Mushrooms

The Artists Conk has to be one of the hardest woodiest mushrooms there is. Often it is harder than the wood it is growing on. The top of the mushrooms around here are almost black and the bottom is almost pure white. On the younger ones, the outside margin is white also. I have found it mainly on downed hardwood logs. It tolerates the dry weather of late summer better than most mushrooms.

Links

• Mushroom Expert
• Tom Folks Fungus
• Roger’s Mushrooms

Ganoderma applanatum

This mushroom is commonly called the Sulphur Shelf mushroom or the Chicken of the woods. It is a good edible mushroom and easy to recognize. Its bright orange color makes it easy to spot in the woods. It grows on hardwood stumps and fallen logs. The wildlife in my area like it so you have to be quick to harvest it. It is a mild tasting and smelling mushroom.

Update, I found another specimen during a hot dry period. The second and third pictures are of this mushroom top and underneath side.

Links

• Mushroom Expert
• Oakes Museum - Fungi Growing on Wood
• Roger’s Mushrooms
• American Mushrooms

Laetiporus sulphureus

I have never encountered this mushroom before and it is big enough that I would have remembered. After looking around there are quite a few of them. They run in a band around the south and wests slopes at the same altitude. They are scattered throughout the woods, usually clustered together. Their rate of growth is quite rapid. One popped up next to a trail and grew to about 1 foot across within a day.

I have read they are edible and they had pleasant smell so I tried some. It was like chewing leather, it tasted good but you could hardly chew it up. My wife ended up running a couple cups through a food processor and putting it in a chicken casserole with rice. It tasted good and since it was already chopped up went down good. I had it for lunch a couple times the next week and the older it was the more the mushroom taste came out.

Links

• Mushroom Expert
• Oakes Museum - Fungi Growing on Wood
• Roger’s Mushrooms

Bondarzewia berkeleyi

I came upon this stump covered with mushrooms the other day and had to figure out what they were. It took me a couple of days investigation but finally decided they were Trametes elegans. I have also seen these mushrooms on downed beech tree trunks mixed in with Oyster Mushrooms.

They are fairly widespread through my woods mostly on downed beech trees.

They are very have a faint pleasant smell when fresh and a tough fibrous body. They have no stem growing shelf like from the wood.

Links

• Mushroom Expert
• Oakes Museum – Fungus on Wood

Trametes elegans

We have been eating this mushroom for the last three nights. My wife, who generally doesn’t like mushrooms, thinks this is one of the best things she has ever eaten. I had to put my foot down, last night and tell her I was not cooking any more for a couple of days. Look below for the recipe I use to cook them.

Let me tell you a story about my encounter with them a couple of days ago. Almost a week ago I decided to cut a place through a large tree that had fallen across the bottom of a gully completely blocking it. The tree was an old beech that had to be 80 feet tall. The trunk is about 36” in diameter. The way the tree had fallen it was supported by the root ball on one end and had pushed over another tree and the other end of the trunk was laying on its root ball so the trunk was about 2 feet off the ground. The portion of the trunk that was supported thus is about 50 feet long. Like I said it blocked the entire stream bed area and made it difficult to get through. So I cut about a 4 foot section out of the trunk. I won’t tell about getting the chainsaw stuck and having to get another bar and chain to cut the first one out. Suffice it to say there was a big thud when the trunk finally fell. The next day I came back and admired my handy work and the next day when I came back the log had sprouted Oyster mushrooms. I don’t know whether the thud shook something loose it was just coincidence. Like many mushrooms the speed with which they can grow is amazing. I picked a good batch the first day and when I came the next day there were even more than before I had picked them the day before. Other places around the property I have seen one or two but not a batch like this.

These mushrooms are delicate but firm. When you pick them up they appear to be wet like jelly but do not leave anything on your hands. The stem is offset and the gills run all the way down the stem. If you smell them they have a pleasant mushroom smell. The taste is also mild and both my son and wife think the consistency of the flesh when cooked is like fresh fish. Unlike many mushrooms, I like the taste and texture of the larger/older mushrooms best. The size of course varies with the larger ones being the size of my palm. Keep in mind when looking at the pictures of the log at right it is about 50” in diameter.

My Oyster Mushroom Recipe
I like to bread the mushrooms and batter them and fry them in oil flavored with garlic.
I make a breading out of crushed crackers and seasonings – I usually add onion flakes, celery salt, parsley, salt, pepper, oregano. I dip the mushrooms in an egg beaten with a dash of Tabasco sauce added. I tried corn meal breading and don’t like it as well. To fry the mushrooms I heat some oil in a pan and drop some fresh garlic in. When the garlic turns brown, the oil is hot enough. I remove the garlic and fry the mushrooms, turning them once and putting them on a paper towel to drain. Eat em while they are hot – delicious.

Edit 9-13-2008 I found several fresh patches of Oyster Mushrooms after a rain

Links

• Mushroom Expert
• Roger’s Mushrooms

Pleurotus ostreatus