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Hey, I thought I'd start a new topic, for sharing some big and tasty finds. (I assume everyone is finding edibles BESIDES morels by now)

Yesterday I ate two new Amanita's (yes, you read that right! This sort of thing happens but once in a lifetime :o ). Before today, I had eaten A. fulva quite often, which is very good, abundant in my area, and easy to reconnize.

For years, on my neighors lawn, there is A. rubescens which grows abundently. I've been identifying this mushroom for years, and am very familiar with it, but have never tried it. I ate only a small amount, as for any first-time mushroom, and it was very good. I certainly will enjoy this one again.

Also, I detoxified some A. muscaria, boiled it for 10 minutes, and then ate a small amount without further preperation...interesting and good. Boiled mushroom is quite different from butter-fried, but I suspect that I will be eating this again soon too! Perhaps try a dry-saute after the detoxifying parboil...lots of room to experiment.

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Good call! The "besides morels" thread I started was way outdated!

I've been finding crazy numbers of black trumpets. I know you saw my post on the other thread but that wasn't the end of it. Just about everywhere I've gone for the last two weeks has produced trumpets, and now that I know what habitat to look for I don't just stumble on them, so I'm finding really good quantity. I just moved to the area last September and haven't been here during trumpet season before so I don't know if this kind of black trumpet bonanza is normal or how long it will last but I'm trying to take full advantage of it while I can. The only trouble with trumpets is it's very time consuming to get any real weight - you have to pick an awful lot of mushrooms to get a pound or two.

Besides trumpets I'm finding some mixed boletes in small numbers, the best tasting being bicolor ( but I just find a couple of here and there). In the chanterelle department I've found very small numbers of cinnabarinus, minor and tubaeformis and even smaller numbers of cibarius. I'm sure there are places that produce good numbers of cibarius around here but I haven't been able to find them yet. Lactarius volemus just started showing up in good quantities. Besides those I'm not picking anything. There are plenty of amazing looking mushrooms growing everywhere I look but I leave them alone for the most part, at least for now.

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With Black Trumpets it's "feast or famine." Some years --especially dry ones-- there are none. Some years there are massive fruitings. Trumpets are fairly easy to dehydrate, even without a device. Just lay them out in an indoor well-ventilated area that gets plenty of sun. A south-facing attic window works great. After a day or two, finish them off in a warm over with the door kept open... maybe 20 minutes or so. It's best to get them to the point of being somewhat brittle. The dried ones may be kept inside jars virtually indefinitely, as far as I can tell.

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you have to pick an awful lot of mushrooms to get a pound or two.

a pound or two?!? Only in my dreams, the trumpets are fairly rare around here.

It's fun that you have moved to a new place. For sure it means you have to hunt out new spots, but that's a lot of the fun. Plus you will discover lots of new species.

I found Bondarzewia berkeleyi for the first time today, it is apparently really rare in Quebec. My polypore books says it has only been officially recorded five times. Oak tree are not common in most parts, which is why we don't get this mushroom. Is was under a white oak in town. Is this one edible? It smells really good, and the edges seem fairly tender?

Here is a picture of me hauling home some lunch...

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a pound or two?!? Only in my dreams, the trumpets are fairly rare around here.

It's fun that you have moved to a new place. For sure it means you have to hunt out new spots, but that's a lot of the fun. Plus you will discover lots of new species.

I found Bondarzewia berkeleyi for the first time today, it is apparently really rare in Quebec. My polypore books says it has only been officially recorded five times. Oak tree are not common in most parts, which is why we don't get this mushroom. Is was under a white oak in town. Is this one edible? It smells really good, and the edges seem fairly tender?

Here is a picture of me hauling home some lunch...

Wow cool looking lunch! I also found berkeley's polypore for the first time recently. Since then I've spotted it while I was driving around, usually at the base of oak trees in people's yards. I collected two - one was pretty flavorless and the other one was a little bitter. It's too bad they didn't taste good because the quantity was awesome and the texture was pretty good but the flavor just didn't do anything for me. I've read that people eat them so maybe some specimens taste good - there was definitely a big difference between the two I tried so maybe a third would have been the charm - but as it is, with all the other great mushrooms I'm finding around my new digs I'm leaving the berks alone.

As for trumpets - O don't know what habitat they grow in where you live but around me they're mostly in beech/oak woods on slightly elevated areas (ridges and humps - especially mossy ones) near moist/swampy spots. I guess this year is a "feast" year - I happen to own a dehydrator and as soon as I finish this batch of jerky I'm drying some trumpets.

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I found Bondarzewia berkeleyi for the first time today...Is this one edible? It smells really good, and the edges seem fairly tender?

I had it once & enjoyed it. Cut soft edges off a very young one & fried it in a bit

of olive oil. It was firm, and had a good flavor -- almost like steak -- I had browned the

outside pretty well.

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I had it once & enjoyed it. Cut soft edges off a very young one & fried it in a bit

of olive oil. It was firm, and had a good flavor -- almost like steak -- I had browned the

outside pretty well.

I once ate some very young Berkeley's Polypore and found the flavor mild but pleasing.

I have never eaten a muscaria. I have eaten A. rubescens (A. amerirubescens) three times. Twice it had very good flavor, and once not so good. I think maybe the not-so-good one was a bit old. I have also eaten A. (ameri)fulva, A. banningiana, and A. jacksonii. My favorite is A. banningiana. This yellow-orange Caesar is found in the mid-Atlantic region of NA.

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I had it once & enjoyed it. Cut soft edges off a very young one & fried it in a bit

of olive oil.

I once ate some very young Berkeley's Polypore and ....

The fruiting body I have found is quite beyond the young stage..it is already 2.5 feet across. Really nice to find it as it is rare here. I reconnized it right away from the picture in George Barron's guide, my first and most beloved guide, where he has a photo of a quite giagantic one.

As the sample I have has been on the counter since two days, I will likely wait until next time to taste it...although the fresh mushroom smelled wonderful.

BTW, Fomitopsis pinicola, a perinial conifer loving polypore, has a wonderful odor when freshly picked..texture like wood though. you need a big knife to cut it...but worth the smell..

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Wow cool looking lunch!....

To be honest, I didn't eat that big daddy! I displayed it to my new neighors, however, who are new to mushrooming. Nevertheless I collected a big bag of young specimens for eating. I visitd three good Edulus spots, and they were all filled with A. muscaria., nothing else.

This evening I prepared some Sushi!! I detoxicified some of the A. muscaria...boiled for 10 minutes, as per say the David Arora article,....I was thinking, what could moist, cold, mushroom be good in? it was excellent in sushi! I prepared one with tuna, Umeboshi paste, and some A, muscaria...yum...

they lose completely their colour. they don't appear entirely appitizing, as you can see from my picture (Although that big piece of tuna would make most thing looks unappetitzing when beside it), but the texture is great!!

anyways, I'm gonna take it easy for a while, I don't want to eat them too many days in a row, but I've discovered one very good method of consuming them...

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This evening I prepared some Sushi!! I detoxicified some of the A. muscaria...boiled for 10 minutes, as per say the David Arora article,....I was thinking, what could moist, cold, mushroom be good in? it was excellent in sushi! I prepared one with tuna, Umeboshi paste, and some A, muscaria...yum...

So I surmise that you put the boiled muscaria into a Nori roll? I make these at home once in awhile. Although the thought of eating muscarias flies in the face of years of negative conditioning, I'm thinking of giving this a try. Umeboshi paste is a new one for me... Next time I visit the import store I'll look for it.

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So I surmise that you put the boiled muscaria into a Nori roll? ....Umeboshi paste is a new one for me... Next time I visit the import store I'll look for it.

Exactly, in a Nori roll, with some fish and whatever else.

Umeboshi paste is made with plums, I believe there are fermented. It is quite salty. I hope you can find it.

Everything is dry dry dry here. We get thunderstorms everyday, but it is so hot it dries up quick. Slowly getting started though. I found a few Amanita's, a couple little bolets, and this little one, H. americanum. I've never found this one before, although I often find H. coralloides, and it is one of my favorite to eat!

Maybe I should add a little butter and heat?

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Exactly, in a Nori roll, with some fish and whatever else.

Umeboshi paste is made with plums, I believe there are fermented. It is quite salty. I hope you can find it.

Everything is dry dry dry here. We get thunderstorms everyday, but it is so hot it dries up quick. Slowly getting started though. I found a few Amanita's, a couple little bolets, and this little one, H. americanum. I've never found this one before, although I often find H. coralloides, and it is one of my favorite to eat!

Maybe I should add a little butter and heat?

Yup. They really do have the consistency (NOT the taste) of seafood. Found my 1st one last season :)

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i generally do not find Hericium down here until late summer or fall. One thing I do with them is to add to baked fish, like cod or haddock. I also like to throw them in with stir-fries.

Getting dry down here now, and hot. I've been finding good numbers of Black Trumpets. In the past I dried almost all of them. But that habit began when i lived in a small apartment with only a small freezer. Now my home has a great big non-frost-free freezer in the basement. So I can keep lots of stuff frozen for years. For dinner today we had Chicken Caccitore with Honey Mushrooms from the freezer that were dated 2009. So, I'm trying out freezing sauteed trumpets. I figure one advantage is not having to rehydrate and release so much flavor into the liquid. Also, the thawed ones should work better on mt friend's homemade pizza. But I'll still dry the nicest-looking ones.

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I post a lot of my finds, along with ID proposals, at Mushroom Observer.

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Trumpets, yum. I went and harvested mine but I was a little late on those. So I did dry them. Dave, what was the name of the ones we found when you were here? Taking a quick ride down the hill to check my chants today and saw these. I was able to snap a picture from the car but since I am suppose to be working, I couldn't stop and look closer. Some kind of cort I guess.

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new batch of chants

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Berkleys

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I don't have much time anymore, either. I've been too busy at work to even think about heading to the woods. Also, we haven't had much rain lately. Less than an inch or so in the past month and none in the forecast.

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That is amazing how we can have so much rain and just down the road it is dry dry dry. We had 3 month of nothing but rain but I fear that is over and my baby chants will dry up. I did get another pound yesterday. Evan are you coming out for the wine festival?

I didn't realize you could find honey mushrooms this time of year but that is what believe these to be. White spore print. Can it be anything else?

Beautiful mushroom. I am going to try a taste today.

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These A. jacksonii were found were Dave and I found them last year in August. Timing seems so off to me this year. But it warmed up early and rained a lot.

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I didn't realize you could find honey mushrooms this time of year but that is what believe these to be. White spore print. Can it be anything else?

Beautiful mushroom. I am going to try a taste today.

Those are honey's all right...It would be quite early for this area, although you are much more south than me, and with this rain off, rain on weather, you tend to get some unpredicatble fruitings..

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Let me know for sure. We'll stop over and bring you some chants.

That would be awesome!!! It's not until the end of August, but I'm pretty sure I'll be there. Maybe I'll make it a point to work the festival if I'm going to get Chants!

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Yeah, I agree... those look like Honeys. It would certainly be early for them around here. But I've been running into strangely-timed fungi these past few years. This spring --mid May if I recall-- I found a fruiting of Cortinarius underneath my neighbor's spruce trees. I found Pholiota aurivella this past May. On Mushroom Observer somebody posted Rozites caperatus --Kentucky or Tennessee I think-- that they found this past May.

Nice Caesar button!

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0.2" of rain in the last 10 days and temps in the high 80's to low 90's and climbing... I haven't been able to find anything worthwhile at all and with the bugs out in force it isn't very pleasant to go exploring. Wishing for some real rain but none in the 10 day forecast. I hear the blue crabs are here though - that should be a fun alternative.

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