The rains of last week coupled with warm weather have produced a bumper crop of woodland and field mushrooms, some edible and delicious, some dangerous and deadly and others just "Blah, Why did I eat that?" I am not about to try to identify them here: that spells foolish. If you are after shaggy manes, they are great if you get them when they are young and very fresh,before they go into the inky stage. I sliced and fried one with garlic and added it to scambled eggs early this morning. (I am still alive!) Or perhaps hunt a small puffball: tasty when sliced and seasoned and fried like a fritter. However you need someone to take you in the field to teach you first hand. Someone who knows that they are doing. But for looking for colorful fungi it only takes a walk in the woods and you may find one such as this 'bird bath fungi '(not its real name) that edged a shady spot of the wood chipped fitness trail in Troy. The part we see (the mushroom) are the fruting part, just the tip of the fungi iceberg, most of the fungi is hidden underground. As I knelt for a closer look at this stump-eating mushroom I almost expected to find elves bathing in the water filled cup. The puffball below is in my chemical free front yard. NOTE: As for morels, they will not appear till next May, about the time the lilacs bloom. I'll be waiting. And feasting.
Love those puffballs! Did you cook them up this year?
ReplyDeleteI keep going out looking for Morels in the spring as they are very tasty and very hard for me to find. I can find Largemouth Bass much easier.
ReplyDeleteI cooked one slightly smaller than the one in the photo: this year. They are great if flesh is firm, solid and white. And for Sandman--I find bass easier to catch too! Did not find many morels this year,
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