honeys from the pholiotas from the flammalinas etc.

Just to add a little more fun to the conversation. A couple other Ukrainian favorites in my area (Northern Manitoba) are Leccinum or the less common porcini which are call KOZARI in Ukrainian, and of course Morels which are called SMORZHI. In my area they build statues to these three mushrooms. Not kidding. Google: Meleb, Manitoba mushroom statue.

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Thanks CGn15. So the word "popinki" (as well as other similar-sounding East European derivatives) comes from the word "stump"? My father and uncles --first generation Polish Americans-- often called Honeys "stumpies". I work with someone who emigrated from the Ukraine not long ago. I'll let her know when the Smorzhi are out next spring :-)

Here's the statue in Manitoba. https://www.bigthings.ca/manitoba/meleb.html

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On ‎2017‎-‎01‎-‎09 at 8:50 AM, Dave W said:

Thanks CGn15. So the word "popinki" (as well as other similar-sounding East European derivatives) comes from the word "stump"? My father and uncles --first generation Polish Americans-- often called Honeys "stumpies". I work with someone who emigrated from the Ukraine not long ago. I'll let her know when the Smorzhi are out next spring :-)

Here's the statue in Manitoba. https://www.bigthings.ca/manitoba/meleb.html

For anyone who happens to be in the Interlake or Northern regions of Manitoba for some reason, take an evening out in the bush. These areas have hundreds of square miles of bush of every sort, that is all crown (federal) land. The woods are virtually unpicked given their proportional size. Very good assortment of varieties of woodlands.

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How cool is that - a town that all WMH.org members should live in.

Heres another curve ball, while discussing this topic last night over dinner, turns out my great grandmother would often times call honeys, miodrzarz ( butchered spelling ) which translates into "honeys" - we're talking what, 60+ years ago?  This term is not readily used as podpienki is the current word for them.  I suspect there is great regional variation with the semantics and pronunciation of the word.

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On ‎2017‎-‎01‎-‎10 at 10:49 AM, troutddicted said:

How cool is that - a town that all WMH.org members should live in.

Heres another curve ball, while discussing this topic last night over dinner, turns out my great grandmother would often times call honeys, miodrzarz ( butchered spelling ) which translates into "honeys" - we're talking what, 60+ years ago?  This term is not readily used as podpienki is the current word for them.  I suspect there is great regional variation with the semantics and pronunciation of the word.

There are many different dialects of Ukrainian and Polish. Some of them are even intertwined with each other with some Russian thrown in to boot. I would imagine that leads to a lot of slightly different pronunciations and slang for the same word. The pronunciations I have brought forward are in the Galician dialect of Ukrainian, which in itself is a kind of bastardized Ukrainian/Polish mix from around the border area of those regions.

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  • 2 years later...

We still call these as pidpenki, or kozari. They are delicious!! Best fried fresh, but can be parboiled and frozen, or dried (cut them into smaller pieces). Then soak before using later. These only appear in the fall, and usually only under aspen trees! They can get to be very large, if the bugs don't get to them first. As soon as they pop out of the ground, some fly has already laid eggs on it! Mom always said "If the flies like them, then they are good to eat"" Don't know if that is true or not, but if it was poisonous, nothing touches them! (We did hang a few 'special' mushrooms in our out-buildings because they were poisonous and killed the flies.) It's so sad people today do not know of the treasures out in the woods, that the government still hasn't taxed! Go get them.

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