I went mushroom hunting with one of my best friends today. His place is roughly 3/4 wide and 1 1/2 miles long. We started at the very back in the rear right corner of the property, in an area he had cleared last year, on the property line. There was a group of 5 wild turkeys. 2 very nicely bearded toms, 1 tom with only a 5" or 6" beard and 2 small turkeys that were probably last year's hens. They ran slowly in front of us, going tge same way we were, for probably 600 yards, staying in the open, until they reached woods at the corner of the property.

The ground was probably too dry for morels in that corner. I found the remains of an old puffball.



I also found what vaguely looks like and may be chaga. Does anyone know what it is?



We next drove over to the other side of the property, which is usually the most productive spot for morels. I found 1 broken, yellow morel.



I also saw some of these small mushrooms on smaller, dead branches on the ground.




I think they may be an edible mushroom, but I can't remember what they are called. They are common in my area. Does anyone know what they are?

The Spring flowers were stunted looking and in short supply this year, probably because it's dry. I found this one I don't know the name of.



It looks almost like some sort of variegated, wood sorrel. Does anyone know what is?

Within 2 minutes of reaching the normally better spot, it started pouring. My buddy called it about 5 minutes later because he was worried about the Ford Ranger getting stuck.

I saw pheasant backs AKA dryad saddles from the truck on the way in and out. They are super common in my area. I could pick hundreds of pounds of them some years. They smell like watermelon and are edible. I've cooked them numerous ways. Though they are edible, they are not very palatable. I just leave them now. Have any of you found away to cook them that makes them good?

We are probably going to look again tomorrow. We will take a tractor back, to avoid getting stuck.

Keith

I think this may be a Cinnabar Polypore, Bright Red Bracket Fungus



Does anyone know?

Keith

I am sure it is edible,,,, try it and let me know if I was wrong……
Or ya send them to smasho,,,,,, for the test..

All mushrooms are edible
Some only once though

The only mushrooms I am really confident on collecting and eating are morels, giant puffballs, field mushrooms, pheasant backs/dryad saddles, lions mane, hen of the woods and chicken of the woods/sulphur shells.

Keith

I had a bad experience with mushrooms in the 80s at concert

It's not chaga.

Shoosh

Some people intentionally micro dose those Psilocybin mushrooms all the time now. Joe Rogan has several reoccurring guests who are big into them.

Keith

Lycanthropes have quite hardy constitutions. It's probably safe for you.

Keith

Lycan is gonna try again! Tatiana told me to boil em first!

After ya vomit it gets pretty good.

Is that "chaga" not just a crazy burl?

I agree that it's maybe best just to leave the dryad's in the woods. I haven't solved them yet either. Not a horrible flavour, but a distinct sense that you are eating bark

I wish the dryad saddles were good to eat. I can find them in huge numbers, in large sizes and clumps, much of the year. In abundance and sheer poundage, the only other mushrooms I can find in similar amounts are giant puffballs and every 5 or 6 years, field mushrooms. Both are only available for only a short time compared to dryad saddles.

I am going to inoculate around 35 to 40 loads of wood chips with wine cap mycelium and hope they will be as abundant, but good to eat.

Keith

Where’s Tatiana when you need her

She will be around…

I started wine caps a couple years ago. I basically did a section of trail, about 6 feet wide and 40 feet long. I get more wine caps than i can use and give away.

I don't know what 35-40 loads of chips is, but you're going to have a lot of shrooms.

They are wood chips from the crews clearing power lines of branches in my area. Some people call them arborist chips. I got them for free lasrpt Summer and Fall, because I was planning to start a nursery business and needed the chips to compost for soil and to put around the trees, bushes and vines I am using for cloning material and hopefully a future You Pick. I got around 35 to 40 truckloads of wood chips dumped here. I took a partner for the nursery business, the first partner I had since 2003, when I had my security company. We got our LLC the week before Easter and passed our first inspection on last Friday. I have two separate businesses going now and plan on a third and maybe fourth.

I've never eaten a wine cap mushroom, but have heard they are good to eat. Do you like them? They should break the chips into soil much more quickly. I hope to be able to sell the wine caps too.

Keith

Wine caps are good eating. Super easy to "grow". But, they can flush very quickly and go bad in just a couple days.

They'll definitely break down the chips a lot faster. I'll get a couple yards of chips to "feed" my existing bed.

Thanks.

Keith

I just made a tiny late night snack of the morel I found. I microwaved it on 8 for 111. It was scrumptious. I've never microwaved a model before. I have always fried them. It was so good I licked the bowl. I hope to have better luck and better weather tomorrow.



Keith

That is a burl. Chaga is all black and crumbly and encrusted in melanin, with marbled orange cork-like stuff inside. Some people chop off the black stuff before infusing it and some think it has more healing powers than what's inside.

It's almost impossible to identify bracket fungi without seeing the underside. Out of context I'd say that it's a dried-out Crepiotus, possibly Crepidotus crocophyllus. Inedible, and not a big loss because the flesh is thin-fleshed and smells like rotten wood. It's always good to know the specific substrate when identifying fungi. Taking a picture of the surroundings provides valuable hints for the id, too. It also makes sense to get down to the same level as your models, otherwise most of your toadstool pictures will look like circles

a couple of pictures from this week/today:


A few pitiful-looking thimble morels, it's still too early for them. They are usually synched with fiddleheads and there are no fiddleheads yet.


Pycnoporus cinnabarinus on where beaver massacred an aspen stand a few years ago. These fruitbodies are from last year but they retain the color for a long time. Where I live it grows almost exclusively near streams. The first picture shows the underside, and the third shows the flesh cross-section. It yields a very nice vivid yellow colorfast pigment that sticks well to mordanted yarn.





Mycena strobilicola, a snowbank fungus that grows on cones and smells like bleach.

Last year's puffbals, Lycoperdon perlatum


Pseudoplectania, rare here.


A nice (mummified) turkey tail specimen.


These grow anywhere spruce grows it seems. Rutstroemia bulgarioides.

If you find morels in one spot and pick them, will they be there the next year?

OP, as far as your last picture of the woodland flowers.
I asked a Ecologist that specializes in plants I know, the guy is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. He has walked thru my property and knows every plant in the place including grasses and sedges.

This is his reply, " I'm pretty sure it's Oxalis stricta (yellow wood sorrel) with atypical leaf coloration. I've seen it leaves completely red/purple before."

Thanks everyone.

Here's some more pictures from today.






I believe these are old turkey tail mushrooms.






Is this golden seal?


I believe this is wild geranium.


This looks somewhat like showy orchis, without the flower. Does anyone recognize it?


I found this oak gall today too, laying on the forest floor. It really does look like some sort of odd fruit. It's super light.


I found a bunch is small morels, most to far gone and some white ramps too. I've never found any of the red ramps on my end of the state.

Keith

Always a good idea to take pictures of the underside (gills, pores, ...), and side views, otherwise most mushrooms in pictures will look like circles

The first two groups of white circles have semitranslucent caps with gills showing through so they're probably a large early wood-inhabiting species of Mycena (M. arcangeliana or something similar).

The solitary circles are probably Agrocybe praecox, a common early species growing on litter.

The last group of white circles are either also A. praecox or slightly dried-up Psathyrella spadiceogrisea, also a late spring/early summer species (complex of species).