Any Mushroom Pickers?

The wild mushrooms are sprouting. Any other mushroom pickers out there? What are your favorites?

Here is a shot of some mushrooms picked by my house. The Polish immigrants name them "Pa-Pinkies" They grow on dead red oak stumps and root systems.

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I love mushrooms but not familiar enough to pick wild mushrooms other than Shaggy Manes or Puff Balls. I once got into a patch of Shaggy manes in a bushy area and picked a couple of 6 quart baskets full.They do not keep for any length of time.

Those Pinkies look like what are called Pine Mushrooms. Very hard to find and expensive to buy. Orientals love them.

Spring is the time for a favorite...Morrels. Another hard to find but delicious.

I had no idea there were edible mushrooms in the fall. We always get ours in the spring (morels, white morels, cappers, etc.). Puff balls, definitely, but then we get them all summer.

In my area fall is the best time for mushrooms. Besides Pa-pinkies, I pick Sheeps Head and Chicken Mushrooms.

The Sheeps Head mushroom basically looks like a sheeps head. They grow at the base of very old red oak trees. Usual size is about 15-20 pounds.

The Chicken Mushroom is florescent orange on top and florescent yellow on the bottom. They grow in layers on dead red oak stumps. They smell like chicken soup when you boil them, hence the name.

I will post pics if I get lucky enough to find more. Competition is fierce right now. I was in Florida when my Pa-pinkies sprouted and someone raided my patch.

If picked correctly the pa-pinkies and and sheeps head mushrooms will come back every year in the same spot. Because they are not grown in pristine conditions, they must be boiled.

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Then I package them and freeze the for year long use.

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I love puffballs but haven't seen any in years.

I don't eat them, but I used to hunt, pick and fix morels for the family.

Found lot's of Morel this spring / summer in western Illinois ( 100 West of Chicag) near Oregon Illinios in a State park. More then we ever found before. We had a grocery bag full one time. Boy they were good eating!

Morels!! Tons of them in Michigan (May is Morel Month in Michigan). We also have them in Alaska. I have picked chantrelles, cepes, lobster mushrooms and hen-of-the-woods. Morels and chantrelles are my favorites.

Love mushrooms but am not versed enough in what to pick...and since I value my health,I let those experts i know do the picking...had a friend whose father picked a variety and fried them up with some butter and garlic(sometimes a red sauce) and they were delicious...and I survived,so I guess he knew what he was doing!

When i was still living in Denevr we would hunt mushrooms in the spring and fall. The fall varieties are a little less tho. Sept was great for monster puff balls. We would find them as big as your head. Floured and fried like a steak they were awesome.
Befor i got sick we picked fresh morrells every year. I remember coming home with 5lbs or more at a time. At the prices they charge in gourmet shops, I cant afford to buy them!
Its definitely worth the effort to learn how to pick them. You can find some real treasures.
britt

Great day in the woods today. One of the best prizes in the woods is when you find an old dead stump. The mushrooms you find around it are called "Stumpy's". Not only for where you found them but also because they are short, fat and meaty.

These are actually a little young to pick. I am throwing some leaves over them to hide them, and I will be back on Saturday to pick them. Unless of course someone else finds them first.

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Tonight I am enjoying the spoils of the woods. Polenta, with a sauce made from mushrooms, sausage and San Marzano tomatoes. And of course, a good bottle of vino.

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Gourmet food, free from Mother Nature![/img][/img][/img]

I wish I knew mushrooms species enough with confidence to pick. I do not and I am afraid.

I still buy from grocery store but muy choices are limited. There is a new mushroom store on Central in Knoxville that specilizes in mushrooms but I have not been there.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Sheeps/Rams Head mushrooms are fairly easy to identify. They grow at the base of old, old, live red oak trees. And they sort of look like a sheeps head. I don't know if they are a regional item so good luck in Tn. Sundancer.

A friend of mine called me today because he found a tree with seven sheeps heads around it. They were about 7-10 pounds each.

He gave me this beauty, but wouldn't tell me where the tree was. I guess we are not that good of friends.

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Rookiecook, Post the photos and we'll take a look at them. Also describe where you found them. Live tree, dead tree, oak, etc.

I am nowhere near an expert on the subject. I just know what I was taught from some very smart "Old Timers" [/img]

I know I'm boring the heck out of everyone with this thread.(Based on Response). But I really love pickin mushrooms. It's my favorite sport.

I started a job in Malvern, PA. today. The property was beautiful, loads of 100 plus year old trees. The first thing I did was walk the property looking for mushrooms. It paid off, I found an oak tree with five sheep's head mushrooms.

Here is a shot of one side of the massive tree.

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I will pick these two beauty's tomorrow before I head home. The other three will be harvested by foreman who is also a mushroom picker/lover.[/img]

We usually have two or three puffball mushrooms in our front woods. This year just before we left on our trip I harvested this one and it yielded about 1-1/2 pounds and enough for a good size pot of mushroom soup.

Davydd, I am not well versed on puffballs. I believe I have seen them in the woods, though much smaller than the one pictured.

Do you know what their growing conditions are and how to make a positive ID?

They are just a ball and there are no gills and such The meat is consistent throughout the whole ball. The one I showed is a comparatively small puffball. Some of mine get bigger than a basketball. In Minnesota they start to show up about mid September in a deciduous tree heavily wooded lot.

Here are some from past years...

2006


2007




Mushroom Soup

Are puffballs edible? Mushrooms sorta scare me.



Thanks

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

Are puffballs edible? Mushrooms sorta scare me.



Thanks

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I just make the soup to look at it. OK, OK, jokes aside, the beer is the antidote.

Wow Davydd, I take it back. I never saw anything like this. Great shots.

Paul, you don't know what you are missing. Wild mushrooms are way more flavorful than cultivated varieties. As a comparison, porcini mushrooms cannot be cultivated. They are all harvested in the wild, which explains the great, distinctive flavor.

Tonights side dish. Sheeps/Rams Head mushroom, with a light flour batter. Heaven!

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Oh, and a nice bottle of vino.[/img]

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

I wish I knew mushrooms species enough with confidence to pick. I do not and I am afraid.

I still buy from grocery store but muy choices are limited. There is a new mushroom store on Central in Knoxville that specilizes in mushrooms but I have not been there.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

You are a wise man who knows that discretion is the better part of valor.

I really enjoyed the wild mushrooms my grandfather picked for "ma grandmere" (first generation French) to prepare in wonderful Gallic ways. He knew what he was doing; I don't.

In fact, when the marriage with my starter wife was going sour she (a botanist) threatened to put "amanitas (Amanita Verna) in my soup". I mentioned this over drinks with a professor-colleague and her pathologist husband and his face paled as he advised me to "get out NOW". Turns out that such a poisoning would (then, ca. 1975) have been an almost perfect murder as the "evidence" is excreted several weeks before the excruciating death. I took his advice and got the house and the kids (for "other stuff", not the threat).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Poisonous_mushrooms

If mushrooms are left to turn to spores, does that mean a bigger harvest the next year?

I have come across huge puffballs, that when kicked send out a puff of brown smoke. I assume, that is the spores.

quote:

Originally posted by DougS

If mushrooms are left to turn to spores, does that mean a bigger harvest the next year?

I have come across huge puffballs, that when kicked send out a puff of brown smoke. I assume, that is the spores.

Dougs, Be careful buddy. They are what we call "smokers". And if you and the spores have a bad reaction, you could end up on steriods for the rest of your life. No kidding.

If you see a smoker in your yard, DO NOT run it over with the mower. Take a minute and spray it with the hose from afar.

I am in the same boat, I really love Mushrooms, but I do not have the knowledge to pick the right ones. I also dont want my last words to be I know what a poison mushroom looks like Ughhhhhh then fall on floor

quote:

Originally posted by leethebard

Love mushrooms but am not versed enough in what to pick...and since I value my health,I let those experts i know do the picking...had a friend whose father picked a variety and fried them up with some butter and garlic(sometimes a red sauce) and they were delicious...and I survived,so I guess he knew what he was doing!

joerogo- Thanks for that advice about the spores. I never knew and have kicked a few.
I never made it out puffball hunting this year, seems the time just flew by, and now we are into frosty nights.

quote:

Originally posted by joerogo

quote:

Originally posted by DougS

If mushrooms are left to turn to spores, does that mean a bigger harvest the next year?

I have come across huge puffballs, that when kicked send out a puff of brown smoke. I assume, that is the spores.

Dougs, Be careful buddy. They are what we call "smokers". And if you and the spores have a bad reaction, you could end up on steriods for the rest of your life. No kidding.

If you see a smoker in your yard, DO NOT run it over with the mower. Take a minute and spray it with the hose from afar.

As a kid, I used to kick them to watch them puff. As an adult, it only made sense that this might not be such a good idea.

The CDC has something to say about inhaling the spores, scary!

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00032029.htm

The puffball mushrooms came early this year. We usually get them about mid September. A recent 4 inch rainfall and cold summer may have had something to do with it. So once again I found large puffballs in our woods. One was about the size of a soccer ball, one was the size of a basketball and one was the size of a large beach ball. This is the beach ball size mushroom.



I decided to leave that one and the smallest one in the woods. I picked the basketball size mushroom right at perfection. The skin was white and mostly unblemished and it was firm. This is the basketball size mushroom in my refrigerator. It weighed in at 4.5 pounds. For comparison in scale those beer cans are the taller 16 oz. pint size, not your normal 12 oz. size.



I took this mushroom and skinned it with a bread knife to cut away the parts exposed to bugs and dirt. That is a lot easier than trying to clean it. The remainder was still well over 3 pounds. I sliced it in half and put half away. With about a 1-1/2 lb slice I decided to make mushroom soup so I cubed it into chunks.

My recipe is thus:

Cream of Mushroom Soup - 2009 Puffball

1-1/2 lbs sliced, chopped and cubed puffball mushroom
1-1/2 (12 tbs) sticks of salted butter
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 cups (32 oz) chicken broth
1 cup half and half
2 tbs spoons sherry
1/4 tps nutmeg
1/4 tps ground black pepper

Saute mushrooms and onion in butter in a large pot. Mushrooms will fill pot but saute down to about 1/4. Then add flour and chicken broth. Bring to boil one minute and then let simmer for 20 minutes. Add half and half, sherry, nutmeg and ground pepper. Heat to serve. Served with garlic toast and Nancy's spinach/bacon salad.

Here are the cubed mushrooms freshly put in the pot.


In less than 15 minutes they saute down to this.


After all the ingredients are added this is the final soup.


And now ready to serve with garlic toast and my wife's fresh made spinach/bacon salad. Optionally garlic croutons could be added to the soup.



I usually make mushroom soup every year with our puffballs. The flavor is subtle, rich and totally unlike any mushroom soup you can make with most mushrooms available in a supermarket. Having just seen the move Julie & Julia I upped the amount of butter in the recipe a half stick. You can't go wrong with butter.

Wabbit


I am in the same boat, I really love Mushrooms, but I do not have the knowledge to pick the right ones. I also dont want my last words to be I know what a poison mushroom looks like Ughhhhhh then fall on floor

[id="quote"]quote: [id="quote"]Originally posted by leethebard

Love mushrooms but am not versed enough in what to pick...and since I value my health,I let those experts i know do the picking...had a friend whose father picked a variety and fried them up with some butter and garlic(sometimes a red sauce) and they were delicious...and I survived,so I guess he knew what he was doing!

[id="quote"]

We live in a densely wooded area and our next door neighbor is an expert on picking mushrooms and showers us with them - especially during this past rainy season -  I love to make mushroom salad with them (sautee mushrooms and garlic and cool and add mayo)  and add them to omelets and stews and burgers etc.

Incredible!  I love all of the pictures.  Doesn't matter though because there's no way in well I'd never pick any to eat.

I won't even touch them.

I just know that it would be an awful, painful death.

I'm in awe of those that do and jealous of all of those varieties.

Thank you for this thread!

I can't believe I missed this thread the first time around. I loved the pictures and info. Thanks for posting and resurrecting it!

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