August Maritime Mushrooms

Here I am going into a Chanterelle patch.

Exiting the Chanty patch I turn around to see lots of orange untouched mushrooms on the ground where I’ve passed. Gently tip toeing through and reaching out is important to disturb the moss as little as possible, also leave plenty of mature and small mushrooms. This will benefit you for decades down the road as long as the forest isn’t harvested.

Next a nice Lobster Mushroom.

For adventurist Maritime mycophile there seems to be lots of Albatrellopsis confluens out in forest today. In Europe this mushroom is eaten but rated far lower than its common look alike Sheep Polypore. Some folks in Colorado on the other hand claim Albatrellopsis confluens is better than Sheep Polypore as an edible. I find Sheep Polypore is hard to beat though I’m going to give this A confluens another chance to sway me over.

If you are interested in trying this sometimes common Maritime mushroom you must only sample a few bites the first time which is recommended for any new wild food and make sure you thinly slice and cook at medium heat for over 10 minutes.  The mushroom should turn pinkish while cooking, if it turns lemon yellow it will be a Sheep Polypore. Click on the 2nd photo to notice the smooth pore surface with tiny pin holes, this mushroom often bruises pink or light orange when handled. These are large mushrooms you will notice from afar.

August shades of the colourful Russula mushrooms, these ones shown here are from mixed and conifer forest as I passed through both on my mile or so of foraging today. I won’t get into the edibility of the Russula mushrooms I’ve shown you here as I can’t even identify some of them, there are over a 100 different reddish Russula along so you can understand my dilemma, nevertheless Russula mushroom as a rule are one of the safer edible groups though there are a few very hot tasting ones you do not want chew on and a few which bruise black which people have had short term stomach issues with, of course seeing these lovely life forms is every bit as pleasant as the food some of them safely provide, with that in mind I hope you’re enjoying all the colors of your local August forest where ever you are. ciao

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Awaken to a Chanterelle dream

This photo was so magically hazy I had to find away to place it in the post. A few hundred chanterelle on this steep hillside made for some pleasant shady picking. Click on the photo to see all the little orange ones all over the place.

A closer Chanterelle look but still a little groggy.

Now in this Maritime dreamland there are more than just Chanterelles as here we see a bolete in the King Bolete clan.

Check the bottom of the stem to see if it is still solid and no significant worm holes and this one as you can see is in good shape for eating.

I’ve found this mushrooms conifer cousin before on mature eastern hemlock but here is my first run in with Chicken of the Woods, Laetiporus sulphureus which you will only find on hardwoods, usually the uncommon red oak in my area, unfortunately.

Some may have a reaction to Laetiporus so start with a small amount the first time out. This is day 2 for me with this mushroom as an edible and really enjoyed it cooked in butter then made into a sandwich with lettuce and mayo, the initial try was a piece the size of a dried apricot sliced in 1/4″ strips and fried in olive oil for 10 minutes which was over cooked but I could see potential. So concludes this dreamy Maritime mushroomy post. ciao

Gathering together

Gathering in a new area today and noticed a large thicket of Choke cherries with many Staghorn sumac as well, looking at the fruit the numerous seeds evident.

When a situation exist things naturally flourish as these are here, this is certainly pleasant to see.

 

Seed or spore, a receptive landing and nature does it and if a forager has gathered in this Chanterelle patch previously they have done so with good success and  a gentle hand.

 

Chanterelles marching up the hillside, this is a pleasant challenge to choose a non-destructive way to gather a few of these on this mossy steep hillside. Gather your mushrooms deer-like and we will all do fine.

Now gathering in N.B.

Lots of folks are getting outside and picking wild low bush blueberries right now, it is the most popular gathered wild food in much of New Brunswick.

When it comes to wild mushrooms Chanterelle is the most popular gathered and it is available in good numbers at the same time though its season runs many weeks longer than our blueberries, rain permitting.

Craterelles ignicolor are just starting to appear and are much to tiny at this point, it should be at least a week before we see any at a good size for harvesting.

By the look of the cap this must be a bolete.

Yes, pores surface turned to the sun we see its a Boletus subglabripes in a mixed conifer and poplar woods. Well I must be off, its harvest time.

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.

Wild Summer Mushrooms

After some mid-week rain I was quite confident there would be a few wild mushrooms out today and Chanterelle topped the list of what I was hoping to find. It was interesting to see the different families of mushroom with the Russula, Amanita and Chanterelle family members out in numbers. Above we see 2 of the Chanterelle clan with the larger and best considered (inedible) Scaly-vase Chanterelle upfront and Chanterelle at the back of the photo.

I won’t show any Amanita mushroom photos though I did see 4 different members in good numbers, the above photo though is of the plentiful Russulas with many pass their prime with visible spores already released, Russula compacta and the Almond-scented Russula were everywhere and a few white russula were out to which made me suspect the (parasitic) Lobster mushroom may have already gone to work transforming some of the white russulas in to the splashy orange clad lobster mushrooms.

In the photos above are 2 of the young Lobster mushrooms I did find in this conifer area. Hope you are enjoying a wild summer. ciao

Some Chanterelle

A few early chanterelle.

I find most chanterelle under spruce trees, but for the start of the chanterelle season, pine trees and especially Jack pine tend to produce plenty  of these mushrooms.  Some indicator plants around the jack pines are blueberry and as shown in the above photo, sweet fern.  The chanterelles look very orange through the sweet fern leaves. You may need to click the photo to enlarge.

A few steps past the sweet fern and here are some tasty chanterelle, there were just a few other mushrooms in this area today including a handful of Blushers and a small Lobster mushroom and I will probably do something on Lobster mushrooms in August or into the fall, when a large fruiting occurs.

One thing there were plenty off today was horse-flies, they were my very constant companions while on the 2 or 3 miles of wood trails and they made themselves eagerly available for a photo or 2.

Back at the house and I didn’t get a chance to clean these before going on a trip, once I do clean these ones they should last close to a week in the fridge if not eaten before then.. ciao