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Foraging for fungi


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#1 Lighthawk

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Posted 20 April 2015 - 03:23 AM

How many of you wanderers harvest the occasional mushroom? Edible fungi are everywhere, seasonally. We live in the Sierra foothills and there is a fall season depending upon the rains, and a spring season after snowmelt. A few years ago we took in a workshop called the Fungus Foray. Since then, we bought a few books and have been harvesting here and there for the last three years.

Springtime brings morels and also the "spring king" bolete. Tonight we had both sauteed over a bed of rice. It was quite tasty with nutty and earthy flavors.

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What about all the coastal guys and the PNW folk? You guys getting some fungi?

 

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Edited by Lighthawk, 20 April 2015 - 03:31 AM.

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#2 PaulT

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Posted 20 April 2015 - 03:28 AM

Just chanterelles for us.

 

We're a firm believer in that old adage:

 

There are old mushroom hunters and foolish mushroom hunters.  There are no old, foolish mushroom hunters. 

 

Chanterelles are rather easy to identify and appear in some abundance in the PNW.

 

Paul


Edited by PaulT, 20 April 2015 - 03:29 AM.

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#3 Lighthawk

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Posted 20 April 2015 - 03:48 AM

Thanks, PaulT.

 

This year we got our first morels (an easy ID), but have yet to discover chanterelles.  

We've had good success with Lions Mane, Coccoras (fall & spring), and a variety of oyster mushrooms.

We've got several good books and have a local FB group that helps ID mushrooms.  Without those resources, I would not have been able to learn what's safe to eat.


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2021 RAM 3500 Crew 4x4, 6.4 hemi/8 speed trans with 4.10 gears, Timber Grove bags, Falken Wildpeak 35" tires.

OEV Aluma 6.75 flatbed, Bundutec Odyssey camper on order for 2024

For this year we're still using our 2008 FWC Hawk with victron DC-DC charger, 130w solar, MPPT controler

with 2000w inverter and external 120v output and 12v solar input with 100w portable solar.   http://lighthawkphoto.com


#4 Wandering Sagebrush

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Posted 20 April 2015 - 04:06 AM

Morels are my favorites, but we haven't been out for them yet. Washed, tossed in flour and sautéd in unsalted butter (even cardboard is good sautéd in butter), and it's out of this world. I like shaggy manes in a salad, too. The best mushroom hunting I've ever seen was in NE Iowa, where The Bride grew up. Years ago, we visited Decorah around Memorial Day, and spent a few hours hunting. The family apologized that it was poor hunting, we only got two large grocery bags full. They were most plentiful around dead beech trees.

When should we be down for dinner?
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#5 Cayuse

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Posted 21 April 2015 - 02:34 PM

Morels are the only one that I feel comfortable identifying and definitely seek them out this time of year.  A couple years ago we had a load of bark delivered at work in the fall and come spring there were morels in all the flower beds and a couple of us harvested several paper grocery bags full and left a bunch more, we were careful to cut them rather than pull them but they never returned  :(


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#6 Lighthawk

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Posted 21 April 2015 - 03:10 PM

That's pretty cool, Cayuse.  From my very limited understanding of morels, there are 'landscape morels' and natural morels.   I would guess what you found were the landscape versions.  Some of the naturals are also called 'fire morels' found at burn sites.  We had two show up in our garden two years ago, which floored me.  But they did not return either.  Two grocery bags full!  Those are worth $30 / pound.

 

Right now in the Sierra foothills we are seeing morels at 4500' up to 6000', but it's such a weird year without much snow.  It's our first year harvesting the morels, and they are so distinctive it's quite safe for us.  We've done our homework and have a handfull of other 'shrooms that we can collect:  lions mane, cocorra (fall & spring versions), oyster mushrooms, boletes, blewits, sierra puffball to name a few.  At first you are afraid to try anything, but after you nail down one or two species it becomes easier.  

 

We use several books to help us ID the mushrooms and a number of websites.  David Arora is a northern California expert with two excellent guides.  I also follow several groups on Facebook where I can post photos and get feedback from experts including Mr. Arora.  I watch those sites and have been able to get a feel for what's happening locally.  Good hunting!


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2021 RAM 3500 Crew 4x4, 6.4 hemi/8 speed trans with 4.10 gears, Timber Grove bags, Falken Wildpeak 35" tires.

OEV Aluma 6.75 flatbed, Bundutec Odyssey camper on order for 2024

For this year we're still using our 2008 FWC Hawk with victron DC-DC charger, 130w solar, MPPT controler

with 2000w inverter and external 120v output and 12v solar input with 100w portable solar.   http://lighthawkphoto.com


#7 highz

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 01:56 AM

I'm comfortable collecting some of the boletes that appear in my neck of the woods. I had neighbor who had hunted mushrooms all her long life. She tried to teach me, but I only feel confident about the boletes here. I like to slice and dry them for storage, then add them to omelets. 


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#8 Basin Deranged

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 03:00 AM

What a fine combination, Boletes and Morels! 

 

Boletes and Oysters are a fall crop here on the coast. Chantarelles, Hedgehogs, and Coccoli in the winter, Black Chantrelles (darn hard to see, they blend in so well!) and puffballs in the spring.  Morels only very occassionally in disturbed soil.  Candy Caps and Bluits also in winter/early spring but I'm not fond of either.

 

I agree with highz, the Boletes are fantastic dried.  We dry a bunch every fall to last us through the year.


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#9 Lighthawk

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 04:00 AM

Haven't done the dried mushrooms yet.  I would like to learn how.   Do you slice them thin and use a dehydrator?

So far we've had good results partially cooking them in olive oil, then putting into a ziplock in the freezer with ID and date.  I've got a choice of three or four varieties in the freezer I can add to pasta, home made pizza or what have you.


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2021 RAM 3500 Crew 4x4, 6.4 hemi/8 speed trans with 4.10 gears, Timber Grove bags, Falken Wildpeak 35" tires.

OEV Aluma 6.75 flatbed, Bundutec Odyssey camper on order for 2024

For this year we're still using our 2008 FWC Hawk with victron DC-DC charger, 130w solar, MPPT controler

with 2000w inverter and external 120v output and 12v solar input with 100w portable solar.   http://lighthawkphoto.com


#10 Cayuse

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 12:16 PM

I've dried morels by just leaving them out on the counter on a paper towel whole.  After they are tried put them in a ziploc and freeze them, they reconstitute fairly well for cooking by just placing them in a bowl of water.


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