Mushroom question

[cdavis]

Got my oldest son a copy of "Cool Hand Luke." He's watching it this weekend. Since he had the misfortune to grow out outside the South, (SW Florida ain't the South) he does not know anything about chain gangs and sheriffs, not to mention mossbergs. About time he got a little educated. Howed you know they always carry mossbergs?

You didn't have to worry Chris, as long as you hair was a lot shorter than it is now, you were perfectly safe.


Connor, proud son of the South and former president of the Mobile chapter of the Sons of the Confederacy.

 

[Fondueset]

It was longer. And its not like there was a lot of traffic on that road. I felt EXTREMELY conspicuous.

Coulda been a remmington, but my moneys on mossberg.

Cool hand luke is an awesome movie!

What about Northern Florida?

 

[cdavis]

Mossberg, always. Hair longer?? Northern accent??? Boy, you were closer to real trouble than you had any idea.

Brings to mind a time in my college days. 1969, Walked into a general store in Wilcox County Alabama, about as far back of red neck beyond as you could get. Long hair, a few beads and bell bottoms. Those folks took one look at me and I had the distinct impression that my life was in danger. A very, very odd feeling for a true hearted son of the South. We got out of there fast, before their thought process could go much farther.

Connor

 

[Fondueset]

Oh I think I pretty much knew. I'd seen easy rider, Cool hand luke and been offered five bucks to cut my hair in up here in tame Leelanau County. Long about the time my smooth-brained tour guide whipped out his jar of honey-preserved angels I was approaching explosive decompression.

 

[Mr. X]

if your interested in hunting fungi etc then you may be interested in this forum, it is full on useful info..
Bushcraft UK - Home

How did I miss this thread?! (Never thought of searching for mushroom info. on a diving forum:duhrofl

Following Tong's link...I'm pretty sure this author is the one that did the forest course near us, the book was shown on the posters.

*>The Mushroom/Fungi books discussed here & others<*​

As well as Dr. David Bellamy's cover comment, I noticed this glowing review of the above book:

Now the best guide available to British fungi *****
I bought Phillips' pioneering "Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe" when it came out in the early 1980s for identifying British fungi. At the time it was revolutionary in the use of photographs that allowed the author to depict mushrooms much more accurately than the paintings of earlier guides. Until recently, it was still one of the top field guides to this region (also check Courtecuisse & Duhem, and Jordan [ISBN 0002200252]). I still use this volume a lot for identifying American fungi, both in the tropics and northward. Although I have over 200 field guides of different sorts on my shelves this remains one of my all time favourites.

This current book, Mushrooms (ISBN 0330442376), supersedes the older Phillips guide. It follows the format of the original book quite closely, but is now slightly smaller to make it more of a field guide - about the same size as Skinner's "Moths of the British Isles" (ISBN 0670803545) and, although still won't fit into a pocket, it is much more manageable than the older A4-sized book. There are 1,250 photographs, all of the excellent quality one associates with the author. Some 200 extra species are treated. Taxonomy and text has been brought up to date and into line with the standard taxonomy and nomenclature of lists published by the British Mycological Society.

If you're interested in fungi, don't hesitate - this book must be on your shelves. When you consider how much work went into this project, this represents tremendous value for money.

Chris Sharpe, 8 September 2006. ISBN: 0330442376

*>The Mushroom/Fungi books discussed here & others<*​

Got my oldest son a copy of "Cool Hand Luke."

"What we have here...is a failure to communicate."

 

[Mr. X]

...I'm pretty sure this author is the one that did the forest course near us, the book was shown on the posters.

*>The Mushroom/Fungi books discussed here & others<*
...​

I see Roger Philips has an excellent mushroom website (now free):

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com​

There is an interesting pop-up liability/health warning:hmm Also worth reading this page: Rogers Mushrooms | Mushroom Pictures & Mushroom Reference ...which includes this if you do get sick:yack:

*>The Mushroom/Fungi books discussed here & others<*
​

 

[Mr. X]

Puff Balls

Foxfish, I'm just trying to catch up reading this thread. You posted a couple of pictures of "Puff Balls" in 2 posts. Do eat those? I used to occasionally (rarely) find those in the fields around my home (one spot has been tarmaced over to make a tennis court ). Are they edible? I think they are, some folk got interested when I mentioned them. Most locals only eat mushrooms from known meadows or the stores though.

[Impressive collection of fungi in your image earlier Foxfish:

I read somewhere that you should collect using an open-weave basket, so that spores shaken loose fall back to the ground for the future -- and best not inhale spores!].

 

[foxfish]

Giant puffballs are one of Gods more amazing creations!
Perfectly safe to eat & virtually unmistakable, a good one is the size of a football.
However their marshmallow type flesh on its own does not make the best eating but the texture allows easy obsorbsion of added flavor. Cook in garlic butter for instance & you have a simply scrumptious dish.

 

[Mr. X]

Excellent! I ordered the Collin's book that Foxfish recommended and the Roger Philips guide from the link above yesterday. I also bought this one, that was recommended at the site & cheap enough to get as a curiosity:

Food for Free (Collins GEM)

Perhaps fitting for the current economic climate.

 

[Mr. X]

Chantrelles, Elephants' Ears, Poor Man's Steak

I went for a mountain bike ride to the local forest today. I wasn't mushroom hunting -- didn't take a bag or anything -- but scoping it out might have been at the back of my mind. Anyway, once deep into the forest I across one tree that had a large number of mushrooms of different sorts all around. I picked a few to practice identification. A couple look like Chantreles, almost pure white with a slight, bright yellow tinge on top. Another looked v, similar but the top was more olive coloured & slimey (perhaps off, or poisoness was the thought that occurred to me). Also something like a knobbly field mushroom that had been nibbled. I also saw various tiny death-cap like things & a bigger red/purple capped toadstool which I stayed away from.

Shortly after that, I met a family of locals gathering mushrooms, they do it every year. I showed them the samples from my pocket and they thought they all looked okay. As we spoke, we were standing right next to a large fallen beech tree which had the biggest, freshest fungal gill growth I have ever seen! "You can eat these" they said, "Elephant's ear" or "Poor Man's steak". They gave me a bag and help me fill it -- "take as much as you want -- it'll be gone by next week". Apparently it is at the end of its prime and will either be washed away as black mush or will start going hard and woody by next week. I've seen these particular mushrooms many time before but they are usually big, thick, woody and sometimes partially white, but these were a ginger brown, large thin and soft. When picked, leaving the harder wood centre & taking just the softer newer outer ears, the flesh has long, juicy white fibres -- just like a chicken breast split open.

They suggested various ways of cooking them including fried with garlic (& onion I would think) and coated in breadcrumbs, like meat! They also said you can freeze them for upto a year, so I have frozen most of the elephant's ears. One tip they gave was than any mushroom that has been nibbled (by animal/insect) is okay. Not sure if that will always be true but an interesting rule of thumb. Those "chantrelles" looked perfect & had not been nibbled by anything :hmm.

I'm off to see if I can identify the other fungi from the Roger Philips website above & other web sources, if you don't hear from me again........

 

[birchy]

Re: Chantrelles, Elephants' Ears, Poor Man's Steak

Hi Mr X - if you're still there!

A couple of bracket fungi come close to your description - 1. Chicken of the Woods - tastes and looks more like chicken than chicken - absolutely delicious.

2. Beefsteak fungus - when fresh actually looks like liver - moist and red,also delicious.

Had a crop of fungi on my lawn this morning - unfortunately brown roll rim and yellow stainer - both inedible. Time to get out into the woods - at least the vis should be better than the sea!!

Good luck and eat safely

Birchy

 

[foxfish]

I have several pieces of advice to any one new to collecting fungi as food - start with only a few easy to identify mushrooms like porcini in the woods & Parasol on the grasslands but more importantly go on a guided foray.
I would not advice eating any bracket fungi especially those that grow low down on the host tree, unless you are very sure of its identification. There are quite a few brackets that could give you a nasty time!
Stick with easy safe mushrooms.

 

[azapa]

a local family of 6 died two years ago after lunching on the wrong mushies....

we always feed them to one of our more mischievous sons, wait a day, then eat ourselves. worked so far and most of my sons are still around.

there are some lovely yellowish coloured ones that grow in the pine forests mid- to end winter. They are quite pungent and always need "diluting" in a cream sauce (over home made fettuccine) with "regular" mushies.

great thread!

 

[Mr. X]

Re: Chantrelles, Elephants' Ears, Poor Man's Steak

Hi Mr X - if you're still there!

A couple of bracket fungi come close to your description - 1. Chicken of the Woods - tastes and looks more like chicken than chicken - absolutely delicious.
...

Good luck and eat safely

Birchy

Thanks, yes it looks just like chicken, I reckon that would be it "chicken of the wood"=Sulphur Polypore=Murr=Laetiporus sulphureus ("it has no lookalikes"). We found it mainly on fallen beech trunks, on and near the roots. As big as your hand or bigger. I fried it up with onions, garlic a pinch of cayenne pepper, a home grown chili (too hot) & little salt & pepper and it was okay, I'm still here. Not great though. Quite fibrous/chewy - can see where the "poor man's steak" name comes from (although my book says that different, fistulina hepatica). Not as tasty as field mushrooms. Little disappointed (perhaps because I have quite a lot more in the freezer). It does reduce somewhat in cooking.

Just received the Collins book suggested by Foxfish. I can see why he recommended it, especially for beginners. Lot's of attractive watercolour illustrations and easy to use format/system. Very good. Thanks Foxy.

That said, I think I'll be sticking to a few well known species to start off with. I picked several samples to bring back with me for identification and it is not easy.

For example, I got 4 mushrooms which are similar looking within a few feet of each other, 2 all white & 2 with an olive slime on top. They might be The Miller (Clitopilus prunulus/Kummer) "voted tastiest" above Chanterelle & Cep, or they might be white or Ivory Clitocybe (can be fatal), or they might be the Clitocybe fragrans (edible but do not risk as it might be cliocybe dealbata or C.rivulsa) or it might be a Peppery Milk cap (flavouring) Lactarius vellereus. Or possibly Chanterelle. It seems quite inexact & with potentially serious consequences if you get it wrong.

I found some others that I described to guy at work who seemed pretty certain he knew what they were and they are poisoness. But looking at the book, they might be Stump Puffball (edible) / Calvatia excipuliformis / Calvatia utriformis - all edible. [Actually it looks just like the 3 while balls underneath the big, red capped Fly Agaric in the above picture from Rogers Mushrooms | Mushroom Pictures & Mushroom Reference. Aanybody recognise it?]

Also found some fungi that seemed like a big amorphous, dirty field mushroom, wondering if it might be False White Truffle - probably not (no strong fruity smell).

Also, I found several good growths waxy yellow toadstool with a reddish cap. The only thing close in the Collins book is Sulphur Tuft (bitter tasting & poisoness).

Some others I found looked just like this (I didn't like the look of the them):

Mushrooms of Britain and Europe (Black's Nature Guides)​

The family I met the other day also said to leave all purple and red mushroom alone (there were a lot of small purple ones around and they look poisonous!) -- although the book includes a few dangerous looking red and green fungi that are edible (among many that are poisonous).

 

[azapa]

mr X, thats the one we eat. the yellow one in this picture. what is it called?

grows at the foot of trees, likes pine forests.

 

[Mr. X]

Woman dies after eating mushrooms picked at Ventnor Botanical Gardens - Times Online

 

[Mr. X]

I also bought this one, that was recommended at the site & cheap enough to get as a curiosity:

Food for Free (Collins GEM)

Perhaps fitting for the current economic climate.

The other books arrived. The above book is very small, too small for my eyesight, I needed my reading glasses to read the text at all in the evening but its ok in bright daylight. Obviously designed as a small pocket guide, it's coverage is broad rather than deep but includes helpful colour photos and drawings. It covers some berries, plants (watercress "has high vitamin C content"), fungi, seaweed (carragheen, dulse x2, kelp x2 & Laver) and shellfish (clam, cockle, oyster, scallop, winkle but no other meat sources) and has a handy calendar at the beginning on what to look for each month. A lot about jams & some recipes including Mint Julep! Being small, the fungi section concentrates on common edible species, which is handy. Not a great book but decent value I suppose considering the relatively low price.

The aforementioned Roger Phillips book is impressive in the numbers of species covered (1600?) and the number and quality of images but it is rather too much for a beginner. Lots of great images but fungi from the same family often look the same (esp. when you consider their colour, size & shape will vary somewhat in real life). The Collins book recommended by Foxfish is defo a better place to start.

Also, the photos are not necessarily any better or more helpful than the drawings in the Collings book. For example, from the photos, some of the fungi I collected would appear to be Crimson Waxcap (edible) rather than anything else including the more mushroomy coloured Sulphur Tuft but the Collins book is, I suspect, correct, with its more brightly coloured drawing of the Sulphur Tuft, as the text points out the latter is very common and found in woods on tree trunks, while the former is a field mushroom.

A friend at work brought in a his mushrooming guide, which looks good (similar to the Collins guide but with photos) and, for example, the colours seemed clearer for earth balls. It was a long, thin, green field guide, possibly this one (I'll check next week).

I think I'll stick with the Collins book for now; the Phillips will be a useful cross-checking reference. Although I am beginning to question whether the reward is worth the risk.

 

[foxfish]

It is great to have you involved within this thread Mr X your enthusiasm is always welcome but you know the "curiosity killed the cat expression"!
Once you have collected your first Penny buns, chanterelles, parasols & puffballs you will realise that - like fruit - only a few are really worthwhile while many are just curiosities.
Once you have you eye in you then need to discover your preferred way of preparation & cooking method, PBs are very versatile & a culinary delight, eaten raw, sliced delicately thin, displayed on a clean white plate, dressed with only the very best olive oil & a dusting of crushed pepper they make a fascinating & delicious stater or purely decadent snack.

 

[foxfish]

I had a little foray in the woods today & found these -

 

[agbiv]

Years ago I had an attorney I worked for came out w/ a shroom book. Charles (Charlie) & brenda Shaddox. Think it might be available on Amazon. It deals with North America. Here in Tx we do get the Magic Mushrooms on cow pies.