Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I'd never harvested any mushroom except morels in spring. This past August, 2012, I started looking for a fall mushroom to add to my foraging list. Research online led me to the Chicken of the Woods. That seemed like a good place to start since it can be identified readily and there are oak trees on the hill behind my house. Within 20 minutes and 300 yards or so I spotted my first 'chicken' ever. I saw it from a distance and just knew that it was a Chicken of the Woods mushroom from all the pics and articles I'd gone over. When I got to it I was just tickled pink. It was large, very orange, fresh and did I mention LARGE? I'm attaching a pic. The view is from the top. It does not show that the cluster was over a foot tall. It was an almost perfect circular stack of shelves growing at ground level. (Cincinatti?) (( I am not well versed in mycology)). This post is going longs so ... bagged 'em, cleaned 'em, boiled 'em, sliced 'em, lightly floured and sauteed in butter ... oh yeah !!!!

chickenofthewoodsfirstcontact-500.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice Chicken, 4rum. Looks to be a prime specimen. A few times I have seen over 50 pounds on one dead tree.

As for species type, if it's yellow underneath, then I'd call this oak-lover Laetiporus sulphureus. The ones that are white underneath are called L. cincinnatus.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found a log full of fresh chickens today. (Found more not so fresh). The ones pictured are only 3 minutes (timed ... uphill) from my truck which was parked by the highway. Made some batter, added some dry pork bbq seasoning to it, had some for dinner ... really, reallyl good!

post-325-0-21913700-1347573189_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I 'think' I found some oysters, but not being sure (and being VERY new to all mushrooms except morels) I left them. With a very welcome response here, I did go back and sniff them. I could not discern any anise or licorice odor. They were very pretty though (I posted pics in the ID thread).

Happy hunting all ...

'rum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I may not gain the confidence I need to harvest oysters this year but I am just tickled pink at my beginners luck with Chicken of the Woods. I have found SO many. I've prepared them in several different ways and really like them. I did some almost like french fries the other day and just sat them on the counter to drain on a paper towel. They dissappeared! Can't imagine what happened to them ALL ... but the wife and I weren't very hungry at dinner time. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Took a long hike this morning. I found some Chicken of the Woods but all were past prime. None were fresh enough to consider. I think the chicken season must be over here. We've had pretty good rain for over a week now and I'm not seeing any fresh clusters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Saturday's trip (9-29-12) I spotted a Chicken of the Woods high in an oak tree. The hillside is really steep here so I was closer to the chicken than I was to the bottom of the tree trunk. The growth must be at least 30 feet up. I didn't see any other clusters on the tree.

post-325-0-21726000-1349099295_thumb.jpg

I'm not sure what this is. Wish the pic were better. I didn't want to pick up the dead branch it was on to look underneath or take more pics. It had the appearance of layers of white crystal. VERY pretty.

post-325-0-04652000-1349099393_thumb.jpg

I think this is an old Chicken of the Woods. Cincinnatus maybe?

post-325-0-00625800-1349099469_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm very sorry that I don't know more about mushrooms. That pic isn't good either. The mushroom was the whitest of whites. It appeared to be layer upon layer of extremely thin membrane, like layers of sheer curtains layers and layers and layers. I'd never seen one like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

post-1-0-94315700-1349180974_thumb.jpg A nice Hericium from last year. I love these! Not great focus though (dark and hand held). This was just a test. I just increased the file size max upload so it should be a little easier to upload photos without having to edit them first to resize them.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

'rum, those photos are all a bit too small to tell anything but the second photo could possibly be a Climacodon species and the last photo is not a chicken, but some polypore like Fomitopsis or other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'rum, those photos are all a bit too small to tell anything but the second photo could possibly be a Climacodon species and the last photo is not a chicken, but some polypore like Fomitopsis or other.

Click on 'em. The site reduced the sizes but they are thumbs of sorts. They are clickable and will enlarge to almost the 600 pixels that I sized them to before posting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ladyfish, do the fall mushrooms fruit during the winter in Florida? We will be going home (north and central Florida) in late November-December. If I miss Hericium up here this year, it would be so nice to think I might find one down there.

I have not found Hericium in FL. I have found chicken of the woods here though since we have tons of oaks. Also Lactarius indigo. It will start to dry out once hurricane season is over, so no on mushrooms in the winter. Mushrooms come with rain, so no rain = no mushrooms. Where in central FL are you? I'm in Sarasota.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Click on 'em. The site reduced the sizes but they are thumbs of sorts. They are clickable and will enlarge to almost the 600 pixels that I sized them to before posting.

I did, but still not large enough to know for sure. That first one almost looks like a hen growing out of that hole!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.