Two clusters spotted today. The former harvested. The latter, sadly, growing through poison ivy.
Peace,
-Steve
Category Archives: Laetiporus sulphureus
The difference between L. sulphureus and L. cincinnatus
Rarely does one get to see them side by side as fruiting conditions are just different enough that they tend to pop at different times.
Even given that the L. sulphureus is rather young, and then L. cincinnatus is fully mature, you can see the striking difference in the pore surface (lower picture). The former is bright yellow where the latter is white-cream.
Furthermore, where L. sulphureus generally grows on logs in the summer and fall, L. cincinnatus generally grows at the base of a tree or up from underground roots in rosettes in the early summer and late fall (so it seems to like things a bit cooler).
#2 Sulphureus Chicken
At 3.25 oz, this specimen was beautiful. Might become a sandwich later today. It’s also the first L. sulphureus of the season, and the “droopy” variety I like best.
Which Mushrooms Freeze Best?
So today I took an inventory of our freezer to see which types of mushrooms survived deep freeze better than others. I was quite disappointed to see that the only species that really “made it” throughout the winter was Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sp.). In fact, 90% showed no signs of degradation at all, however I did note a trend that the fresher it was frozen the better it held up. This is very promising as Chickens don’t dehydrate well *at all* (they become papery and gritty when they’re rehydrated, no matter for how long). Chicken “ends,” i.e. the bits that are corky to begin with and are destined for making into broth, work well when they’re dehydrated and then boiled in water to make soup, however they need to be scooped out after they’ve imparted their flavor to the broth as they are simply inedible.
All of our Oysters (Pleurotus sp.), Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria sp., including E./A. abortivum), Meadow Mushrooms (Agaricus campestris), and Puffballs (Calvatia sp., Vacellum sp. etc) didn’t make it through the winter months without serious freezer burn or going stale, no matter how well-packed they were.
All of our Hen of the Woods (Maitake / Grifola frondosa) that was in the freezer didn’t do so well either, but the dried Hens are still great, sealed in airtight mason jars.
This upcoming year I’ll be experimenting with more dehydration.
Peace,
-Steve
#06 Laetiporus sulphureus
Absolutely heartbreaking…
Found it but 20 feet off our normal path through the woods. If we had come across it a week earlier, it would have been a feast (10+ lbs.).
Now it’s merely a tree with some fancy cork modern-art sticking out of it. Far, far too old. 😛
The Last Two Hauls
Lots of edibles collected on the 13th as well as this afternoon. Both walks were abbreviated as were still recovering from colds.
About 6.5 pounds of mushrooms total.
Calvatia cyathiformis
This one was one of the freshest I’ve come across this season. The flesh was pure white, firm, and smelled wonderfully.
(Didn’t quite resize properly. I’ll try and re-upload it later.)
Vascellum curtisii
(Again, didn’t resize well.)
The C. cyathiformis from earlier along with a mess of Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus).
The patch of P. ostreatus.
This is the same log as before, whose base had the Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa). After last night’s rain, we looked a little further up the log and saw:
A *gorgeous* and *large* Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus).
The entire thing was so fresh that not even the inner-most parts were corky yet.
On our way out of the woods, we spotted a giant Black Oak tree (Quercus velutina) that had seven clusters of young Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa).
We took three. This one.
This one.
Not this one.
And this one.
Tomorrow we plan on coming back to see how the others have grown (or if other mycophiles helped themselves). 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
#03 Laetiporus sulphureus
An absolutely gorgeous Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus type).
Not a single part of this specimen was hard or corky. It had *just* grown.
Today’s Abbreviated Mushroom Hunt
Since my eldest daughter has come down with a cold, and the rest of us are fighting not to get sick, our planned mushroom hunt after last night’s heavy rain was greatly abbreviated.
Here are the mushrooms of note from our hike:
Witch’s Butter (Tremella mesenterica) growing amongst some unidentified Peniophora.
Very young Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) growing from a downed oak tree.
Tomorrow, if we’re feeling up to it, we may be back to pick the rest when they mature. These guys were the so called “true” oysters as their sporeprint came back a very very faint lilac.
We found a *very* pleasant surprise when my wife looked into the standing, hollowed out trunk of the tree the Oysters were growing on and came upon a *perfect* specimen of Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa).
There were also two Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus variety) growing in Johnson Park.
The latter one was a second bloom, growing from a place we harvested earlier in the season.
Also, a number of other types of mushrooms we came across that I do not have pictures of (as I simply haven’t had the time to upload them yet) were a bunch of forest Marasmius, a stick full of Jelly Ears (Auricularia auricula-judae), one Deer Mushroom (Pluteus cervinis) and a half-dozen Meadow Mushrooms (Agaricus campestris). Out of all of those, we only picked the Meadows.
It was all worth it in the end. For dinner we had bacon, rarebit and Chicken of the Woods sandwiches on fresh home-made whole wheat bread.
That meal embodied the taste of Fall for me. 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
Today’s Edibles
Today’s trek through the Helyar Woods and a few other places yielded a few fun culinary specimens.
A tiny Beefsteak Polypore. At this point I think that the literature needs updating. Beefsteaks seem to be naturalized in NJ.
Two good brackets of Chicken of the Woods. One in Helyar from a bigger cluster that was picked over by another mushroom hunter, another exceptionally young bracket from the log by Ryder’s Lane (much more grew, but sadly so did the poison ivy).
Lots of Meadow Mushrooms from a variety of places, including the largest specimen of the year so far.
In the next post I’ll have the inedibles and unidentifieds.
Peace,
-Steve
All above: Fistulina hepatica
All above: Laetiporus sulphureus
All above: Agaricus campestris
Another Beefsteak and a Single Chicken
Yesterday on a nature hike through the Livingston Preserve we found *another* Beefsteak Polypore. My Other Half thinks that they might not be so rare in NJ after all, but perhaps it’s more an indication of the odd climate this year.
We also found a *single* lone Chicken of the Woods bracket growing from a stump.
I also forgot to mention the other day finding a huge cache of Corral mushrooms, as well as a Geo Cache when we weren’t looking for one. 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
