In many parts of the northern hemisphere folks find the rare Umbrella Polypore in late spring or fall. Here in the Maritimes I have only found & gathered them in July which is when they are not suppose to appear.
This is a choice edible mushroom which is associated with beech trees, though the closest trees to this one were poplar, birch and hemlock.
Looking like the summer of 2021 could be a very good time for Maritime mushrooms.
Here we will view a few Boletus chippewaensis which are one of our best edible mushrooms.
The stems can be quite long on these mushroom which is great as this is an excellent part of the mushroom to eat.
These mushrooms standout in the forest so you can see them from a good distance.
A mature one which you may want to approach as buttons may be in the surrounding area.
Caps can be light to reddish brown.
I most wanted to share the mushrooms, but without the forest floor and trees I couldn’t tell much so take an extra moment to check them out. These mushrooms show up best in this type of layout.
Moss, conifers, poplar, birch with plenty of breathing room between the trees, a pleasant place to be.
Nibbled these green seed pods a few times over the years. Trout lily (Erythronium americanum) covers large areas of mature beech, maple hardwood forest here in the Martime provinces of Canada.
Most parts of the Erythronium americanum plant are listed as edible with the plant’s tiny bulbs considered by many to be the best for eating. The leaves and flowers are also edible though this plant comes with a warning that it can be emetic if eaten in large quantities. I find Trout lily beautiful while in flower, but today I notice it is also quite captivating while in this green seed pod stage.
My search for info on the historical use of Erythronium americanum’s green seed pods has come up empty, though I also looked for other members of Erythronium which has several in NA and Asia and it appear one out in Western Canada Erythronium grandiflorum known as the Avalanche lily has some record of food usage of the green seed pods. This was encouraging news as these pods seem like a nice way to harvest without too much negative impact on these plants.
Another photo of these beauties in a pleasant woods, very soon in this location there will be little trace of this plant as it is well known as a spring ephemeral. As for the green seed pods edibility I did consult the most knowledgeable wild food expert I know of and they agreed this is most likely a safe part of this plant to consume in small amounts.
Here we see an ant’s eye view of a seedpod towering above. Although the main way trout lily spread in a forest is by runners, ants do help also when the seed pods breakdown on the ground surface, ants then have a tasty nutritious meal attached to the seed and with a natural appreciation plant some seeds during their picnic.
Continue readingA few photos to share on my favorite fall Tricholoma mushrooms, the matsutake.
Great year thus far for T magnivelare and T ducliolens:)
Quick post on a few of the most interesting (to me) wild mushrooms I gathered today in my neck of woods near Moncton NB. Busy foraging these days so not much identification details to pass along, I’m basically just showing off my good fortune by laying these natural wonders out for you to see in a timely fashion with their names listed below. You will need to enlarge to get a slightly better look at the individual mushrooms in this not so great photo. The wild mushrooms available in the Fall can vary greatly from day to day so next week could feature 12 different quality edible mushrooms quite easily. Enjoy your Fall foraging but be careful out there, a lot of larger creatures are on the move and some of them have arms 🙂
1 o’clock – Catathelasma imperiale
2 o’clock – Catathelasma ventricosum
3 o’clock – Ramaria rubripermanens
4 o’clock – Clitopilus prunulus
5 o’clock – Tricholoma dulciolens
6 o’clock – Hedgehog mushroom
7 o’clock – Entoloma abortivum
8 o’clock – Honey mushroom
9 o’clock – Hericium americanum
10 o’clock – Lobster mushroom
11 o’clock – Suillus glandulosus
12 o’clock – Hypsizygus tessulatus
If you like you may take a wild guess on the identity of some of the small wild mushrooms in the center of the clock. ciao
Over the winter I remember reading about the interesting medicinal and edible Asian plant Gotu kola and was hopeful of taking some time this year to find our close Maritime relative Hydrocotyle americana. One pleasant thing about foraging is being reminded of little projects while foraging for other things as wild mushrooms are my main focus today.
Here we have Water Pennywort on the ground with the mint family member Bugleweed towering above. I can’t give any info from my own experience on eating or beverages made from Hydrocotyle americana so I must leave this as just another interesting little plant not well known to share as the more familiar we become with these types of plants, (this one was found on an old woods road in Kent county NB) the more we will be willing to protect them from human over indulgence in our surroundings. We can be conscious of our own gatherings and be aware the impact of some of the other ones going on around us.
Amanita amerirubescens, not an edible mushroom for beginners. The European Blusher contain a hemolytic protein which can be removed by thorough cooking, in some places they boil and then fry blushers before eating them. Word isn’t out on whether some of the possibly many different North American Blushers have a hemolytic protein in them.
The Blusher is a member of the Amanita family which is famous for having many deadly poisonous mushrooms. We have a few of these nasty though quite visually striking mushrooms right here in New Brunswick, so you definitely do not want to gather any of these by mistake.
Another reason for concern with our Blusher mushroom is the very similar Yellow Blusher, Amanita flavorubens which is of (unknown edibility) and could easily lead folks astray.
Here is another issue to keep you away, Blushers and some other Amanita mushrooms are often parasitized by Hypomyces hyalinus which is a relative of the lobster mushroom. See the mushrooms on the right these are often growing right beside or amongst what appears to be uninfected Blushers.
The edibility of Hypomyces hyalinus remains a mystery at this point in history. When they parasitize Blushers usually they still blush at the base but not always. Another reason to stay clear of partial or fully parasitized Blusher mushrooms in New Brunswick. Like I said at the beginning the Blusher is not an edible mushroom for beginners or even folks who have foraged mushrooms for many years. Lots of much easier mushroom for the table around, though I do admit to finding these an interesting mushroom.
During July I seen a large area of Tragopogon pratensis which seemed suitable for gathering this plant if I can recall the location for next spring, this post should help:) Often this plant grows very well along roads and railways, the type of places you (do not) want to gather food from. Occasionally T prantensis will also grow in grassy areas along brooks & rivers which can provide for some safe gatherings depending on what is upstream. So since I’m right here right now actually searching for another plant of course lets see if I can find some T pratensis plants amongst the grasses.
If you look at the green plant leaves to the left of the center of the photo you will see the most dominant plant here which is a grass I can’t identify and to the right of center is a Tragopogon with very similar looking leaves though they are more numerous and you can circle them with your hand and follow them back to root.
Usually my main edible interest in this plant are the early spring growth of stems and leaves, today well into November with the temperature near 0 C the greens are less appealing to me so I think it will be time to dig a little deeper and see what the late fall roots look like. The more numerous and larger leaves should point to the largest roots.
These roots were a lot easier to remove from the soil than I expected. Many of these roots the size of a medium carrot. The leaves still are edible and nutritious but are most tender towards the root.
These are one of the better tasting wild roots, as good as most garden vegetables. Like Jerusalem Artichoke and Burdock, Tragopogon pratensis is a member of the Asteraceae family and it also contains inulin in its roots so many may get windy after a good feed of them. Tragopogon pratensis roots boiled for 5 to 7 minutes are very tender, I added butter and a little lemon juice, salt and pepper, very good.
November in New Brunswick Canada can present you with some interesting wild food opportunities. Recently I revisited this field I gathered a variety of wild greens in during June and returned here for tubers and the hope of maybe some winter annual greens. In the photo’s bottom left corner we see a wild radish plant and the rest of the photo features mostly the brown remains of the mint family member Stachys palustris with a few straight beggars tick stems which I attempted to slalom around to avoid getting coated in seeds.
Here we see what was just under the soil below the old Stachys palustris plants. Some fine tubers you can eat fresh or cooked or dried and powdered into flour.
Of the greens available it was by far the wild radish stealing the show.
Most the new fall growth were on old mature blown down stems from summer. These greens were in suitable shape for cooking and drying with even a few plants with new pods and flower buds. Good chance if a warm spell appears in Dec there will be plenty of other mustard family members available for Maritime foragers to gather:)
Lobster Mushrooms are out in good numbers in the Maritimes now, so check out my catch of the day.
This one is rather smooth with not much sign of gill ridges.
I find most of my Lobster Mushroom usually near mature Eastern White Pine and an area with mixed woods with large Poplar trees can be prime spots to have a look also.
These 3 photos show the weight divisions Lobster Mushrooms often fall into with the 1st photo 1/4 lb, 2nd 1/2 lb and last one weighed 1lb.
The closest Lobster Mushrooms appears slightly over mature but look around as often there will be plenty of good ones near by, the white powder visible on the gill surface is not mold it is actually spores so this is not a sign the mushroom is not still good to eat. Two things to check concerning whether a Lobster Mushroom is still in good shape for eating is a light to slightly darker orange color, nothing in the red to purple range and when you squeeze the stem at ground level it is very firm. If there are soft spots or brown colored areas somewhere on the mushroom above the firm stem just cut them out and you should still have plenty of choice mushroom left.
Here is what was in a 25 foot area of the above photo.
Back home with a basketful of goodies which will soon be processed into a yummy Lobster Mushroom marinate thanks to Hank Shaw’s website honest-food.net › 2016 › July › 18
Ciao
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