What kind of mushrooms?

[The Mama Chicken]

I found this cool looking mushroom growing on a dead oak tree that has been laying on the ground for a few months. It feels spongy and looks a little like a brown deflated balloon.

Here is another patch of them on another part of the tree. These look like suction cups and were smaller than the others.

 

[digitS']

All I can think of in my sleepy state at the moment, Mama Chicken, is advice from an experienced mushroom forager:

You don't have to know every mushroom in the woods to select the ones to take home to dinner.

You just have to know the edible ones - very, very well.

Steve

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I wasn't going to eat them, just wondered what they were. I do know that when you toss them in the fire they expand and then pop like a balloon.

 

[The Mama Chicken]

After more research (and sending the picture to a mushroom expert) I'm happy to say that it appears to be an Apricot Jelly Fungus. It's supposedly edible, but I won't be trying it, just in case we're wrong about the identification, but I'm glad to know what it is.

 

[digitS']

Good you know.

I am really lame in my mushroom gathering - only go for the morels. They always seem so exceptionally different-looking . . . however!! I recently learned of something called a "false morel!" I guess I don't have to learn exactly what a false morel is but I'd better go back and take another look at what distinguishes a morel before I collect any more.

There are mushrooms around here that I've eaten after some very old folks (which means, older than me ) collected and vouched for them. Anyway, they were Chanterelles. I think I recognize them but that's not good enuf. I enjoyed living next to these people for a few years because they shared their raspberries and mushrooms !

Shouldn't be any surprise that Oregon has lots of mushrooms. We have friends with neighbors in Portland who poisoned themselves. Seven people were at that meal - 1 had "liver shutdown" the news reported and 5 of them were put on kidney dialysis for a time. Gotta wonder what permanent damage they experienced.

Steve
risk averse

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I have never gathered any wild mushrooms. I would love to find a group in my area that does foraging but with 4 kids and so many animals I just don't have the time. Someday...

 

[digitS']

When you do Mama Chicken, check out these people:

namyco.org

I had to go back there to look at that news from Portland because I wanted to be accurate and it has been 10+ years. They had the information so they are not only enthusiastic in their foraging but interested in sharing cautions. Groups all over the USA!

Mushrooms from the store are a regular part of my week's menu. I have even grown out one of those boxes of compost/mushroom spores you can buy. I really enjoy them and feel pretty darn good about being able to find a few morels, now and then - it won't be long!

Steve

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

interesting fungi Mama. i see them all the time around here but i'm still unsure about ever trying to eat anything i am unsure of.

in the process of cleaning out my FIL house hubby and i came across a stash of really old books, mostly ones about plants and wildlife that belonged to his grandfather who was into that stuff. (i wish i got to meet him because i would love to ask him a lot of stuff!) well, i came across a book on mushrooms and fungi that had some beautiful lithographs and neat information. i'm sure a lot of this has been updated in the 100 or so years since the book was published. but it was still neat to go through it! the last name of the author was Atkinson (my maiden name so it really jumped out at me!)

 

[The Mama Chicken]

in the process of cleaning out my FIL house hubby and i came across a stash of really old books, mostly ones about plants and wildlife that belonged to his grandfather who was into that stuff. (i wish i got to meet him because i would love to ask him a lot of stuff!) well, i came across a book on mushrooms and fungi that had some beautiful lithographs and neat information. i'm sure a lot of this has been updated in the 100 or so years since the book was published. but it was still neat to go through it! the last name of the author was Atkinson (my maiden name so it really jumped out at me!)

Oh wow, I would love to get my hands on those old books! What a find. You're so lucky.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

the difficult part is trying to keep my dh from trying to sell them from me! i so badly want to keep a lot of these books for my own collection since some of them have wonderful info. even if it might be outdated i still love the info that is in old books! too bad some of the book were also damaged while they were being stored in old cardboard boxes in the bottom of a closet. many of the spines are damaged or pages damaged from moisture. this book looks almost pristine once you open it to see the prints. the spine is a little less beautiful but still in decent shape.

it seems there hasn't been much they had to update to his book since it was 1st published and they have since reprinted it many times and the latest one was in 2010. http://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/?p=1871 here's the info on the guy and they mention the name of the book as

. just in case you decide to look for it! there are also some mushroom recipes in there!