# Any mushroomers here?



## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

I've been harvesting morels for a couple of years and I want to branch out into more edible wild mushrooms. I just ordered the books "Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America" by Fischer. I've heard oysters, chanterelles, and chicken of the woods are good beginner mushrooms.

I'm wondering if there's anybody on here who would be able to help verify the ID once I start picking them.

Also wondering - what's the next mushroom to start popping up after the morels are done? I've heard that there's always at least one edible mushroom to hunt, except in winter.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

best get someone knowledgeable to do it in person.
really hard to tell from photos.

oysters are relatively easy to identify.

haymakers mushrooms and fairy ring may be good choices also.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Just picked these today. Pretty sure they are oysters. Gonna find out, (call the local authorities if I don't post tomorrow....)


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Here is a thread I started last fall. Hen-o-the woods.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=365821&highlight=mushroom


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## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

tinknal, you ought to turn them upside down and take a photo of them and post it before you eat them! I don't know a whole lot about mushrooms but I grew some oysters from a kit. They have gills rather than pores and the gills run down onto the stems.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

fffarmergirl said:


> tinknal, you ought to turn them upside down and take a photo of them and post it before you eat them! I don't know a whole lot about mushrooms but I grew some oysters from a kit. They have gills rather than pores and the gills run down onto the stems.


My wife took pics of the gills while they were in the sink. I'll post them when they are uploaded.


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## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

So you got those in Minnesota? That means they should be popping up here soon. Are your morels all finished?


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

hey farmer girl check out 

http://www.michiganmorels.com/

seems we have a late and extended morel season.

they also cover other mushrooms.

you may find a local picking buddy.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

fffarmergirl said:


> So you got those in Minnesota? That means they should be popping up here soon. Are your morels all finished?


I am not in a good morel area. Never find them around here. I have heard some reports that they are appearing north of here. I once found them near Elk River around the 10th of June. There is no hard and fast date for them. My guess with the late spring they will be late this year.


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## ahisma (May 13, 2011)

Yes it's best if you can find someone in person that is experienced or a local mycology club. If not, you can post at http://www.shroomery.org/forums/postlist.php/Board/3 and some seasoned vets can vouch for what your guess at identification is while you are learning.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

Where I live, you can go to Mycology Events, which are FANTASTIC! They provide tables with an incredible variety of mushrooms, clearly identifying the poisonous ones, the edible ones, and which they recommend you forage for.

We are avid mushroomers & stick to easy to identify varieties. Be even more careful with Spring mushroom varieties, there are more fatalities due to difficulty identifying them by novices. Locally, last year, and entire Japanese family perished in the forest. They had picked "poisonous mushrooms," consuming them, due to mis-identification. In the Fall, we pick more edible varieties than in the Spring, due to the ease in IDing them.

Get excellent references, learn to do "spore prints," go to Mycology events, also learn from experienced mushroomers.


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## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

Thank you sooooo much, Downhome and ahisma! I'm go ing to go spend some time on those sites now, and bookmark the one with the experts who will help identify.

I wish we had mycology events! That's OK though - if we did, there's be more people out there picking all the mushrooms! Who hosts them? I wonder if the extension service would have some of those publications available.

I found a bunch of old mushrooms yesterday that looked like "beefsteak" mushrooms (not the false morels that some people call "beefsteaks" - the other ones). They were red and growing on trees. I'm goign back there later this summer to see if there are any new fresh ones. I've heard they're really good.


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## kyle (Mar 26, 2011)

good pic sof the mushrooms help, but adding habitat pics and what they are growing from also helps heaps in some cases. Shroomery is valuable source with very knowledgeable people. Not really child oriented though, so probably best left to adults, or mature teens, to check out that site.


You guys are lucky to have morels. i always picked white/yellow chantrelles, pine and oyster. no better mushroom than one you found and picked


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

Hi heres a link to morel mushroom hunters . com, but they will identify any mushrooms, toad stools, polypores etc. that you don't know, just send an image and they will help out real quick. A real neat site. I started branching out about ten years ago, and now pick chicken mushroom or sulfer shelf, Hen of the woods, black trumpet, blue indigo, pink bottom or meadow mushrooms, all one of a kind safe without look alikes, and great eating, plus a bunch others. MO conservation put out a real nice edible mushrooms of MO that would include the UP on most too I believe. I don't get back up there as much anymore. click below:

http://morelmushroomhunting.com/morelfinds.html


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Today's haul.

Sulfur shelf and oyster. I've never found sulfur shelf this early.


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## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

Tinknal, I am sooooo jealous! Are you in Northern Minnesota? I'm in the UP and wondering of those are in our woods yet.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

fffarmergirl said:


> Tinknal, I am sooooo jealous! Are you in Northern Minnesota? I'm in the UP and wondering of those are in our woods yet.


I am in east central MN. I would bet that the oysters are out in your neck of the woods. Look in mature aspen forests, on dead, dying, and down trees. They have a slight anise smell. The sulfur shelf is a bit of an anomaly this time of year, but if you want to look check out oak trees.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

BTW, oysters have been known to appear any time of the year, including winter warm spells.


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## yailukmuu (Mar 24, 2011)

I recommend "Mushrooms Demystified," mainly because the author takes a fundamental approach at identification.

In reality while photos might help, they can be very misleading. It's also dangerous to "ask" others to ID based upon photos because, for instance, in New England we may have a mushroom that has no poisonous counterpart, while in the North West, they might have common poisonous ones that look similar. Really the best way is to find a group. Go to http://www.namyco.org/ to find one, and if there is a regional gathering--I recommend going to it.

There are tricks and I've followed them all eating wild mushrooms and have stopped keeping a list once I hit 40 different species. I only became ill once.

Trick #1: Don't eat a whole pound of wild mushrooms cooked in a pound of butter--as I once found out, you will get sick, even if they are quite edible. Also, some people become ill if they eat peanuts--yet peanuts are not poisonous. It is best to try only a small amount the first time in case you have an idiosyncratic reaction or allergy to an edible mushroom. For instance about 10-18% of people react poorly to the sulfur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus). I don't but I still never eat a lot at one time because I suspect that there are actually (here in NH) more than one distinct species (that look alike) and/or it depends upon the substrate (for instance I have heard never to eat Sulpher Shelf mushrooms if they grow upon certain trees.

Trick #2: There are old mushroomers, and bold mushroomers--but there are no old, bold mushroomers. In short it is more important to be able to identify any possible look-alikes that are inedible or toxic than it is to ID the edible one you seek. If you know all the "enemies" intimately, that will make you ill, or kill you, no matter what you will know to avoid them.

Trick #3: Find a group, and go no walks and try to learn only 1-3 mushrooms on each walk. Learn the terminology, learn associations (for instance here where I live Chanterelles are associated with Hemlocks and Beech threes and never, ever grow "on wood." The somewhat similar jack-o-lantern mushrooms grow on wood, you will not die, but you will want to, if you eat them. It's ok to call Chanterelle's Chant's but it's much better to call them by their real name: Cantherellus cibarius or is it Cantherellus persicinus that you have there--the difference is subtle, and they are both edible but knowing such differences are helpful as one might be found in a different habitat. For instance I don't hunt Morels by looking at the ground--I look at the sky--why? Because here most are found near Ash trees, and in the forest Ash is the last to leaf out and you can pick them out at hundreds of feet away.

Rule #4: If you know mushrooms in one part of the country, you may not know Jack in another. Every year we have SE Asians absolutely sure that they have found "paddy straw" mushrooms (Volvariella volvacae) and they eat them and they die. Why? Because in SE Asia there are zero Amanitas. What to them looks the same is one of the three deadly Amanitas. This includes never, ever getting lazy. At a NH gathering, with about 50 very excellent mushroomers a couple came with a brown paper bag of Chanterelles they had purchased in the NW and wanted confirmation. Three people (good people) opened the bag, poked about and said--yup, nice--chants. I said "wait a minute" and we dumped them all out, and I went rapidly one by one. In that bag were four Ompholatus illudens (Jack-o-Lanterns) which I removed showing the difference in gill structure. YOU must become the expert.

Trick#4: Do not rely upon photographs. A blind person can do a much better job with a verbal proper description (slowly blueing flesh when bruised, or forking gills, or wine colored spore print) than many can with 200 photos.

I suppose there are more tricks... but that's enough for now.

As for the next mushroom: Here in New England the next "biggie" are the Chanterelles which fruit +/- 1 week around July 4th. Then there is a sort of dearth until the heavy rains in mid-August and then there are lots.


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