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Fall Mushrooms


Dave W

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Looks like the photo posting problem has been solved... at least for the time being. From now on, I'm posting only small-file photos onto this website. The large files use up all of our space.

Some recent things I've brought home to eat/preserve:

Honey Mushrooms... Armillaria species. Most manuals suggest that one should use caution when collecting this type. Mistakes are sometimes made, and I think that one reason for this is that these mushrooms often occur in large numbers, which then encourages fast harvesting. Distinguishing characteristics include: cottony ring, patches of hairs on the cap, fibrous outer stalk with white pithy stuffing. The one photo shows the outer and inner portions of a stalk. Also, some people are sickened by eating Honeys. This may sometimes be due to undercooking. Honeys are the first mushroom I learned, from my dad and uncles. Polish Americans (and mostly everybody else here in NE PA) call them "popink'ees." The old-timers always par boil for at least 5 minutes and drain well, before any additional preparation. I generally saute after par-boiling, and often follow this up by adding them to some something else for a third round of cooking. They hold up very well to the extended cooking, and they preserve well by freezing, after par-boiling.

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Blewits. Always be aware of look-alike Cortinarius and other purplish mushrooms with gills.

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Horse Mushrooms, Agaricus arvensis

Delicious Agaricus. One of the best for stuffing. Best used in button stage. But, young ones like these have pale gills, and much care should be taken to recognize the various Amanita species, some of which are deadly poisonous.

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I also collected some nice Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa), but didn't get any photos.

Finally (for now), a nice fresh King Bolete (Boletus edulis). I found this one on a lawn under Blue Spruce. Mostly, I find them under Norway Spruce. With all the recent rainfall, a brief warmup, and another small dose of rain in the forecast, there should be more of these on the way! Excellent for dehydrating to use in soups, sauce, or risotto. Nice large firm bug-free specimens are exceptional sliced and slow grilled with some olive oil and salt. Note the retuculate upper stalk surface. Make certain to avoid bitter look-alikes such as Tylopilus felleus.

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It amazes me the difference in honey mushrooms from state to state, or even county to county, never see the ones like you have Dave, i'll try to get some picks of some from s.w Michigan, they are up all over, just have to rmember the camera.

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Harmony and I took the dogs for a walk in our woods yesterday. After the last couple weeks of rain, we found quite a diversity of mushrooms. I didn't take any pictures, since we didn't have the camera, And I haven't had time to get any tonight. We found the largest bitter bolete I've ever seen. They are, unfortunately, the most common. It was about 9 inches tall and the cap was about five inches. We also found several purple stalked boletes with dark colored caps. There was a small flush of honey mushrooms right behind our house. We got about a dozen. And we found a great patch of yellow foot chants, Canterellus tubaeformus. I was very suprised to find two elegant stinkhorns. All together we saw at least 20 different species of mushrooms including many colors of russulas. Harmony wanted to share a smiley with everyone. :crabby:

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Hi Dave,

We went out today and found a great variety of mushrooms from one hen to a few Hericium, a giant puffball, some fresh chanterelles, wild grapes and some nice boletes that I am not 100% sure of their true identity so I'm going to post a few pics here for you. I'm assuming some of these are B. edulis but they don't look like my MT edulis hence my not 100 % certain. Some of these seem redder than others and the stipes are colored somewhat as well.

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Ladyfish, I'd call those boletes edulis. Although they may be some documented variety, or even another species in the edulis complex, which can get kinda complicated here in the NE of NA. What type of trees were they found under?

Sparky, some of our Honeys are the classic mellea species. But I think the ones seen above may be Armillaria gallica (I think the name is gallica). Tom Volk has documented a whole list of North American Armillarias (all qualifying as Honeys). I think there's close to 20!

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They were found under fir trees, Dave. Some had really red caps and others the color of a regular edulis I've found in the past. Today we found hens, Hericium (2 varieties), chanterelles, chickens, clubs etc. I guess they are ok to dry then. I'll get on that right away! What are you finding this weekend?

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Hi Dave,

We went out today and found a great variety of mushrooms from one hen to a few Hericium, a giant puffball, some fresh chanterelles, wild grapes and some nice boletes that I am not 100% sure of their true identity so I'm going to post a few pics here for you. I'm assuming some of these are B. edulis but they don't look like my MT edulis hence my not 100 % certain. Some of these seem redder than others and the stipes are colored somewhat as well.

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Hi ladyfish,

Congratulations! These look like Edulis to me.

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Well then I guess I found Zora a nice little honey hole of B. edulis for the future. We dried a bunch and I'll take a few home to compare with my MT edulis. We ate a smorgasbord of mushrooms tonight in a wild mushroom and pasta dish I made with B. edulis, Hericium, puffballs, hedgehogs and chanties. It was delish.

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Here in Fairfield CT the trumpets finally ended a great season. The honeys are out in decent numbers, I found one hen, oysters, and lots of chickens (but I keep finding them after they're too old). Last weekend I went to my favorite spot and a dog walker told me she'd seen mushroom pickers there every day that week! Not fair!

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