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Post by stevil on Jan 13, 2011 3:17:20 GMT -5
The mention of David Arora in your link reminded me of the Special Mushroom Issue of the Journal of the Society of Economic Botany which came out in 2008. Essential reading for anyone interested in the ethnobotany of fungi - lots of fascinating articles (including on Matsutake). Looks like it's downloadable here: www.gigabook.org/viewnews-137568.html |
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Post by steev on Mar 30, 2011 22:43:35 GMT -5
Had Coprinus comatus in dinner tonight; expect to find two species of Agaricus any week now on the farm, as well as a nice flush of Clitocybe nuda in my leaf-mulch mushroom patch.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 31, 2011 4:32:13 GMT -5
Boy do I ever wish I understood what you have just said. We have some glorious mushrooms around here, but I'm completely ignorant with regard to what is and is not edible. I really want to try morel at the very least!
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Post by ottawagardener on Mar 31, 2011 8:39:58 GMT -5
I have only seen some polypores popping out of the snow. Oh and some 'witch's butter.'
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Post by heidihi on Mar 31, 2011 10:22:08 GMT -5
as soon as the rain, sink holes, mud slides, avalanches, flooding and other hazzards of spring let up it is off to the pine forrest east of the mountains for our first spring hunt! I just play it by ear ..as soon as we can we head out timing in the hunt is everything I think
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Post by steev on Mar 31, 2011 13:45:34 GMT -5
Sorry; Stevil's specificity rubbed off on me. In truth, I prefer common names for their folkway flavor, but I understand the need to be specific as regards something as potentially edgy as fungi. Whenever one isn't certain of the mushroom at hand, caution is the rule. In my area, there are ~6 thoroughly safe species and ~6 deadly ones; everything else is inedible, not worth eating, or liable to cause distress. The key to mushrooms is their proteins, which can be quite exotic and lead to allergic reactions in many people. I don't know of any food value in witch's butter, but it's pretty and pleasant as a whistle-wetter on a hike.
Peziza (brown cup fungus) is often found in quantity on a fresh horse-poo pile. It's good sauteed in butter, buttered mushroom noodles is what it's like.
Marasmius oreades (lawn fairy ring fungus) is good in gravies and such.
Then there's chicken-of-the-woods and Lepiota rachodes! I'm a fun guy.
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Post by wildseed57 on Mar 31, 2011 16:04:38 GMT -5
Before I became disabled, my free time between working six days a week, spending time with the family, fishing, hunting and searching for Morels in the spring along with Beefsteak mushrooms, when summer rolled around I would hit the forest for Chanterelle and Black trumpets and in early fall there was deer antlers along with hen of the wood and chicken mushrooms . I would order and grow my own as there are several really tasty mushrooms out there that can be grown in your garden and your compost pile. King Stropharia and Oyster mushrooms are just two out of twenty or more that you can grow easily. My problem of not growing them is the fact that my sister is very allergic to fungus spores and will balloon up and turn purple and that's if she just gets some spores in her lungs. I have never had that problem and would gladly get down on my knees just to pick a few white morels. I dream of the day when they have a break through and we will be able to grow all the black and white truffles that we want. Paul Stamets has several really good- books on mushrooms, I have one book he wrote on Growing Gourmet and medicinal mushrooms is the book to read it you want to learn about growing almost any mushroom you might like. I also carry a on the spot field guide to North American mushrooms. One thing that you have to learn when wild picking is that many tasty edible mushroom often have very poisonous lookalikes in the same family, years ago a friend of mine nearly died by picking a poisonous mushroom that was growing besides a edible type. When your not sure let them be.
George W.
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Post by heidihi on Apr 1, 2011 10:01:33 GMT -5
I want to try to shoot spores into logs with arrows! I have heard you can cultivate mushrooms like shitake ..Kiings and Oysters by just shooting a bow and arrow...
how much more fun can gardening get?
I have to try this someday I read about it but have never talked to anyone who has tried it
has anyone?
I am thinking local oyster mushrooms in my woodland garden to start...it is perfect and oysters grow right near by
I just have to figure out how to collect and load the arrows
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Post by extremegardener on Apr 1, 2011 11:15:29 GMT -5
We still have a couple of feet of snow, but what with a lot of freezing and thawing it's hard and you can walk or ski right on top of it without breaking through - perfect for chaga (Inonotus obliquus) hunting. On skis I can cover a lot of ground checking out birch trees, and being elevated a bit is handy for reaching and sawing the higher-up ones. I collected about 15# in the past few days, quite a good haul.
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Post by steev on Apr 1, 2011 12:14:02 GMT -5
Archery mushroom planting? I think I'd just drill holes in my logs and stuff in some mature mushroom, maybe sealing with a bit of mud so they don't dry out too fast.
Or maybe load some shotgun shells with half and half, mushroom and shot. Just be careful; don't want anyone to get a bad case of shiitake-butt.
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Post by steev on Apr 1, 2011 20:49:07 GMT -5
Walking through the mini-garden by my digs today, I saw a very nice flush of some non-culinary mushroom I've never bothered to identify. Anyway, it was all over, very good. So I expect to start seeing the occasional morel popping up there, never enough to do anything with, but they dry and reconstitute quite well, so eventually one has a usable quantity. At times I'm glad so many people don't forage or hunt mushrooms; selfish of me, I know.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 2, 2011 7:47:16 GMT -5
Steev, how much of an expert are you with fungus? We have some really interesting things that come up, more in the early fall than in the spring and I would love to know what is and is not edible. I really know nothing about mushrooms. I've tried and failed to find locals who are knowledgeable. Even amongst the "educated" crowd, which is very sad in my opinion.
Don't suppose you could set me on a starting path to figuring out if I have morels in my area? We have a wooded creek on one side of our property. It's a hard/coniferous mix. A few dogwood, lots of gum, sassafrass, magnolias, oak, poplars, and birch (I think they are birch). The pines are mostly lob lolly.
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Post by steev on Apr 2, 2011 11:10:26 GMT -5
I would reject any claim that I am expert on mushrooms; if only because even some which are quite safe in one area can be questionable in another. As I've mentioned, I know ~6 good and ~6 Bad! in my locality, and I don't mess at all with the myriad others. When starting to learn about mushrooms, I strongly urge you to seek out at least two field guides so you may get two opinions, and be cautious. If you have the chance, attend local fungus fairs, so you can see a wide variety, with positive identification, and maybe expert advice. I say that because I once went to one such and asked an Expert about the occurance of morels in the East Bay; he informed me in heated certainty that morels don't grow at elevations below 3000'! Well, I've only found them between 30' and 300', never in quantity, I admit. He may have thought I said "moyel", but I've found those below 3000' also.
Good hunting, be careful, and never grab anything black with a white stripe down it's back.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 2, 2011 20:29:31 GMT -5
LOL Don't worry! We have a lot more water mocs and cotton mouths around here than skunks. In fact, I haven't smelled a single skunk since leaving the Bay Area! Rather odd now that I'm forced to think about it. We do have red and gray fox though.
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Post by seedywen on Apr 3, 2011 18:02:45 GMT -5
Anyone on this thread, actively growing Shitake or Oyster mushrooms?
Asking because I'm going to attend a short workshop and get some spores next weekend. Wondering if someone's got some helpful tips for beginners, based on their experiences over the years.
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