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Hi fellow pickers!


gwbasley

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No I don't mean guitar, even though I'm a "retired" musician. I moved to the Tampa Bay area of Florida 10 years ago, down from upstate New York. Every fall, up north, was spent with an eye out for my favorite tablefare...Giant Tree Oysters. I still have a picture of a 35 pounder that I got off a stump. Many a hunting trip or hike in the woods was cut short due to the discovery of a patch of Honeys. I always carried a few large plastic bags in preparation for such events. Well, the other day I was making a big pot of chili and while cutting up some store-bought portabellas, I remembered how much better tasting those Oysters were. When I first started picking, back in the 70's, an old Italian man showed me where to go and how to spot the "good" ones. Through the years, I learned to pick a few more choice edibles but never until I did so with someone who knew. Here in Florida I'm lost...I wouldn't know where to start looking. The soil is sand and the trees don't shed their leaves like up north, so I'm hoping to find some help and get back into it!

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gw, it's a different world down here. I'm in Sarasota, just south of you and I still have my own difficulties so I take little trips up north in the spring and fall just to forage. Down here you can find chanterelles, chicken of the woods and in the right woods probably oysters although I haven't found any. We have honies (Armillarea tabescens) I have them growing in my yard. I think things get better the farther north you go...Gainesville has more edibles and Tallahasee even more. There is little written on Florida mushrooms and what there is, is not very good. So, all you can do is go out and look. Now is the time as we are having cooler nights and the leaves are starting to turn and fall right now. With all the tons and tons of oaks we have, that would be a good place to start. There is a lot of Ganoderma lucidum down here. Good luck with it!

Mary

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Thank you for that information...it is certainly a start. I'm in the New Port Richey area, on the northern side of the Tampa Bay area, but not really much different from Sarasota, climate wise. Whenever I went out after mushrooms I always referred to it as "catching mushrooms", mainly because the northern Honeys ( Armillariella mellea, kissing cousin to the A. tabescens) could change from prime edibles to soggy remains overnight so consequently, I would try to check my spots often with an eye on the weather and "catch" them before they turned. My other favorite, the Oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) was far more forgiving and resiliant. Most of my Oyster trees were ones that I discovered while hunting Honeys and always on or around oaks, so Gainsville makes sense...thanks.

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