Mushrooms in the Mid-Atlantic

[brendan]

In Maryland right now, there are more mushrooms popping up than I have seen in three years of the hobby. Almost like they are making up for last year, which was abysmal in my area. Lots of rain and cool temps right now. As a relative newbie, I'm always interested in long term trends. Would other east coast people say they think this is a big year or am I overestimating/experiencing a very localized effect? In the past two weeks I have harvested several Sparrasis Crispa, pounds of boletes and cinnabar chanterelles, green brittle gills, black trumpets, puffballs, smooth chanterelles, beefsteak polypore, and countless more that I don't know well enough to eat yet/am not sure I ever will like american caesar. In previous years I had to drive a few hours west to have good hunting, and I have never seen black trumpets or cinnabar chanterelles in my area before. 

I've also noticed Dave has been rather quiet lately, which is an important seasonal key for when to go hunting in this region haha. 

Would be very interested to know what some of the old hands think of as their best and worst years. 

[svs]

2018 was good in New Jersey (with the exception of late fall mushrooms), 2019 was not so good. Not so clear memories for early years, getting old myself.

[Jeff Falcone]

Jealous. In Maine it's been a terrible summer. No rain and lots of heat = no mushrooms. 

 

I was in Massachusetts in 2018 and it my first year of foraging. Like NJ, Mass had a ton of mushrooms and even as a total novice I did great. Last year was slow by comparison, but better than this year. Like most things about 2020, mushroom hunting in Maine is disappointing

[brendan]

Interesting, 2018 was my first year as well. That is, I got interested in the hobby right at the close of the fall season in 2017. I remember 2018 as really good, and last year as really bad, I figure I still need a few more years under my belt to really have a framework though. 

[MycoPhilly]

only my 2nd year hunting but since the remnants of the hurricane blew through the shroomin has been boomin. my first black trumpets (several patches), tons of bicolors, lots of the cinnabars and subglabripes. burnt oranges and old mans. shoulda bought that dehydrator.

[Kevin Hoover]

Where I’m at in central PA, it’s extremely dry and has been for some time. Not much  coming up. Only thing I’ve found lately was a northern tooth. If we had rain, we’d have milkies all over. Hope it turns around soon. 

[brendan]

Wow that's so close to me too, only a couple hours away. Must be just far enough that you are missing some of the coastal weather pattern or something. You may have better luck heading east or south for an excursion.

[Kevin Hoover]

Yeah, the last tropical storm we caught 10 minutes of light rain from the outermost band. I was down in the Lancaster area today on one of the farms, and couldn’t believe how green everything  was.

[Kevin Hoover]

Finally getting rain. Very light rain all day yesterday and now an extensive thunderstorm! Maybe the chanterelles and milkies will show up after all!  Will be interesting to see if my meadow mushrooms reappear. 

[JOHNY]

We had a very dry summer. Abysmal mushroom picking. One single Morel in May. No Oysters in June. Only a few Chanterelles in July.

Then 10 days ago we had three inches of rain.

Today, with no effort I picked nine pounds of Boletes and half of those were Porcini.

One single heavy rain is all it took to recover the season. 

[Kevin Hoover]

We got an inch, and I’ll gladly take that. I’ll give it about three days, and start hunting. Mushroom club meeting on Saturday.

[Carson Barnes]

2013, 2018 and this year.  Here on the piedmont in Georgia we usually stop getting rain in mid to late July for six weeks, which ends the season; in those and this year, the rain kept going, seven inches yesterday.  I checked the black trumpet patches last week, nothing, and on Monday picked about four pounds, another patch will be ready later today or tomorrow.  Red chanterelles also need a lot of water to come up.  The boletes have gone nuts, I'm harvesting at least five different ones, and seeing some I've never seen before (a huge, nearly black capped one yesterday that keyed out not really edible, touched to the tongue it was slowly bitter); we dehydrate the boletes and the trumpets.  We got some good Swedish pickling recipes for chanterelles, both smooth and cibarius (and it seems like some are intergrades), and put up fifteen quarts; rinse and they're good in salads or pasta sauces, just don't use lemon or vinegar, they'll tart it up from pickling.  It makes them keep color, size, and form much better than when cooked and canned.

[simonb]

Similar here in the Ottawa Valley; a few weeks ago almost nothing after a long dry summer.  Then the rains came, now you can barely walk down the paths without stepping on them!

 

[Kevin Hoover]

Well, the meadow mushrooms are now up all over my lower pasture! That answers my question. 

[troutddicted]

Im in Simons boat, mushy madness for teo weeks straight, I was up at the cabin in the Madawaska Valley two weeks ago when it began, its been bucket loads ever since... dry summers and the first few cool nights coupled with rain... happy hunting all!

[Kevin Hoover]

When I say all over, I mean it. I’ve picked 15 larger ones so far and counted 148 smaller ones that I’m letting go and hoping the horses don’t step on!