My Hydnellum suaveolens fascination

 

I’m back again with Hydnellum suaveolens mainly to show the above photo which features a longer stemmed version which nicely highlights its below the cap colorfulness. I’ve also did a bit of snooping to see what others have to share on this one.

I have dried and stored small amounts of this mushroom in glass jars for many years just to open the jar and enjoy the pleasant aroma which I find uplifting. This year I have a few dried H suaveolens wrapped in paper and tucked in small compartments in my car as an air freshener which I’m surprised my fellow carpoolers haven’t mentioned the improved scent of the old mushroomobile. I suspect these car mushrooms will only hold their pleasant fragrance for a short time though after a month mine are doing quite well.

These ones above are large mushrooms nearly 20 cm across the cap, the closest one has a conifer twig running through it which always catches my imagination and the next large cap appears to have been a nice table for someone to enjoy a spruce cone brunch comfortably atop.  Although every mycological website and book I’ve checked on the edibility of Hydnellum suaveolens has listed this mushroom as inedible, nevertheless I’ll add this link (not to promote this mushroom as a food) but to acknowledge my own wonderment of what is and a nod to that which will appear on this planet. I suspect the world famous chef who uses H suaveolens does so in extremely small quantities and as an essence and he may also have a secret process involved in this?        https://dannygregorysblog.com/2015/12/28/faviken

 

H suaveolens is a very solid mushroom which you may think would last several years like some polypores but some of these mushrooms which appeared in late Sept are already decomposing as shown in the top left corner above. I’ll include another link here as there are a few NA and European websites that list Hydnellum suaveolens as a mushroom for dye-makers. This is a subject I have little knowledge on, though I found the colors shown in the linked post well worth sharing with you.  Well that does it for this aromatic, colorful, large and somewhat little known mushroom – Hydnellum suaveolens – which tends to grow where there are still mature mossy conifer forest. ciao    riihivilla.blogspot.com/…/hydnellum–suaveolens-tuoksuorakasvrjys… 

Advertisement

Notice the aroma of fall (2)

These Lactarius helvus mushrooms caught my eye today, unusual to see them up on a stump like this.  They are another wild mushroom with a sweet aroma which intensifies when dried. These mushrooms are noted for having a number of poisonings reported many decades ago in eastern Europe so best to enjoy their beauty and use them as a potpourri item only.

Kind of fitting as I approached to smell its sweetness, who do I imagine I see, well it sure looks like a green Mr Snuffleupagus to me. Haven’t thought about him in years. He he

Mountain Ash

I haven’t tried making anything with Mountain Ash berries for several years now, last attempt was a marmalade which I didn’t enjoy much. Seeing this snow covered tree has kind of rekindled my interest in these berries and this photo will be entered in my wild fruit page with a summer view of another type of Mountain Ash as we have many different types here in the Maritimes and to be fair to this fruit I really should start tasting the (cooked) fruits from several varieties as some of our friends in NFLD found out long ago when they discovered a sweet one they favor for gathering.

Maybe I’ll try making a beverage with ginger this time around as I’ve seen recipes for jams with ginger and citrus fruit combos, ideally an early harvest would provide a less mushy berry, but now is always the right time if you missed the best time. he he

Tricholoma dulciolens

A few pics of T dulciolens which was my long skinny version of Matsutake for many a year.

Currently there is a question on whether these mushrooms have been exported from one of the Nordic countries to Japan as a Matsutake type produce, as Henrik in his comments below and other sources point out Tricholoma dulciolens is very rare in Scandinavia and probably in Finland as well so still curious on the link I added in comments below which makes the claim of T dulciolens being an imported item in Japan. I guess the good news for us folks here in the Maritimes is our mature spruce in a few different soil types usually in our near wetlands do produce some of these mushrooms, though here as well they seem a mushroom which would not be near common enough for a commercial harvest at least from what I have investigated thus far.

Usually when gathering you will only see the caps and then it is time to gently lift in agreement with the stem’s underground angle, notice a few are left as they are, very unwise to attempt to take all of anything.

In the deep moss there may be some of these and also the Matsutake below the green surface so walk soft, don’t walk directly to the mushroom you see, plan a path of least disturbance, all foods deserve our respect and this group almost seem to demand all your senses be fully awake and in tune.

Added photos of rare Maritime Lyophyllum  _____? in spruce forest

Water Avens (wild flower) beauty and beast

Going to add 1 of the first 3 photos of Water Avens (Geum rivale) to my wild flower page soon, hoping maybe a few folks will enter a comment on their favorite pic of the 3.

Another view from below. Water Avens are a member of the rose family.

Above looking down at the leaves, pleasant to bee in this tiny wet meadow for a few moments.

Now here is a look at a piece of a root which can be used as a beverage and medicinal ingredient. I actually tried this one last night mixed with milk and honey, anytime you try a new wild food it is a good idea to proceed very slowly, at least for the first few times you try it, so I drank less than a half cup of a diluted version of this beverage over a span of an hour, very nice flavour and pleasant in the tummy but eventually my lips began to slightly tingle for a time which can be a warning sign of an allergic reaction, my first thoughts went back to a much more intense reaction a had with a strong anti-inflammatory medication I received 15 years ago, this time only the tingling lips with no other issues arising, nevertheless this beauty isn’t going to be my cup of tea anymore. ciao

Trees worth barking about

Looking down this steep hillside I could see a good sized birch with a nice chaga horn and even larger chaga mushrooms at the bottom of the trunk, so down I gradually slide to the tree.  The chaga horn ended up being well out of reach, probably 12 feet up, so the ones level with my belly were the best options.

I decided to harvest the top section of this lower trunk Chaga mushroom which kind of resembles an elephant and weighed 8 lbs, so this will last a while at a tbsp of chaga per 2 or 3 cups of water. This tree has only a few branches  producing leaves so this chaga is near the end of its most potent years if not harvested.

Earlier in the day no positional thoughts came to mind when I walked through this floodplain which was under several feet of water just 2 weeks ago. Long strips of bark lay beneath this tree, an unusual sight.

Yes this is the same neighbourhood where beaver’s  been chomping down poplars. ciao

Forager’s Mobiles

There are 3 different types of Highbush Cranberries in the province of New Brunswick and these ones we see dangling above my head are the best edible one in my vicinity being Viburnum trilobum which grows usually near streams and river floodplains. These berry clusters are extremely easy to gather in nature’s nursery though the processing into juice can seem lengthy unless you really enjoy getting to know your food. Each berry has one large seed and it is best to juice these berries raw after freezing them.

Back to a view of these berries hanging gently in the sky above, what I’ll be doing with them once juiced isn’t quite clear just yet though an apple cider -Highbush cranberry mix sounds good and possibly a ginger bug Highbush soda, though these are just little thought clouds appearing amongst the clusters at this point. ciao

Oyster Ms and baby Chantys

I was a bit surprised to see these spring Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus populinus) in such good shape as usually this mushroom is eaten up very quickly by a type of small beetle when growing in spring and early summer on our poplar trees here in eastern Canada. These ones had no trace of beetles, a few weeks ago the beetles were chewing the tiniest oyster mushroom it seems even before they appeared, possible the warm days leading into the recent rains has encouraged a vacation somewhere else.

This particular variety of oyster mushroom has a very nice aroma which fades away in a few hours after gathering.

It has rained a good amount lately and these small brightly colored baby Chanterelle mushrooms are popping up in great numbers in mixed and conifer woods.

 

These small mushrooms tend to remain in a firm edible state on the ground for a much longer period of time than most of the choice edible mushrooms I gather so I feel no urgency to gather these at this point. If no further rain was to appear for a week to 10 days these little ones would dry out and not recover to expand out, though a new bunch may grow in the same area with future summer and fall rains especially if they continue for  a few days. Small Chanterelle are often consider the best to eat though these ones to me need at least one more rain.

Tree of Lite, Eastern Hemlock

Some of my favorite summer and fall mushrooms grow on or under this sometimes large and long living conifer known as Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis). Today as I walked along this country road I was taken by the light of the freshly emerging needle tips at end of all the Hemlock twigs in this dark forest.

The new needle growth are actually close to an inch long at this point and are a very light green in color. Time to gather a few tips to bring home for tea as Eastern Hemlock is another one of the conifer trees with leaf needles rich in vitamin C though I can’t recall the taste of this one.

Well as you can see the heaping tablespoon of crushed needles for this tea doesn’t look much different from the boiling cup of water it was steeped in for 15 minutes and the flavour is subtly pleasant and the aroma is of a slight citrusyness. I didn’t add any sweetener or other herb today as I wanted to experience this tea on its own. I liked this tea enough to start the pursue on how other folks are preparing and storing it. cheers

 

Unkept Yard Juice

 Time to gather a few weeds and garden escapees growing near my shed. Starting at (1) o’clock and continuing spinning clockwise we have (1) wild prickly lettuce (2) plantain (3) wild mint (4) caraway (5) stinging nettle (6) evening primrose (7) burdock (8) dandelion (9) ground-ivy (10) sheep sorrel (11) sweet cicely (12) yellow goatsbeard.  These spring greens placed in a blender with some water made a wildly powerful dark green drink.   Another much simpler tasty drink I’ve been enjoying lately is to mix 4 ozs of orange juice and 3 spring sprigs of raw stinging nettle, blitz well in a blender and there you have it, a nice foamy drink . All solid traces of the nettles disappear in the blender along with the plants stinging ability. I don’t know if I’m being influenced by the color of the drink or not as this stinging nettle and orange combination seems to have a tangy lime flavour. cheers