Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Primitive Skills => Topic started by: Tsalagi on August 07, 2010, 07:46:11 pm
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Well, we found the first King Bolete of the season! This whale has a cap that's the size of a dinner plate! Thing is huge! My wife discovered a trove of Prince mushrooms growing near our house. Our neighbors mulched their yard (our yards are unfenced and border national forest) with wood chips and Prince mushrooms probably "hitched a ride" here on them. She picked a sackfull of them today and got a sackfull earlier in the week. This same area, we got Shaggy Parasols a couple years ago that hitched a ride in on a neighbors decorative lumber and established themselves.
Our dehydrator is going tp pay for itself all over again for the 1000th time. ;D
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That is cool. I'm going to miss my lease this year, that is the first place I've ever found edible mushrooms in Florida that you didn't have to take Vacation time to eat.
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Let's see some pictures...
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"...edible mushrooms in Florida that you didn't have to take Vacation time to eat." >:D Those grow here, too...I hear. >:D
We measured the King Bolete. The cap was 8 and 1/2 inches in diameter and the mushroom stands 8 inches high. That's a lot of mushroom! It filled all the racks of our Nesco American Harvest dehydrator---after we cut some fresh slices for stroganoff for dinner.
We have pics, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get them from the camera on to the computer. ???
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Aw man, shroooooms, maaaan! Can't wait to see the pics since you didn't invite me over to share in your bounty.
Some years back while turkey hunting we stumbled onto a patch of morels. Found one morel that was 8" high, and was almost 4" actoss the base. They were good fresh, but the flavor was extraordinary when the dried ones were reconstituted in soups and stews. I still hunt the heck outa that turkey ridge (it's the one called Lung Sucker), but have never found a single morel since. You might say I am immorel. >:D
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HONGOS A GO-GO!!!
Today's haul was nearly TEN POUNDS of Porcinis. These are the classic Porcinis that command premium prices in Italy. If you looked in an Italian cookbook that talks about Porcinis, the pictures you'd see would be these mushrooms. I mean, these are absolutely top-notch specimens. Textbook classics.
We found a few pounds of Shaggy Manes and collected those also. Those need to be run through the dehydrator ASAP as they turn to ink within a few hours of collecting. We haven't found those in a while.
We found a wonderful specimen of Mukhomor (Amanita Muscaria). Took that one home to dry and put on display, along with a few others were collected a couple years ago. This one was a textbook photo type one. They don't get any better than that. They look awesome dried and in a shadowbox.
We found a source of Ink Caps that we may return to collect.
We have pics of all of these and once I figure out how to load them, I'll post them here.
JW, Morels are a primo mushroom people here are always looking for. Folks here won't even give you a 100 mile radius idea of where to look for them if they found some. That one you found is the dream morel of mushroom collectors.
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We got nearly 20 pounds of them today! Everything from the classic Porcinis to gigantic King Boletes. We couldn't believe it! The Porcinis were growing in clusters, like bunching onions! Never saw that before. The big Kings were standing tall and looking good in a patch of them where we lifted 10 pounds of them right there.
They won't be 20 pounds once dried, as they shrink up, but with these, a little goes a long way. I figure it's going to take a couple days to get these through the dehydrator.
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PICTURES
;D
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I have the pics, it's loading them that I'm having to work on right now. I think I need a memory card reader. Meant to get one this weekend, but was too busy collecting mushrooms. Got more today, right in our "backyard". Some more of The Prince and some Shaggy Parasols.
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THIS IS INSANE!!!! ;D LOL!! We can't keep up with it! We filled the entire back seat of my Jeep Cherokee with sacks of King Boletes and smaller Porcinis! If I had to guess, I'd say we picked well over 100 pounds of them, maybe 150 pounds. Both our dehydrators are filled (and one has double racks) and our fridge is full of ones awaiting slicing and drying. This after we gave a sackfull to a friend and a half-sack to neighbors.
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The one time I got more shrooms than I could eat in a sitting I dried them down. It seemed to me that when I used them in cooking later they were even more strongly flavored than when they were fresh. One single dried morel made en entire pot of venison stew taste delish! Has anyone else had the same results?
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congrats on the haul! I've been seeing some bay and bicolor boletes, but the'yre all eaten up. Got some Oysters and a few sulfur shelfs in this crazy dry summer.
3 days of rain forcast, though... ;)
By the way, , IFC channel is running a cool movie called "Know your mushrooms" about edibles and medicinals like ling chi.
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JW, yes, drying mushrooms intensifies their flavor. Put them in a sealed mason jar to store them. They get richer with age. They'll last almost forever. I have heard some Russians smoke mushrooms to dry them and this creates a totally different flavor. But sealing dried mushrooms in a mson jar not only preserves your harvest, but they're going to get richer and stronger in flavor.
We went out this evening to gather some before dark after work. Got another four bags! One gargantua took up almost half a large paper grocery bag by itself! Being that we were going to be out there close to dusk, and I've seen bear sign out there, I toted my trusty Mosin Nagant 91-30. It's unsporterized, of course, meaning it's as heavy as the day it was issued, LOL! I had the routine down good: See Bolete, unsling and ground rifle, pick Bolete, put in bag, pick up and resling rifle. I noticed the Lactarius and Russulas are coming up and hopefully they'll turn into Lobster mushrooms.
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Postman, do you know if that movie "Know Your Mushrooms" is on DVD?
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yeah, I googled it and found it. I'll send ya the link
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Pity you don't live closer to the Black Hills, because I would let you use my American Harvest dehydrator and all 11 racks in exchange for a few tastey morsels..or morels..or chanterelles...*sigh*
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Chanterelles allegedly grow here, but I've never seen them. I think people are seeing Lactarius and think they're "chanterelles". Never have seen a morel here. But Boletes, boy, they sure grow when conditions are right. We got the last of the season's Boletes today. We found a family out picking. First people we've ever seen picking mushrooms. Of course, they turned out to be Eastern Europeans---Bosnians actually---so they loved mushrooms. They got a pretty respectable haul, which is good.
We found the season's first Lobster mushrooms today. We might get a good harvest of those. Those are choice mushrooms and they don't grow everywhere.
JW, you guys should have Western Giant Puffballs growing where you are.
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I've found some of those once, but generally I miss them when they are pickable. Awesome 'shroom....wonderful sliced about 3/4 inch thick and fried in butter. They are so good that the steak is the side dish to the 'shroom!
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They are awesome. We found one once. Reminded me of a big, white watermelon. We did fry up some puffball "steaks" and they were delicious. Where they grow here is quite a hike up into the San Francisco Peaks.
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Dang man,I usually get a good haul of morels (5-25lbs)and chicken of the woods when i can find em but sounds to me like you in shroom heaven!MMMMmmmmm gotta love some fungus!
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Morels are nothing to sneeze at. They command some pretty high prices.
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Morels are nothing to sneeze at. They command some pretty high prices.
I usually cook some up fresh and dry the rest.I got this awesome morel cream sauce recipe that compliments fish like you would not believe!!Out of this world!
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We were running three Nesco dehydrators this year; one with four extra racks.
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you need to get you one like I did for my Jerky...will do up to 30 pounds of Meat at once...
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Damn Mike,
Now thats a nice one!I bet it works like a charm!Haha if had one of those nuthin would be safe!! >:D
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I'll tell you what...you load this up with Venison Jerky....and you better have the Garage Door Open...because the Aroma is so strong it will burn Your eyes out...I dried the first batch with the Garage Door shut...took three days to get the smell of Jerky out of the House!! You can slice and dehydrate almost a Bushell of Apple at one time in it...I have made quite a bit of dried fruits...but mostly Jerky
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[/quote]I usually cook some up fresh and dry the rest.I got this awesome morel cream sauce recipe that compliments fish like you would not believe!!Out of this world!
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Morel cream sauce....like it needs fish or anything else with it!!!
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It's been skimpy on the shrooms here this year-too dry. Been getting a few, but not nearly as many as usual. The main ones I pick here are morels, chanterelles, smooth chanterelles, black trumpets, meadow agarics, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, cauliflower mushrooms, purple-spored and gemmed puffballs, beefsteaks, hedghog Hydnums, Russula virescens, a couple different boletes and Suillus, and indigo and apricot Lactarius. I've never found the Boletus edulis here, but there are a couple pretty similar to it.
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That's a nice dehydrator, El D! We've been thinking about a bigger dehydrator, but now have 3 Nescos, so we're pretty set. We can shuffle them around for space but weren't sure we have room for one of the bigger dehydrators.
Hillbilly, we could have had several boxes of Slippery Jacks here, but were concentrating on the Boletes, Princes, and Shaggy Parasols. But it sounds like you have more variety there than we do. We don't really have that kind of variety here. We wish we could find Black Trumpets!!!!!
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Mike -aint nuthin wrong with jerky flavored air freshener,mmmmm make me wanna eat the house!!;D
JW- I will post my cream sauce recipe tonight,watch out though it will have you doin B&E's for morels >:Dits worse than smack!!
steve-I got 2lbs of morels this spring and only by chance.our summer has been so dry that i havent even been ou tlooking.I'm doin rain dances every day next spring :D
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Do these look like chicken of the forest? I thought they normally grow on live trees, but I found this on a downed tree. Does anyone know if there are dangerous look-a-likes- I've never heard of any? It had no gills, very stringy and the whole thing was fairly tender. It was found in the Chicago area- which is starting to be Fall now, but not quite yet. Also, how do they take to a dehydrator if it is chicken of the forest? Thanks for any tips!
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That generally looks like it probably used to be a chicken of the woods, but it looks like it's way past eating condition. They will grow on live and dead trees both. There is also a form with white pores (Laeteporus cinncinatus,) which grows from the ground off of tree roots in big rosettes. I don't eat chicken of the woods off of conifer trees or logs, and I only eat really fresh ones.
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Tsaligi, the Smoky Mountains are really rich in a diverse bunch of mushrooms. We usually average between 40-80 inches of rain a year depending on elevation, but it's been really dry this summer. Here is an average day's morel haul here in a good year, with a mess of chanterelles for good measure:
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Man the Morels make Me Homesick...I haven't had one sinse I left Michigan in 82.... :'(
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Judging by the cheese-eating grin on your face, I guess you believe size does matter. I've got shroom-envy
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I don't think their past eating condition (though I'm not sure). They are the consistency of a soft peach- maybe a tad softer. What should they be like?
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That's a nice haul of morels and chanterelles, Hillbilly! Very nice! Those are two mushrooms that, if they grow here, no one says anything. If they do, they're the best kept secret in the Coconino National Forest.
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wow - whatta haul! Tooo dry here now for anything!
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Heres the morel cream sauce recipe.
1 clove garlic
1 shallot
Handful of dried morels
2 1/2c.Heavy cream
2c.chicken broth
1tbsp butter
rehydrate mushrooms in 2 cups or so chicken broth,microwave for 2min and set for 5-10min
dice shallots and garlic add to hot sauce pan with butter and sautee til they start to brown.add mushrooms and slightly brown.deglaze pan with chicken broth and simmer for 10 min.add heavy cream and simmer stirring occasionaly til you get the thickness you desire.It should be nice and brown and smell so so good!I like it really thick so i sometimes make some rue and add to it to thicken it up nice!
Enjoy!!
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Jeff, fresh ones should look more like this:
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Steve- How do you fix your chantrelles and chickens?You should try that morel cream sauce,if you like morels (which by the look on your face you do) :D you will love the cream sauce!
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That cream sauce recipe looks so good it must be immoral...or would that be im-morel?
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JW it is defintely IM-MOREL ;) My favorite is to take some fresh walleye fillets,salt and pepper fry em up in butter and jus pour that sauce all over em!It'll make ya wanna slap ya granny >:D
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...make sure ya don't spill a drop on top of your head cuz your tongue will slap your brains out getting to it!
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:D :D :D ;D dam i think i may have cried a bit on that one ;D good one!!