MARI(matsutake)TIME 3

Last post on Matsutake for 2018 is on the not so obvious Maritime matsutake appearing in wet areas sometimes with what seems young spread out conifers or possibly older stunted trees with abundant acidic loving shrubs.

You have to wander around and look close to find these ones. Oh, I see some light sandy brown in there.

Now bend down.

It takes someone who is not in much of rush to enjoy gathering these lovely Maritime Matsutake in knee to waist high shrubby areas, great fun for some of us though. Ciao

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MARI(matsutake)TIME 2

Different Maritime forest terrain then the last post, but under this mixed forest we have once again some nice Matsutake mushrooms.

I like this photo as much of the mushroom caps are covered on all 3 of these mushrooms yet from 30 meters you know its Matsutake by the size of the rounded cap and the way the cap has a subtle illumination cloudy or sunny its there.

Here we see on the right half some fully open Matsutake the gills on these ones will be turning brown soon. The mushroom you see flip over gills up is a huge one measuring 28 cm across and weighing 1 1/2 lbs, oh what a tasty Matsutake it was.

MARI(matsutake)TIME

A few photos to share on my favorite fall Tricholoma mushrooms, the matsutake.

Great year thus far for T magnivelare and T ducliolens:)

Maritime Matsutake mix-upables

Here is a look at the first Matsutake I found this year, a few folks at the NS Foray were curious about the Matsutake so here are some photos to help a bit. I myself need to catch up on what is going on and change the photos in my White Matsutake page as there have been some name changes with some more big ones not far off.

I for many years called this mushroom in the above photos also White Matsutake though I kinda suspected it was more likely a  Tricholoma Caligatum which was growing under spruce and smelled and tasted very much little Matsutake and made a great spicy tea when dried and boiled with Chaga and then cream added. This mushroom can sometimes have a very long slim stem which usually lifts easily from the moss or soil, unlike the Matsutake who puts up quite a battle. This mushroom seems to match an already named mushroom from the conifer forest of northern Europe know as Tricholoma dulciolens, so time to move some photos and change to the current names.

Next a mushroom most folks are unfamiliar with in the Maritimes though it is common in the western Canada and also parts of Asia. This big brown capped mushroom is often mistaken for a Matsutake so since I have one here, check out the Imperial Cat – Catathelasma imperiale which is not considered an edible mushroom in some NA field guides, though its close relative the grey capped Catathelasma ventricosum is know to be a good edible and far more common in the east than the Imperial Cat.

Here are the 3  brownish capped Matsutake-like mushrooms together which will give you Maritimers interested in gathering the Matsutake a better idea on what is out there. The real Matsutake is the middle mushroom in both photos.

White Matsutake Has Spoken

You walked an over grown path 2 decades ago to discover the wonders of this forest. You have returned every September since, early on you gathered the Hollow-stem Suillus as you could not identify the many white and deeply buried mushrooms of these woods.

Many years passed when you read of the Matsutake the much loved and historical mushroom of Japan, could these beautiful mushrooms half way around the world be the same mushroom or a distant relative?

Though you sampled this mushroom and marvelled at their smoky spiciness it still wasn’t enough to say these were the White Matsutake until finally an expert 14 years later verified what you had suspected.

Things naturally change as today you notice the markers on some of the trees. They will soon be cutting some of the old spruce, pine and hemlock. Reflect at the shrine and do your part to promote leaving some of the wild and wondrous areas as they are. Those who can purchase such places to protect them from some of the more negative unnecessary changes please step forward.

White Matsutake

I’m opening a new page today showcasing a wild mushroom not to many folks are familiar with in eastern North America, but these beauties are highly esteemed in Asia and especially so in Japan.

Our version of the Asian Matsutake is mostly slightly lighter in color and goes by a different name Tricholoma magnivelare, it also happens to be my favorite wild edible mushroom which I enjoy fresh from mid Sept to mid Oct in most years and I also usually  dry plenty for rice and herb tea mixes, they have a very unusual flavour which goes well with soy sauce and vinegar, they also taste great baked with salmon. I collect most of my white Matsutakes around hemlock trees though I usually find smaller quantities near spruce, jack pine and red pine. They are lots of fun to collect as the stem is often 4 to 5 inches beneath the surface and sometimes the entire mushroom will be completely expanded below the moss and you will only notice a number of humps that resemble the mushrooms cap, so it’s a real treasure hunt.

The history of the Matsutake mushroom in Japan is a great story in itself with it influencing art and architecture and they also have significant ceremonial value in the Japanese culture. I’ll leave the rest of Matsutake story up to you to discover if you wish. Hope you enjoy the photos in the (white matsutake page) above and at some point get to taste the wonderful flavour which has been savoured & un-altered  by man for many millenniums. Click on the photos in the matsutake page for some nice close ups. cheers