shroom picking

[tgapp]

Working up on Togwotee pass yesterday near Brooks lake.

Stumbled across some of these.

Attachment 424700
Attachment 424701
Attachment 424703

The expertise in here on such an array of topics never ceases to amaze me.

My guess is Suillus americanus, but neckdeep knows way more than me. Definitely a Suillus sp tho.

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[neckdeep]

Working up on Togwotee pass yesterday near Brooks lake.

Stumbled across some of these.

Attachment 424700
Attachment 424701
Attachment 424703

The expertise in here on such an array of topics never ceases to amaze me.

That area used to have great porcini picking up til 10 years ago. I don't know about these days...seems like about 70% of the forest died off up there over the last 25 years. There's gonna be a hell of a fire up there eventually.

[BCMtnHound]

I don’t see Laetiporus sulphureus on conifers around here, mostly on birch (both standing and down). We have more issues with another similar fungus Phaeolus schweinitzii (same family) on Doug fir. No mistaking it, although it often fruits off a root a couple feet away from the tree, so most don’t associate it with potentially damaging their tree.

I have a patch of chickens I haven’t visited in awhile. Might have to go have a look once we get some moisture back up the valley.

[Djongo Unchained]

My guess is Suillus americanus, but neckdeep knows way more than me. Definitely a Suillus sp tho.

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After researching this, I think you're correct. Although it's apparently more of an eastern type.

Togwotee is still pretty green where I'm at but yeah, there's some pretty large brown swaths too en route.
And tight trees. Lotsa firewood up there waiting to be taken out.

[neckdeep]

I actually just spoke to an arborist friend who is certified in tree risk assessment - he says it's a bit more complicated than that - oaks are fine, but conifers and other hardwoods can be destabilized by sulphur shelf, causing them to topple over while still being alive (full, healthy canopies).

Re: their edibility - if I understand correctly, sulphur shelf can cause GI issues for SOME people when grown on SOME trees, so it's not like a "idk you might die but good luck" situation, more of a "some people get upset tummies". As always, thoroughly cook any mushroom you harvest, start small, and save some in the event you have an emergency and need to take some to the ER.



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I've read that for some folks who get an allergy gastroenteritis off of chickens, its so severe that they can even get inflammation in their mouth. And, I've seen estimates as high as 10% get at least mildly sick so definitely an eat with caution species, not really the sort of thing you'd serve to a group or in a restaurant.

Who knows what's going on because there is so much regional variation even inside a species. For example, I tried one of our local hawk wings (sarcodon) and it was so ghastly it took me about three years to forget the taste. I'd shudder at the sight of them. Sort of a mix between mold and burning hair. Utah and Colorado's are good, apparently.

[neckdeep]

Shroom season is popping off in the Wasatch. Tons of false clubs this year! Quite a few sarcodon, some green russula, some lactarius and pine mushroom too.

Oh and I can definitely use an ID on this guy. Found under conifers. Who is it?

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Funnel shape, no veil, white, alpine...I'd start with clitocybes.

[neckdeep]

Yellow amanita or pholiota? and porcini. As far as I can tell, we don't get red amanita here, just the yellow.






Had to give away one of the trays to the neighbors. Getting a bit tired of cleaning chanterelles.

[tgapp]

Yellow amanita or pholiota? and porcini. As far as I can tell, we don't get red amanita here, just the yellow.






Had to give away one of the trays to the neighbors. Getting a bit tired of cleaning chanterelles.

That's almost certainly Pholiota squarrosa. Did it smell like garlic? That's the dead give away

Also that chanterelle haul my god. I find like three chanterelles a year.

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[neckdeep]

The crazy thing is I'm picking maybe 10% of the chanterelles I'm finding this year. There was so much monsoon this year that it's been a blessing and a curse. Lots o' soggy, muddy chants out there. Lots of blown out, floppy shrooms instead of the compact, firm button form that roseocanus is known for. Some patches look like the big chanterelles you see in the coastal rainforest. Oh well. I'll get'em in a better year. This was the year I really cracked the code on chants. I went from around 15 patches to over 50 and now I can find them just using Google Earth. Yesterday evening I drove up to a new spot that looked good for it on Google Earth and in 30 minutes I found another dozen patches exactly where I thought I would. They may be blown out but at least the patches are ridiculously easy to spot at a distance. Too old to pick but the info is still gold.

From what I see on the utah shroom pages, the same thing is happening in the Uintas right now. Get up there and map out some patches. Tip: Google Earth Pro viewed on a large screen is one helluva foraging tool. The mobile version is garbage, its basically just goggle maps with less clutter. Once you got chanterelle patches on your map, you can farm them for at least two weeks in good seasons.

Go to a spruce-fir forest. That's your must have because no spruce, no chants. You can find spruce starting down low in riparian canyon environments and it grows well on north slopes all the way to the treeline. Once you are in the spruce-fir forest, target the moisture. Look to mossy snowmelt swales, ground water zones and, in particular, the mossy islands created by clusters of shorter sub-alpine fir surrounded by tall stands of spruce. The shade tolerant sub-alpine fir isn't the host; it creates a more favorable microclimate. More moss and less thickets.

[skaredshtles]

Saw a veritable shitload of funghi on my ride last weekend. Didn't take a ton of pics, but I was pretty sure this patch were porcini:

[neckdeep]

Probably. Looks like there's a few #1 buttons peeking out of the duff around those "flags". Shame to leave those behind. That's pretty much like leaving filet mignon or halibut steaks on the forest floor. In terms of $$$. Fresh picked #1 grade goes for $30-60 if you can even find it. That high end stuff usually goes straight to chefs who have pre-ordered it.

Again, the first key to identifying boletes is the pattern on the stipe. If you want an accurate ID, please flip one over.

[tgapp]

Probably. Looks like there's a few #1 buttons peeking out of the duff around those "flags". Shame to leave those behind. That's pretty much like leaving filet mignon or halibut steaks on the forest floor. In terms of $$$. Fresh picked #1 grade goes for $30-60 if you can even find it. That high end stuff usually goes straight to chefs who have pre-ordered it.

Again, the first key to identifying boletes is the pattern on the stipe. If you want an accurate ID, please flip one over.

+100 on the stipe. I am not sure if those are porcini but they are extremely likely boletes.

Neckdeep, I've never looked for chanterelles in the Uintas, but I'll go check them out now. Thanks for the heads up!!

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[skaredshtles]

Probably. Looks like there's a few #1 buttons peeking out of the duff around those "flags". Shame to leave those behind. That's pretty much like leaving filet mignon or halibut steaks on the forest floor. In terms of $$$. Fresh picked #1 grade goes for $30-60 if you can even find it. That high end stuff usually goes straight to chefs who have pre-ordered it.

Again, the first key to identifying boletes is the pattern on the stipe. If you want an accurate ID, please flip one over.

Yeah - I'm not a wild-mushroom-foraging guy (yet?).

The forest was practically *carpeted* in these and whatever the ubiquitous yellow 'shroom was. For 13 miles. It was impressive.

If I could identify porcini you can bet I would have had a bag full of them.

[neckdeep]

If I could identify porcini you can bet I would have had a bag full of them.

Porcini are very easy to ID. IMHO, the one way to really, really screw it up is to eat the tight buttons without pulling off the cap to double check for tube gills. I ALWAYS pull the caps off if I can't see the gill surface. There's amanita and cortinarious buttons growing in the same habitat and you can't foolproof the ID on tight buttons until you see the tube gills. Otherwise, it's an easy ID.

[stapes]

This thing was super cool looking. Anyone know what it is?

[neckdeep]

Something in the ramaria genus. Commonly referred to as coral fungus, the group contains edible species but nothing considered choice. Like many edible but less than choice mushrooms, they are commonly consumed in cultures that traditionally knew food shortages. Some species are known to cause severe gastrointestinal distress. It's a large genus with considerable overlapping features among species so one needs to be sure they have a correct ID, hopefully from someone with local experience eating them. Even so, the worst reported outcome is a bad case of the shits.

[JimmyCarter]

Safe to eat?

https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuc...tm_name=iossmf

[neckdeep]

Safe to eat?

https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuc...tm_name=iossmf

Mamilla Flaccidus, edible but not choice

[Boissal]

Saw a veritable shitload of funghi on my ride last weekend. Didn't take a ton of pics, but I was pretty sure this patch were porcini:

Free The Powder is apparently supporting bike-mounted shroom pickers everywhere:

[neckdeep]

Its an aspen bolete or red cap bolete. Its a leccinum, actually, not a boletus. Note the scabers on the stipe. Not a choice bolete. The one I sampled was certainly no equal to a king. Widely consumed but there is a real question whether the variant in Colorado is causing gastroenteritis. Its now considered an "eat with caution" in the Rockies.

Porcini species are a clade centered on the king bolete, boletus edulis. All feature a webbed pattern called reticulation.

[zion zig zag]

I’m too scared to eat anything I find, but I’m still curious. ID help?

[Boissal]

Its an aspen bolete or red cap bolete. Its a leccinum, actually, not a boletus. Note the scabers on the stipe. Not a choice bolete. The one I sampled was certainly no equal to a king. Widely consumed but there is a real question whether the variant in Colorado is causing gastroenteritis. Its now considered an "eat with caution" in the Rockies.

Porcini species are a clade centered on the king bolete, boletus edulis. All feature a webbed pattern called reticulation.

Agree with your ID, those were a couple of aspen boletes. That's all I've been finding around SLC this year, usually in aspen groves.
I've never found these things to be particularly tasty but they aren't significantly inferior to kings which don't taste all that impressive in the first place. At least compared to chanterelles...

[neckdeep]

A coprinus aka an inky cap. Well known for its autodigestion, inkies dissolve into black goo as soon as they stop growing. Coprinus contains two notable species: the choice shaggy manes and a somewhat similar looking alchohol inky. The alcohol inky puts chemicals into your system that cause massive nausea if you drink alcohol. Those look like shaggy manes to me but due to deterioration, hard to feel 100% on that. Shaggies have "locks" on the cap and alcohol inks are smoother.

[neckdeep]

Agree with your ID, those were a couple of aspen boletes. That's all I've been finding around SLC this year, usually in aspen groves.
I've never found these things to be particularly tasty but they aren't significantly inferior to kings which don't taste all that impressive in the first place. At least compared to chanterelles...

Well, that's a bummer. I rate our local kings right up at the top of the mushroom desirability totem pole. Out local chants are considered among the best but I'd gladly trade 2lbs of chants for 1lb of #1 grade porcini. Uncleaned, of course! Yeah...I'd probably make that deal just to weasel out of cleaning chanterelles. Try cooking porcini longer. It firms them up and brings out the umami, I think.

My personal preference:

1. (Tie) porcini, natural black morels.
2. Natural yellow morels
3. Grey fire morels
4. Black fire morels
5. Hedgehogs
6. Chanterelles
7. Spring king porcini
8. Shaggy manes
9. Bear's head
10. Aspen oysters
11. Yellow club

99. Mountain blond morels (I don't eat them)
100. Hawk wings (never again)

[Boissal]

Well, that's a bummer. I rate our local kings right up at the top of the mushroom desirability totem pole. Out local chants are considered among the best but I'd gladly trade 2lbs of chants for 1lb of #1 grade porcini. Uncleaned, of course! Yeah...I'd probably make that deal just to weasel out of cleaning chanterelles. Try cooking porcini longer. It firms them up and brings out the umami, I think.

My personal preference:

1. (Tie) porcini, natural black morels.
2. Natural yellow morels
3. Grey fire morels
4. Black fire morels
5. Hedgehogs
6. Chanterelles
7. Spring king porcini
8. Shaggy manes
9. Bear's head
10. Aspen oysters
11. Yellow club

99. Mountain blond morels (I don't eat them)
100. Hawk wings (never again)

It's entirely possible I haven't and properly cooked boletes and that's why I don't care for them much. Back home where I grew up people pretty much ignore them or use them as bases for sauces. Everyone's out for the chanterelles or the black version of them (death trumpets? Not sure what their name is around here)...
Cleaning, or picking chanterelles for that matter, is definitely a massive pain when compared to dealing with big guys. My dad and I spent 5 hours picking about 10 lbs of tiny ones this spring. I was wishing for knee pads about 20 minutes in. The cleaning was never ending...