Edible Mushrooms--Hen of the Woods

[FarmerChick]

I am learning more and more on mushrooms. I love them....and time for me to find them in the wild. I have alot of land with forest so I am taking Tony and Nicole on a mushroom hunt...hmmm....won't eat anything of course til I am sure what they are..>LOL

But I truly want to learn. Here is great info on Hen of the Woods. Listing this one cause so many of us have chickens..HA HA HA

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October's Wild Food of the Month
The Hen of the Woods, AKA Maitake

A bountiful Fall fungi fond of the mighty Oak tree

As the mushrooming season comes to a close, one last treat awaits the forager. One last BIG treat because, if you're lucky, you may find a fruiting of Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa) as big as forty or fifty pounds.
Here's a list of some of the many good things about Grifola frondosa (AKA Maitake in Japan):

1) Fabulous flavor

2) A firm texture that lends itself to almost any culinary application

3) Its usually bug free - at least inside the flesh - you have to pick over it but unless it's over the hill you won't find much in the way of bug larvae

4) Easy to store. Just chop this one up into what ever size pieces you like to cook with and store them in freezer bags in the freezer without any par-boiling, etc.

5) It's good for you! Studies are beginning to reveal immune-enhancing and cancer-preventing properties.

Description: Widely variable in color, from pure white to tan to brown to gray. It appears to get darker depending on direct sunlight (just like we do!) Large overlapping leaf-like fronds grow in bushy clusters that get larger with time. Each frond is from a half to four inches across and is usually darker to the outward edges of the "caps." The entire fruiting body can be as big as several feet across. The underside of individual caps consists of a pure white pore surface. Grifola frondosa is a polypore, a mushroom which disperses its spores from pores as opposed to gills. The pores are close together and tiny, almost difficult to see. The caps are firm and juicy. The stem is thick firm, white and branched. The spore print is white.

Grifola frondosa fruits anytime from early September to late October and seems to be triggered by the first cold nights of the end of Summer. It is found mostly with dead or dying Oak trees, though I regularly find clusters under a dead Maple (pictured at right with quite a job of camouflaging itself). Once you find one, go back the next year and you may find it again. I freeze enough to get me through until Morel season in the Spring!

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[dacjohns]

And chicken of the woods. A beautiful orange and yellow fungus. My entire crew has a downed tree staked out for next fall.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/laetiporus_sulphureus.html

 

[FarmerChick]

you have a tree staked out !!
COOL
that is some color on that mushroom!
kinda scary in a way.
great info to add!


I am currently looking up NC mushrooms in my area. Can't wait til the season to go searching. By then I might know what is what out there in forestland..LOL

 

[reinbeau]

Great site, Dac, thanx for posting it!

I don't like mushrooms much to eat, but I love to find them in the wild, it's fun to find them and then try to identify them. I've got a gorgeous stump out back that grows lovely Chicken of the Woods every season.

 

[the simple life]

You know, I just saw those logs that you buy and grow mushrooms on in a catalog recently.
I was surprised because I just never thought of that being something they would sell.
Its a cool thing really.
I have mushrooms grow out of a stump in my yard every year but I have no idea what they are and even the animals don't bother them.

 

[freemotion]

Harvey Ussery has some interesting stuff on his site www.themodernhomestead.com on growing mushrooms in the woods....he uses a chainsaw with the chain oiled with the mushroom spores! At least I think that is where I read that.....too lazy to go check...

 

[FarmerChick]

I love oyster mushrooms and I am reading that they are one of the most easy to grow.

A website I was in said to buy spores and innoculate sawdust in your woods.

Yup, just lay down a big blanket of thick sawdust, sprinkle in the spores, water down and let nature take its course....right in your own woods.

I have woods, I have sawdust...>>I can buy some spores.

I will be trying this...gotta read up more on it.

Looked like a great harvest and it is just as easy as having it lie on your woodland floor.

 

[me&thegals]

Here's my problem with mushrooming: There's almost nobody left to take one out in the woods and truly teach you what is edible.

I had my husband's family to do that with morel hunting, and so we enjoy morels every spring without worry. But, I would have to rely on books for any other mushroom. Have you ever looked at the incredible number of look-alikes in a mushroom book? Yikes! Wish there was more firsthand knowledge out there, but it seems to have rapidly died or maybe I'm not looking for it in the right place yet...

 

[patandchickens]

Where in NC are you, FC? (Of course I'd understand if you don't want to say, or if you've said it nineteen times before and I'm just too stupid to have noticed )

I lived in Durham for about 6 years, and the 4 wild mushrooms I felt comfortable with were:

--puffballs (BEFORE they get any spores inside, when they are just solid 'white meat' -- and you MUST cut them open to check, because young poisonous amanitas can look similar from the outside, but when you cut amanita 'balls' open there is a mushroom inside, sort of like chick squished into an egg)

--orange chanterelles (you have to be careful to take only the *really* chanterelle-y looking ones, as there are a few more mushroom-shaped species the same color you prolly don't wanna be eating) -- this is one you should probably only eat if you have had experienced mushroom-hunters or mycologists teach you to recognize it in the field, as opposed to lookalikes

--the black cornucopia mushroom (Craterellus sp.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craterellus
which looks kind of like a blackened curled-up dead leaf but is actually pretty good cooked with rice and there is really NOTHING else that looks like it that it could be confused with;

and

--morels, which have to be cut in half to make sure they are the right kind not false morels which are mildly poisonous. They are hard to find and not all that ubiquitously spread but if you find 'em they are good.

Puffballs I mostly got out of horse pastures and fields; Craterellus and morels in woods.

Have fun, be careful,

Pat

 

[me&thegals]

I hope my post didn't sound wet-blankety negative. When Pat mentioned "mycologist," it got me thinking. Does anybody know of any organizations where real mycologists or very experienced mushroomers can teach those of us who would LOVE to learn but just feel a bit nervous?