Shroomin

I like to look for chanterelles, hen of the woods and chicken of the woods. We look for morels but never find them. My mother is law is great at shroom hunting. With the fires here in the Rutherfordton area last year I am hoping for some morels this spring.
Take this for a grain of salt but if an area has a large wild turkey population you will not find any morels. We had a few spots that produced yearly until the turkey population exploded. I still poke around hoping to find a few but without fail the turkeys have allready torn the areas up. My wife is from MI and next year I hope to get up there during mushroom season.
 
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I have been looking for morels the past two years with no success. I know good and well they grow on the property somewhere. Friend of a friend that is about a mile and a half downstream from me found 3 or 4 in late April/early May. I dunno. Stymied every time so far. We do have plenty of turkeys.
 
I have been looking for morels the past two years with no success. I know good and well they grow on the property somewhere. Friend of a friend that is about a mile and a half downstream from me found 3 or 4 in late April/early May. I dunno. Stymied every time so far. We do have plenty of turkeys.
We have so many damn turkeys the places I used to find morels look like swept from all the turkey scratching. The sad thing is I could care less about hunting them. I shoot a few to eat most years by sitting in a pop up blind. Reminds me of early deer season which I hate with the warm weather and bugs.
 
We have so many damn turkeys the places I used to find morels look like swept from all the turkey scratching. The sad thing is I could care less about hunting them. I shoot a few to eat most years by sitting in a pop up blind. Reminds me of early deer season which I hate with the warm weather and bugs.
I know a guy that will help with your turkey problem!

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Started finding puffball mushrooms kinda heavy about 3 weeks ago. Had some spare time this weekend so the wife and I took a ride around the woods and took some pics.

Yes, the ones we used to stomp on as kids when they were brown to see the cloud of brown dust (spores) puff out.

This is the first one we found. We cut them about a half inch to an inch above the ground.

(More pics coming in subsequent posts, bear with my slow upload for a minute)


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2nd one we found.

My wife likes to poke a little dent in them to see if it springs back out. She says if it doesn't spring back then it is too "soggy" to harvest.

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Another good one. They like bright sunlight, so a lot of times we'll find them in the yard or near the edge of the yard or around the pond, shooting lanes, those kinds of places. You find em in the woods too.


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While we were out looking, my wife found this one. Called it a "russula". She said it was one of the only ones she would eat raw. I am not as confident in identifying those, but I trust her judgement in that regard.

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Food prep. Slice in half long ways for proper id. You should find no sign of "gills" at all.

Peel skin before cooking. One of these pics shows one with the skin peeled. The other two have the skin still on to show variation.

I call the one type "brainy" skin and the brown one I call "dinosaur skin". You'll see variation spread out over a large enough property. But they are both puffballs.

We cut off the spongier part towards the bottom, or what most folks would think of as the stem. It's not really a stem though. And the spongier part is still edible, texture is just not as desirable for grilling.


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More "skin pics! LOL

First one is the "brainy" skin on the right.

Second one I am holding "dinosaur skin".

Last pic both are on the right.


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Olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe a little garlic salt, and then they are ready for the grill. I tried eating them sauteed a couple of times and didn't enjoy the texture as much as I do grilled.


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Finished product. My wife brought me out a little platter.

Oyster mushrooms are on the left (that we found earlier in the week). Grilled peaches are in the back. Grilled ham in the upper right corner.

The puffball mushrooms are the ones that look like grilled chicken in the lower right corner. Mighty fine eatin!


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I am going to have to try grilled puffballs. Ate them raw as a kid and they were pretty bland that way.
 
I am going to have to try grilled puffballs. Ate them raw as a kid and they were pretty bland that way.

The first few times the wife made them they were kinda just sauteed or "browned" in the pan. I thought it was tofu or some other hippy crap. Very bland and weird texture. Grilling made everything mo better.
 
One of my neighbors a couple miles down the road says he uses them to make french toast and uses honey instead of syrup. May try that next.

I wish I was taller and turned into a bear at night. Then I would definitely be a better Beorn than the skinny hipster version that Peter Jackson tried to pawn off on us. :D
 
With the rains lately we've had a bumper crop of shrooms but I don't know which ones to pick and which ones will kill me so I just enjoy the view
 
20180902_141538.jpg Need I'd on these beauts.....I've checked almanac but can't find them. I want to eat em but not till I know what fer
 
Spotted this toad stool this morn, when I got closer a swarm of brown flies and gnats were in my face.
No wonder toads sit around them. Most of them flew off when I got close enough to take a picture. Is this one that's edible? It just doesn't seem like a good practice to eat something covered in fly crap.
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We've been watching these Lion's Mane mushrooms for 4 or 5 days now. They are a little younger than we normally harvest, but we weren't sure what two nights of frost would do. And we were hungry to try out the Lion's Mane "crab cake" recipe that's all over the mushroom group pages. So we went ahead and harvested about half of them. And MAN, I'm glad we did because the "crab cakes" we just had for supper were off the charts delicious! All because a tree fell. I love how nature can feed us if we simply open our eyes a little.


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Does anybody here know what these are and whether they are edible? I found several nice patches of them but have never tried collecting mushrooms for the table.
 
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Does anybody here know what these are and whether they are edible? I found several nice patches of them but have never tried collecting mushrooms for the table.

I don't recognize that one as an edible. I'll ask the wife next time she passes through. She knows a lot more about them than I do.
 
Those are great medicine also, nice find.
R

I drink a tincture every morning that my wife makes with Lion's Mane and Turkey Tail. Been on it for about 3 years now.
 
I drink a tincture every morning that my wife makes with Lion's Mane and Turkey Tail. Been on it for about 3 years now.
Most excellent Thrill! When the virus communists shut down healthcare and everything else, I saw the writing on the wall. Not shot or vaccine card, no anything....its coming. Ive been studying with a group called The Human Path on healing without pharma. I cant recommend it enough if you like natural, herbal solutions. Im studying medicine making and herbal medicine and its top notch, now including some TCM(traditional chinese med).
I recommend everyone have a learned medical person in their group as you will need them, both traditional and alternative.

Rooster
 
although i have never, ever done this....
it is still fascinating to learn/see/etc.
please post more.

 
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My inoculated logs finally started to fruit after the rain Monday night. I walked out to check and found these Pohus yesterday. The bugs got on them QUICK! I'm glad I checked them when I did, a few more hours and they would have been ruined. I ended up throwing a good bit away as it was.

I cooked them up with some chunks of venison backstrap, peppers, onions, and garlic. Delicious!

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I had Mushrooms popping up all over the neighborhood the past week, Never seen it like this before. I posted on a group and the consensus there is they are Ringless Honey Mushrooms. Anyone have these before? Are they good? Worth getting? I could go out and scrounge the neighborhood and probably get 50lbs.honey.jpg
 
If they are edible get them all. You can cut them down and put in oven at 150 for a day to dehydrate.
 
My question -after seeing oodles of different kinds of shrooms pop up here (we are in a swamp and the ground is often boggy, and I have "filled in" some low spots in the yard with wood chips), is "how do you get the knowledge in the first place on what these different types of shrooms are?" I am bookish and if there is a good reference, I will buy it. Needs pictures! lol
 
There are many books on mycology and identification. If you are net connected there are sites like inaturalist where you can post pics and get feedback from the crowd. We r in the golden age of information.
R
 
I am bookish and if there is a good reference, I will buy it. Needs pictures! lol
I have "A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas".
"Mushrooms of the Southeast".
Along with several others and between the lot of'em I can usually get it done.
Also have the "Shroomify" app on the phone and this handy lil fold out laminated quick guide Kris got for me.
I also follow Anna McHugh on the Tube. She's a lil hippy chick from the Raleigh area and her vids are pretty good.
Glad this thread was resurrected.. :cool:
 
Just located a mess of oysters on a log pile that I was a couple weeks late on.... I'll be back to check them soon to see if they re-fruit. I'll often find them through the late fall and winter a couple days after it rains; I have even picked em fresh covered with a thin layer of ice. My favorite way to cook oysters is in a venison bourbon stroganoff.
 
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