shroom picking

[BCMtnHound]

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Finally got a mushroom this year.. yeah, just one. But this bolete fried up nice and became part of a very nice mushroom burger. Hopefully more shrooms to come. Haven't found one in the yard yet damn it.

Damn. If GFT in Terrace has no shrooms in his lawn, then with the drought codes here my fall season might be a bust.

Love Neckdeep’s Chantelle hauls, crazy production and harvest!

Actually, I haven’t been out checking mostly because August, and too many other matters taking my time. But seriously, those with some precip getting past the canopy this last couple weeks are lucky. Hope we get some soil penetrating moisture in the month.

But the next spring morel season should be all-time. Lemon to lemonade and all that.

[zion zig zag]

All the low elevation porcini around here have come up full of worms. But, the chanterelle patches are just insane. Pretty common to find spots with 100-300 chants in a patch.

Truly epic picking but I haven't seen any other foragers or cut stems. Didn't see anyone picking morels this year either. Big change from last summer. I am declaring the great mushroom fad of 2022 to be officially over.

The hidden benefit of having your home town taken over by wealthy lemmings is that the new people are absolutely useless in the forest. "Local knowledge" is fading, imho. The population has practically doubled in recent years but there are actually a lot fewer people hiking into great fishing spots, busting thickets for shrooms, picking huckleberries or cutting wood. Lately, I've been on roads where 10 years ago, you couldn't escape the sound of chainsaws in August and now theres maybe one or two guys getting their firewood or no one at all.

Want to pass along some local knowledge to a newcomer? I can offer elk steaks in trade. I wouldn’t expect ‘x’ marks the spot type direction, just generals, how to not get poisoned, etc.

We’ve harvested rose hips, huckleberries, choke cherries, service berries and spruce tips, but we’ve been afraid of shrooms.

[garyfromterrace]

Damn. If GFT in Terrace has no shrooms in his lawn, then with the drought codes here my fall season might be a bust.

Well mate, to be fair, most of my shrooms last year were found in the woods of the back 40. The lawn did produce some morels last year (which seemed a bit weird..). Anyway, far from drought here (fire bans lifted last week) but still a very glorious summer did mean a bit less precip than the norm it seemed. Happy picking those out getting some, and here's to some rain falling all over the province. Please.

[neckdeep]

Want to pass along some local knowledge to a newcomer? I can offer elk steaks in trade. I wouldn’t expect ‘x’ marks the spot type direction, just generals, how to not get poisoned, etc.

We’ve harvested rose hips, huckleberries, choke cherries, service berries and spruce tips, but we’ve been afraid of shrooms.

My advice is that now is a good time to map out patches. The porcini are all buggy and 90% of the chanterelles are past their prime but the patches are plentiful and visible at a distance. If you see a mushroom the size of a dinner plate, its probably a porcini. If you see anything bright orange, its probably a chant. Both grow around spruce trees and, AFAIK, neither one has dangerous look-alikes in this region. I have never found false chanterelles or jack o lanterns here.

This area has 5 species of morels, 2 species of porcini, 3 species of hedgehogs, chanterelles and bear's head. These do not have true gills and they are all rather unique looking mushrooms.

We also have shaggy manes, aspen oysters and shrimp russula. We probably have matsutake and lobsters too but I've never put any effort into finding them.

You can refer to my photos in this thread; I usually show you exactly what good mushroom habitat looks like. The first step is looking for habitat. Rookies go out looking for mushrooms; pros look for habitat. It's the same as hunting elk.

If you have questions, take 3 pics: one in situ with some vegetation, one with the cap and one with both stipe and the gills, if it has gills.

[garyfromterrace]

Scored today! Lobsters and cauliflowers from the property. Allah be praised!

Question for neck deep (and any other pros out there). I always leave some in the ground and cut some of the debris off the "root" to leave behind. This seems to make sense to me. Am I on target? Is there anything else I should be doing to ensure I'm not depleting my resource? Thanks guys.

[chicken feathers]

^ I’m not a pro, but cutting the fruiting body from the mycelium is the right call.

It’s also good practice to collect the shrooms you pick in some sort of container which allows for the spores to disperse while walking around. Like a basket, mesh bag, bucket w/ holes drilled in, etc.

[neckdeep]

Scored today! Lobsters and cauliflowers from the property. Allah be praised!

Question for neck deep (and any other pros out there). I always leave some in the ground and cut some of the debris off the "root" to leave behind. This seems to make sense to me. Am I on target? Is there anything else I should be doing to ensure I'm not depleting my resource? Thanks guys.

It doesn't matter whether you cut or pick a mushroom, it's not going to affect the mycelium.

Clear cutting a patch won't affect the mycelium either just like an apple tree doesn't suffer if you pick all the apples.

I'd recommend that people not pick immature mushrooms if they want to promulgate new patches. Let those morels grow a bit! Leave behind anything past prime to spore out and return its nutrients to the patch

You should carry mushrooms in something with holes but that's mostly because they go to shit if they can't breath. I'm skeptical whether foragers container choices do much to spread patches but do what you like. I sincerely doubt that I'll be spreading them anywhere they haven't already been for millenia. And, for the record, I think foragers who pick with cute little baskets are twee.

What will fuck up a patch is disturbing the ground. Raking the soil is bad. Soil compression from too many people walking in the same spot is bad.

That said, I'm not sure this advice is really relevant to lobster and cauliflower mushrooms, neither of which has a mycorrhizal mycelium. Cauliflowers and lobsters are parasitic infections of a host body.

[neckdeep]

It's been the coolest, wettest summer I've seen in 25 years in the area so I guess a "weird" season was to be expected. Found a few dozen hedgehogs amid the rampant patches of ginormous waterlogged chanterelles and troops of yellow amanita. Boletes and russulas conspicuously absent, for the most part.

[neckdeep]

[neckdeep]

The tetons have three hedgehog species. I call this one on the right the "wimpy" hedgehog because it doesn't measure up to its brethren. There is another species with a lumpy, rusty colored cap.

[BCMtnHound]

So jelly. Drought here, even in the interior Cedar wet belt, is putting a serious damper on my fungi forays so far this fall.

[neckdeep]

Ya, we got all your rain. Most summertime rains for the tetons in 25 years. Two weeks of dry weather in early July, that's it.

[garyfromterrace]

Things coming around on the property lately. A nice big cauliflower a couple of days ago and a couple of lobsters yesterday. The lobster went nice in a mushroom/sausage/tomato (from the garden) spaghetti sauce last night.

[neckdeep]

Nice.

Frosts have begun so season is done here. Despite totally failing to pick porcini for the second season in a row, not too shabby of a year. Accomplished 3 out of 4 goals for this season. Found a few new morel zones, picked about 25 lbs of chanterelles and greatly expanded my understanding of hedgehogs (got around 5 lbs).

[zion zig zag]

Nice.

Frosts have begun so season is done here. Despite totally failing to pick porcini for the second season in a row, not too shabby of a year. Accomplished 3 out of 4 goals for this season. Found a few new morel zones, picked about 25 lbs of chanterelles and greatly expanded my understanding of hedgehogs (got around 5 lbs).

Timely bump. Per your advice I found some promising zones on Friday. Rain and cold had destroyed them but I dropped pins on the map to check next year.

[neckdeep]

Good work. Look for chanterelles to pop up with monsoon rains in August. They are at their best during the first 10 days of the season. After that, you have to get selective.

Did you find any hedgehogs? They pop up in the wettest parts of the chanterelle patches where moss is dominant. I think they are limited to zones with ground water. Generally, if the zone doesn't have nearby chanterelles and isn't at least 60-70% mossy, you won't find hedgehogs.

[Norseman]

,

[twat]

sorry, that's a little brown mushroom. but nothing more. still beautiful.

[Norseman]

Cuteness was all I meant to convey.

[garyfromterrace]

Cuteness was all I meant to convey.

And did so in spades mon frere!

The recent monsoon rains have given us a late season spurt it seems. Still no chanterelles to be seen but the last 2 days in the yard have been fruitful.

[garyfromterrace]

Last of the year. 99.9% sure they're young shaggy manes. Just never seen them so rounded (as opposed to oblong). Neckdeep? Amigonnadie?

[BCMtnHound]

Last of the year. 99.9% sure they're young shaggy manes. Just never seen them so rounded (as opposed to oblong). Neckdeep? Amigonnadie?

They look like shaggy parasol (Lepiota rachodes). One of my favourites but there are look-a-likes such as Chlorophyllum molybdites (but I’ve never found C. molybdites here, it supposed to be mostly in eastern NA). Spore print for L.rhacodes is white while C.molybdites is green.
Even if they are proper shaggy parasols, only eat a small portion to test as some people can suffer mild gastrointestinal reactions. But I have no issue and enjoy them when In season. Usually found in farmer’s fields here in late summer to mid fall.

[bodywhomper]

Out in coastal humboldt co last weekend. Here’s a few pics from one our walks

[sb]

Looks infected.

Oysters, turkey tails, chaga, honeys, dead mans fingers and ton of other growths on this weeks ski trail work outting.

[neckdeep]

Last of the year. 99.9% sure they're young shaggy manes. Just never seen them so rounded (as opposed to oblong). Neckdeep? Amigonnadie?

Definitely not shaggy manes. The "locks" of the shaggy manes are not brown. The gills fade white>gray>black, these dont look right. Another key characteristic of shaggy manes is that they will begin to autodigest after they are picked. I don't see any ink on those. Shaggies grow in the GYE but I mostly find them growing in undesirable locations like gravel roads, parking areas and trailheads littered with dog shit. Go figure.

My advice is to not eat immature gilled mushrooms. Too much overlap in the button stage, too easy to make mistakes before all the defining features have developed. I can't really see the ring on these and that's an important feature.

The fact that they don't match the usual shape of shaggy manes should be setting off a loud flashing red alarm. When you see that sort of inconsistency, you really can't call it a 99.9% certainty of identification and that is especially so when dealing with immature mushrooms When in doubt, throw it out.

I'm no expert at gilled mushrooms, that's fer sure. I can only identify about a dozen genus and forget about species. I have no experience at all with hardwood foraging so I never see the majority of species. It's all conifers and poplars here. If you want tips on morels, porcini, chanterelles and hedgehogs in the GYE, maybe I can help.