More Mushrooms!

[upstatenybowyer]

Went out mushroom hunting with my two kids today and we hit the jackpot. Collected a little over 2.5 lbs. Too many to eat ourselves so we sold most to a restaurant in the city. The kids got to keep some of the money. They were pumped. Nothing better than getting kids interested in nature. 

[bjrogg]

Nice Jeff. Your a good teacher, parent and mushroom hunter. You sure you couldn't eat all those?
Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

I picked about 5 pounds of chanterelles the other day and put them i my dehydrator. I read that you have to freeze or dry them to keep them for any length of time. I vacuum sealed them after I dried them.

I shot a tournament at Enid Ms last weekend, there were huge patches of incredible chanterelles everywhere in the woods where the tournament was heald, huge ones, no bugs and much better than the ones I find in my woods in Bama.

[BowEd]

Pretty good getting those kids excited like that.Mother nature is a wonder.Exposing that is very good.
I've heard restaraunts pay pretty good money for fresh local mushrooms.

[Ed Brooks]

I'm jealous. They can be canned for storage too. Ed

[upstatenybowyer]

Thanks for the encouragement BJ. Probably could have eaten um' all, but the steak to go with um' woulda cost me a fortune!

Eric, I dehydrated a bunch a few years back and when I went to use them they were bitter as heck. Someone then told me that dehydrating can do that to them. Sure hope it doesn't happen to yours. Fingers crossed for ya. Now I go with canning, or "saute then freeze." Hope you picked some of those beauties you found at the tournament. 

Yeah Ed, some restaurants do. These guys went for $25 a pound. The kiddos got to keep $15 each. My son is saving up for some dinosaur toy. Thanks and praises to Mother Nature. 

Hope you find some soon Mr. Brooks! 

[JW_Halverson]

I would not be surprised that some might becomes bitter after drying.  I know the one time I got into a good batch of morels that they really INTENSIFIED their flavors after drying.  In fact, even more so than you would anticipate.  I rehydrated the last big one, chopped it, added it to a pot of venison stew and it was pure mushroom stew after that!!! One four inch morel diced into 20 pieces overwhelmed a 5 qt crockpot of stew.  What can I say, I ate it all. I liked that spadeful of forest floor dirt in every bite.

Those are some lovely shrooms, Upsy! Do the kids eat them, too?

[upstatenybowyer]

Yum JW, I would have gleefully lapped up every last spoonful myself!  Dehydrating morels is the way to go for serious flavor enhancement. 

My daughter loves wild mushrooms. My son wants to love them but can't as of yet. 

[JW_Halverson]

Well, even if they don't like them on the plate (or bowl), at least they had the opportunity to pick them and then reap a reward for their work when they sold them. I have spent so much time thinking about training raptors that I look at almost everything anymore as "training". That means picking things apart and reconstructing them along the lines of cost vs benefit, risk vs reward, and how to make sure that rewards get built into every interaction.

The trip to the woods looks like this in my mind: An opportunity was created (got the kids into the woods).
A novel situation emerged (LOOK! MUSHROOMS!).
Behaviors were shaped/modified: (Help me pick these) 
Integral reinforcement already exists (Dad sure loves his 'shrooms, I'm gonna pick a bunch). 
Unforseen jackpot reward intensified the reinforcement (MONEY!) 
Likely outcome (You kids wanna go pic---?  YES!!!)

[bjrogg]

JW I always said raising kids was just like training dogs. Guess it's just like  training raptors to.lol.

Jeff tell your son not to worry. When I was a youngster I hated mushrooms, olives and any little speck of fat. For some reason I crave all of them now. Strange. My youngest son on the other hand when he was only a couple years old he would do anything for a Olive. He would eat a lemon without even making a face and ate all my fish off my plate at a restaurant. Now he won't touch fish, drinks lemonade but won't eat a lemon. He still loves olives though.
Bjrogg

[upstatenybowyer]

JW I always said raising kids was just like training dogs. Guess it's just like  training raptors to.lol.

Jeff tell your son not to worry. When I was a youngster I hated mushrooms, olives and any little speck of fat. For some reason I crave all of them now. Strange. My youngest son on the other hand when he was only a couple years old he would do anything for a Olive. He would eat a lemon without even making a face and ate all my fish off my plate at a restaurant. Now he won't touch fish, drinks lemonade but won't eat a lemon. He still loves olives though.
Bjrogg

Funny how things change over the years. I heard people's taste buds change every 7 years. When my daughter turned 7 she started trying different things, so maybe there's something to it.

Wish my son would do anything for an olive!

[Chippintuff]

Eric, you were right there in my neighborhood when you were at Enid. When I was growing up, our house was within sight of where the backwater came to in the spring. There is a little airport at Water Valley, and we lived about a mile from there. I'll always think it was a good place for a kid to grow up. The shame of it is that back then I had no appreciation for toad stools.

WA