Any Mushroom Pickers?

Davydd--
What's chances of posting the recipe for the spinach bacon salad?  It does not appear to be just hot bacon dressing, as the spinach looks wilted or cooked.

We've got to bring a dish for a block party this weekend, and don't know what to make.  That looks pretty good.

Davydd, Wow that really looks good.  We have had one of the rainest summers I can remember this year.  The mushrooms should be early and plentiful.

mar52, Once you talk to the right people, picking is easy.  You also let them try them first

I wish I knew the species of mushrooms.  We have a lot of the in east TN especially on the north side of the hills but  I do not know one from the other and therefore I am afaid to harvest.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I had some puffballs coming up in the back yard last week (mostly the size of golfballs or smaller) for the first time in a long time.

However, I forgot to leave a note for the lawn service, and they came while I was out.  I no longer have any.

Sundancer7


I wish I knew the species of mushrooms.  We have a lot of the in east TN especially on the north side of the hills but  I do not know one from the other and therefore I am afaid to harvest.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

My next door neighbor is an expert on mushrooms - she has books with photos etc that describe virtually every mushroom in our area so she knows which are safe and which are not.

If you really wish to know which are pickable and edible and good go online or to the library and find some books and do the research and then pick and eat to your heart's content - or not.

If you make a deadly mistake though there is that consideration also.

But I have been getting mushrooms from her for five years now and I am still fine and have never had any problems with the mushrooms she picks and gives us every so often.  There are some mushrooms that are similar in nature to the layman so you just have to know what to pick or not pick and if you have a question about certain ones just leave them be.

Okay all of you mushroom pickers.  These have been growing under the bushes in my condo planter for a couple of weeks.  They're smaller than a tennis ball, but not by much.

No, I won't touch them!  

Any ideas what these things are?

I suggest getting a mushroom book  from the library.

looks like its trippin time.

Hey Marlene, One word...NASTY!  But then again, truffles are butt ugly also.

...LOL...You guys have really taken to make me very homesick for my old stomping grounds. Being originally from Wisconsin, I used to take to the woods each spring and fall to partake in the bounties offered by mother nature. In the spring it was the morels and fiddleheads and in the fall it was the "Pa-pinkies" or Armillaria mellea that we used to call honey mushrooms, the sheephead mushrooms that we used to call the cauliflower mushroom, and a puffball is a puffball everywhere I guess...LOL...Nothing gives flavor like a wild mushroom and I miss all the wonderful dishes I used to make with those wild beauties compared to what's available in the stores around here. I live in Florida now and I have not heard of anyone doing much mushroom foraging down here at all since I got here in 2000. If anyone knows anything about mushrooms in Florida, please give me a shout...Great thread...

I bet if you googled the subject you would hit a bonanza of info.

...I've googled for info on Florida mushroom hunting for years NYPizzaNut...all with the same result...Nothing...By all appearances, unless you are a certified mycological scientist, there is no foraging being done by most people in the Sunshine state...I'll probably just have to be satisfied with the memories of midwest mushrooming......It may be that the lack of true "seasons" down here plays an important role in the existance, or non-existance,  of a viable edible mushroom crop...

darryls


...I've googled for info on Florida mushroom hunting for years NYPizzaNut...all with the same result...Nothing...By all appearances, unless you are a certified mycological scientist, there is no foraging being done by most people in the Sunshine state...I'll probably just have to be satisfied with the memories of midwest mushrooming......It may be that the lack of true "seasons" down here plays an important role in the existance, or non-existance,  of a viable edible mushroom crop...

darryls, The only mushrooms I know of in Florida grow in the cow pastures and must be picked at sunrise.  I think they were called Magic Mushrooms
 
I think you need a mushroom picking vacation up north.  It's going to be a banner year.

...joerogo you may be right about the vacation...LOL...I have spoken to a few professors from the Univerity of South Florida about those "Magic Mushrooms" and have been told that they do contain a toxin similar to the amanita group, although not at the levels of that group. If you recall, the amanita muscara




It is a poisonous as well as a beautiful mushroom, that has been known to be eaten by numbers of people in Europe without dire consequeces. They say boiling well can remove most of the toxin to make them quite edible. I just don't feel the need to tempt fate myself with either them or the "Magic Mushroom"...LOL...

darryls


...I've googled for info on Florida mushroom hunting for years NYPizzaNut...all with the same result...Nothing...By all appearances, unless you are a certified mycological scientist, there is no foraging being done by most people in the Sunshine state...I'll probably just have to be satisfied with the memories of midwest mushrooming......It may be that the lack of true "seasons" down here plays an important role in the existance, or non-existance,  of a viable edible mushroom crop...

That is a dirty rotten shame!

Around here we have been inundated with mushrooms this year due apparently to the climate changes and rain.  It is unbelievable.

...Consider yourself very fortunate NY...Sometimes folks like me, who leave the "home" grounds , forget just how good we had it until it's gone...Pick 'em and enjoy 'em my friend......Seeing some of the pictures posted here in the forums has really gotten the nostalgia motor running for me...

The season is starting early as predicted.  I picked my first batch of Papinkies yesterday.
 


 
They were delicous in red sauce over polenta(traditional first meal).

I'm a first-time mushroom picker. Planning to go out for the first time tomorrow (9/30/09) for sheepsheads. Really most people around me hunt for morels and sheepsheads and those are the two I know, so that's what I'm sticking to. I know to look near old red oaks, does anybody have any other advice for an amateur? I don't want to ask my neighbors as they are hunters and may not want to give me the whole scoop for fear of me finding their spots.

Around these parts folks share their knowledge with their neighbors - the pickings are good here - too many to pick this year - the rainy weather has made mushrooms shoot up everywhere!!!!!!!

adamguy85


I'm a first-time mushroom picker. Planning to go out for the first time tomorrow (9/30/09) for sheepsheads. Really most people around me hunt for morels and sheepsheads and those are the two I know, so that's what I'm sticking to. I know to look near old red oaks, does anybody have any other advice for an amateur? I don't want to ask my neighbors as they are hunters and may not want to give me the whole scoop for fear of me finding their spots.

 
Sheepsheads grow at the base of very old red oak trees(pointy leaves).  Do not pull them.  If you cut them with a knife, they will grow back every year in the same spot.  It is a little early for sheepsheads in my area.  Good Luck.

NYPIzzaNut


Around these parts folks share their knowledge with their neighbors - the pickings are good here - too many to pick this year - the rainy weather has made mushrooms shoot up everywhere!!!!!!!

 
Competition is fierce in my area.  Most people take their secret spots to the grave

***

NYPIzzaNut

joerogo

NYPIzzaNut


Around these parts folks share their knowledge with their neighbors - the pickings are good here - too many to pick this year - the rainy weather has made mushrooms shoot up everywhere!!!!!!!

Are you in an Amish area?

Competition is fierce in my area.  Most people take their secret spots to the grave

Is that not an Amish area?

It was a great day in the woods this morning. 
 
I snagged a chicken mushroom.  They are found on dead red oak stumps, florescent orange on top and florescent yellow on the bottom.  When you boil them, they smell like chicken soup.  Hence the name.  Here is a photo of the top, along with some pa-pinkies.
 

 
Here is a blurry photo of the bottom.
 

 
This should be an easy one for anybody to pick.  You can't mess up with colors like that.

If you look back in this thread you will see I harvest puffball mushrooms in the late summer and fall. In the spring I have to be on the lookout for morels in my wooded lot. What a bounty this year! In less than 5 minutes I harvested 18 morels weighing in at a pound and a half. Now I have to run to the store for some butter.



After I filled a paper lunch bag sack I just stopped looking.

Hey Davydd, That's some good pickin.  I never had a morel.  No many in my neck of the woods. 

Wow -- do those morels look delectable!
 
I am envious.  In my urban yard, I'm lucky to get toadstools.

Morels were very late this year in Ohio because of dry weather. So far it's been a small crop. I don't eat them -- I'm allergic to mushrooms -- but I would hunt morels every year to make them for my wife and kids. Just the other day I finally found some in one area where I used to pick them, almost a month late.

I checked out morels at my local grocery when I went up to get the butter. A dried pack of morels was selling for $20/oz. No fresh were in the store. Fresh mushrooms according to Zataar were 5 morels for $20 at her grocery. My 18 morels would retail for about $72. I'll fry some of these in butter tomorrow and probably freeze the rest. I'd do it tonight but I am scheduled for a cholesterol test tomorrow morning and trying to see how low I can get it. Butter might upset that number even though I have to fast 12 hours before.

in oregon during the season we would have 20-30 diff shroom in our restraunt .the chicken  of the wood shroom  the vegies would say i was trying to feed them  meat . then they would ask what is demi glace is as you had to ask for vegie shroom medley .we allways sauted our mush medley gratinee with demi [veal stock reduction] we always would laugh at ther holy than thou attitude and have no idea even thou it said it on the menu
to ask for vegi dishies. i miss the fungi. here in TN we get large puff balls all summer but that is it.
 
the minister of mycology in exile
bill
i will drive days to help cook your shrooms