Fun gal parties in the woods (no smut)

[cabby]

Now that it’s cooler I decided to see how the shrooms are doing. Can’t tell you what most of these are… I identified dozens last autumn but only bothered remembering the most prolific edibles and prettiest amanitas. Didn’t find any of the things I was looking for today, but based on what I did see I should be overwhelmed with shrimp of the woods and blewits within 2 weeks.

lots of red and orange right now! We have so many different russula and bolete that I am not bothering to look for edible ones.





First flush of yellow fly agaric is wrapping up. Those are one of my favorites! For looking at, of course. No destroying angels yet, sadly.


some other pretty shroomies:









guessing this is some kind of bolete mold. Not thrilled that I found it in the easiest to access shrimp of the woods patch! I always cut them open to double check anyway, but don’t want suspicious things ending up in my basket. Had been planning to ask my husband and maybe sister to help with the harvest this year, but now thinking it’s risky to have complete amateurs picking that area, especially since I found an amanita nearby today (none near there last year). The shrimps are so abundant that I will need to be harvesting daily to keep track of good vs old!




not a mushroom but I found my first ghost pipe of the year! This is a plant that parasitizes fungi. Love seeing these!

[victor1941]

Great pictures!

[jasoninsd]

Those look awesome!! 


I think Alice would approve! 

[cabby]

Aug 29, 2024 16:24:05 GMT -5 jasoninsd said:

Those look awesome!! 


I think Alice would approve! 

Alice in wonderland would make a lot more sense if I ate the fly agaric, which I am not dumb enough to do 😁

[jasoninsd]

Aug 29, 2024 16:45:53 GMT -5 cabby said:

Aug 29, 2024 16:24:05 GMT -5 jasoninsd said:

Those look awesome!! 


I think Alice would approve! 

Alice in wonderland would make a lot more sense if I ate the fly agaric, which I am not dumb enough to do 😁

[amygdule]

Shrooming in the Woods.

[Rockoonz]

Sept 6, 2024 15:17:46 GMT -5 amygdule said:

Shrooming in the Woods.

Yeah, I have a story about those...
If I remember it right...

[amygdule]

I remember eating a handful when I was fifteen.
I'm still tripping 45 years later...

[tribeunited]

Pretty and colorful! My favorite fun guy is the orange one!! I've never seen mushrooms in any other color than the ones in the store - brown. I like these better - but I still wouldn't eat one.

[Pat]

Pretty, though I wouldn’t touch them since I know nothing about them
I trust the mushrooms in the grocery store.

[cabby]

It’s shrimp of the woods time! First one I noticed is already too old, but looks like there’s a lot of good ones in the patch still. 

[cabby]

Looks like my little basket only holds about 1# worth of mushrooms, so will need a bigger container tomorrow! Still plenty left in that patch and haven’t even checked the other (larger) patch back in the forest yet. Have a lot of mushroom harvesting to do in the coming days! Will have to be keeping an eye out for the blewits, too.

sadly, about 3/5ths of the shrimp of the woods have been too old, so this first round of harvest is a pain in the bum. Been making a point of stomping down all of the old ones I find so I won’t try harvesting them again tomorrow.

[liveoak]

How are you cooking them - something good ?

Patty

[cabby]

Sept 24, 2024 6:27:41 GMT -5 liveoak said:

How are you cooking them - something good ?

Patty

That’s a good question! Last year I already had an overwhelming amount before I knew that they are edible (and checked for palatable) so I just dehydrated the majority of them. Thinking today I will fry them with starch and make a sweet and sour dish since I seem to have a bottle of sauce. Can’t tell you why I have that sauce since we typically don’t like bottled sweet and sour lol, but may as well use it!

Need to decide on other dishes, though, since I can harvest a lot of them! The slightly older ones turn to black sludge in the dehydrator, even if edible still, so will need to come up with a good use for for them that I can make quickly. I think last year I tossed them into a marinara sauce, but the flavor is so mild that I couldn’t taste them.

[cabby]

New plan! I will just make a bunch of duxelles for the freezer this year. Haven’t made that for years so forgot that it was an option 😅

Will try the honey mushrooms as duxelles as well, since that might make them edible for us! Honeys really don’t taste bad but we can’t stomach the sliminess. Haven’t seen any giant puffballs yet but if those pop up this year I will do the same. Yeah, all edible mushrooms will be duxelles for the freezer this year!

[liveoak]

Duxelles (had to look that one up !) sounds ideal.

I was going to suggest a simple sauté with garlic & throw in a little red wine at the end, we love that over hamburgers.

And wouldn't drying concentrate their flavor more.
You might dry some & add them to another mushroom dish for more flavor.

Certainly sounds like you're enjoying yourself-just stay away from the poison ones

Patty

[cabby]

liveoak drying did bring out more flavor for the shrimp of the woods, but since only the very best ones can be dehydrated I end up with a LOT being cut open then can’t dehydrate. And you wouldn’t believe the amounts I can collect! I was being pickier in the past since I was trying to dehydrate but if I collected all edible condition I could easily get 3+ lbs daily! For shrimp of the woods, that is. Honey mushrooms NOT near entolomas is far far far more prolific, 5# daily for a week is possible if I bothered looking for them.

I might still dry some honey mushrooms or other things, but for the shrimps the duxelles will be the simplest answer. If I make that my default method I can just toss any edible mushrooms I find into a pan and not worry too much about the quantity or if it’s slightly past prime. Blewits are one of the ones that I struggle to find soon enough! By the time they are big enough to barely peak through the leaf litter they are already slightly too mature to dehydrate well 😑