Mushroom report - chanterelles, morels and soon Spring Kings!

[ekinoderminator]

The SF Bay Area chanterelle season for 2010 was really good..

I tried baking them - turned out very nice and when vaccume packed this way it froze well.

First I gave them a bath in olive oil, spring garlic, thyme, this wonderful citrus I don't know the name of and a few other ingredients.



Baked them for about one hour at low temp.







Here are chanterelles done the typical way - delicious!



The morels are now in full force......





Now just waiting for the Spring Kings to show up in full force.

 

[french fries]

WOW!!! I'm incredibly jealous. Those all look amazing!

this wonderful citrus I don't know the name of

Could it be a meyer lemon?

 

[ekinoderminator]

Could it be a meyer lemon?

I buy them from the local Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian farmers - they call them "grapefruit oranges" - I think it might be "New Zealand Grapefruit" also called "Poorman Orange" - incredibly sweet, mild acidity.
 

 

[koukouvagia]

This can't be real.  If it is I'm incredibly jealous.

 

[siduri]

is it what they call a mapo here?  The link is in italian but the picture is in english   /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

http://www.agraria.org/coltivazioniarboree/mapo.htm

it's the cross between a mandarin orange and a grapefruit

Those baked mushrooms look wonderful

 

[ekinoderminator]

is it what they call a mapo here?  The link is in italian but the picture is in english   /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

http://www.agraria.org/coltivazioniarboree/mapo.htm

it's the cross between a mandarin orange and a grapefruit

Those baked mushrooms look wonderful

That mapo looks and sounds just like it! Have you tried it? I am crazy about that citrus - incredibly juicy, sweet and great flavor. The season is over now so I must wait 8 months until my next bite.

This Saturday I think I'll find around 100 to 200 lbs of fresh beautiful porcini!
 

 

[koi29]

Just got some fresh Morels in at my work today /img/vbsmilies/smilies/rollsmile.gif

Using them in a wine dinner Sunday.

 

[ekinoderminator]

I did not pick as many as anticipated but next week should be really good. Here is some of what I picked yesterday -

 

[eastshores]

That's insane. I live in Florida and wanted to try finding my own mushrooms, then I read about it, and basically even the experts that promote doing it, say don't ever do it without an expert, too many confusing species in which some may very well kill you. I am guessing you don't have that problem in NorCal?

 

[ekinoderminator]

That's insane. I live in Florida and wanted to try finding my own mushrooms, then I read about it, and basically even the experts that promote doing it, say don't ever do it without an expert, too many confusing species in which some may very well kill you. I am guessing you don't have that problem in NorCal?

Northern California is well represented in the realm of deadly fungi - Amanita phalloides is the main species to weary of. Knowing which mushrooms are good or bad is strictly knowing each species individually. It is easy to get to know them if one is passionate about doing so. A good place to start is your local Mycological Society. There's bound to be good mushroom hunting in Florida.

 

[eastshores]

I guess there are, we have something like the morels, we have an edible truffle, and we have a "florida shitake" among about 12 other highly sought species. My problem with it, is if making a mistake could be so damaging to your body, and possibly kill you, it's a little unnerving to have to do spore prints as the only sure way to identify some species. Do you do them each time it is questionable, would you just steer clear of any questionable varieties? No matter how much research I might do, and how certain I was that a particular variety was identified, I would have a hard time swallowing it even though I absolutely love mushrooms.

I guess I am trusting the mushrooms in the super market 100% .. and I wonder how much risk there is with the "wild variety" packs they sell? No matter what, your photos are astonishing and really make me want to reconsider giving up my own pursuit. I fish and garden here we have great seafood and good climate, but foraging is something that eludes me.

 

[titomike]

I buy them from the local Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian farmers - they call them "grapefruit oranges" - I think it might be "New Zealand Grapefruit" also called "Poorman Orange" - incredibly sweet, mild acidity.
 

Maybe a tangelo?....a cross between a Tangerine (mandarin orange) and a Grapefruit...very sweet but most noticeably really juicy! Believed to have originated in S.E. Asia 3000 yrs back so might be the connection to the growers.

NZ Grapefruit came from Australia as it wasn't hot enough for the usual varieties but is not particularly sweet, grew up blanketing them with sugar! Does look more like a Grapefruit than a Tangelo though...

 

[ekinoderminator]

Maybe a tangelo?....a cross between a Tangerine (mandarin orange) and a Grapefruit...very sweet but most noticeably really juicy! Believed to have originated in S.E. Asia 3000 yrs back so might be the connection to the growers.

NZ Grapefruit came from Australia as it wasn't hot enough for the usual varieties but is not particularly sweet, grew up blanketing them with sugar! Does look more like a Grapefruit than a Tangelo though...

Definitely not a tangelo but like the tangelo it is super super juicy. It is very seedy and extremely sweet.

 

[ekinoderminator]

I guess there are, we have something like the morels, we have an edible truffle, and we have a "florida shitake" among about 12 other highly sought species. My problem with it, is if making a mistake could be so damaging to your body, and possibly kill you, it's a little unnerving to have to do spore prints as the only sure way to identify some species. Do you do them each time it is questionable, would you just steer clear of any questionable varieties? No matter how much research I might do, and how certain I was that a particular variety was identified, I would have a hard time swallowing it even though I absolutely love mushrooms.

I guess I am trusting the mushrooms in the super market 100% .. and I wonder how much risk there is with the "wild variety" packs they sell? No matter what, your photos are astonishing and really make me want to reconsider giving up my own pursuit. I fish and garden here we have great seafood and good climate, but foraging is something that eludes me.

Most of the choice wild fungi seem temperatly inclined, i.e. warm summers, cool wet winters. Florida is unknown to me but I have heard morels do not fruit there. I would focus on mushrooms that don't need a mycorrhizal relationship but instead fruit on decomposing debris, e.g. Agaricus sp. (especially agustus!), lepista nuda (Blewitt), Coprinus comatus (Shaggy Mane). I would also focus on any indigenous coniferous forests that exist in Florida as a possible location for fleshy fungi that are choice edibles.

There are poisons in the animal world and plant world as well as the mushroom world - it isn't difficult to distinguish what is good and bad. The occasional poisonings are typically S.E. Asian immigrants that confuse A. phalloides with a mushroom that looks very similar in SE Asia. Personally, I pick Amanitas that are edible and feel perfectly safe on the ID because I know the species. In fact, my kids will be eating some with me tonight! In the photos are my kids holding Amanita calyptrata, below that the deadly Amanita phalloides. On top is a poor photo of A. calyptrata and some queen boletes. 


 

 

[dc sunshine]

Oh for goodness sake - stop showing me all these 'shrooms!  Arrrghh Grrggg hehe.  We get nothing like the variety you have there, and in such abundance.  Pretty much all we see here (dunno what you call them locally) are button mushrooms, prtabello, occasionally straw,  and swiss brown.  And that's it. <sigh>  You can get dried 'shrooms of various types, but is nothing here as interesting as morels.

ekinderminator....I think you are on the right track.  At first glance I thought Grapefruit - the seeds don't look like any lemons I've seen.  I think my father lived on grapefruit for breakfast for at least a decade when we were kids, and it looks very familiar.

 

[eastshores]

Thanks Ekinoderminator. I started researching again today. I plan to start roaming through the woods on my property, as well as going out around what luckily is a very large park across from my home that has 3 different forest types, sand hill, oak canopy, and hardwood. I won't eat anything at all, until I get to a point of being very comfortable and right now, I think my first candidate will be to find either grifola frondosa aka "maitake" or another in our area laetiporus sulphureus aka "chicken of the woods".

From what I understand those two types are relatively easy to identify and don't have any real look alikes that are dangerous, so long as you understand that they DO NOT have gills.

For other mushrooms I might find, I think I will still do my best to identify them, as I know the only true way to safely harvest and ingest mushrooms that have dangerous look alikes, is to know very well both the desired and the deadly and to know the differences between them. Thanks again for inspiring me to get back into this, I love mushrooms and they have good health benefits if you don't eat one that ends up with you being "kilt". /img/vbsmilies/smilies/thumb.gif

 

[shroomgirl]

There are some that do not have  poisonous look a likes.   Where exactly do you live in Northern Cali? I have family in Grass Valley....

NAMA north american mycological society has chapters all over the US....they typically have forays for members and will ID shrooms.

Morels this late?! wow. 

it's hot and wet here, time for chanterelles to start popping....along with chicken of the woods, hen of the woods are slightly later, woodear, oysters, LBM's.....black trumpets......some weird blue bolettes....1997 was a very good chanterelle year, I'm hoping the amounts of rain are so prolific that mushrooms will be too.

Thanks for sharing....oh and try, tarragon and fingerlings with those chanterelles.

 

[cabotvt]

WOW I live in a Morel state and I have never seen a haul like that well done.PS the cooking pictures are top notch, should be on the cover of Gourmet.

 

[eastshores]

I went hunting today.. and found.. well.. I'm not sure what I found! These first ones are the most interesting I found. I don't have my fields guides yet, they should be here tomorrow. They look like a kind of chanterelle look alike, but they were hairy.



The gills did taper onto the stalk..



I also found a number of downed trees that had these on them. They are fleshy, thin, smooth on the underside with no gills.



I figured I could get started early exploring and taking some photos, then when my field guides get here, I can use them as samples to practice identifying. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/bounce.gif

 

[ekinoderminator]

.

Boletus rex-veris fruits in the Spring and Summer in the Sierra Nevada Mountains - the season begins in late April at the low elevation of 3,500 ft and continues into July (this unusual year it'll be August) at 8,000 ft roughly. The porcini in these photos are from around 6,300 ft and they were picked 6-27-10.

When I get so many I preserve many - most are dried but the very choice specimens I dry roast on a non stick then flavor up with olive oil, garlic, etc.

done this way they can be place in the fridge for several days and used in any number of ways. They can also be vaccum packed and frozen.

Dry roasted on a nonstick pan then given a bath in olive oil....



Dried....

Here are some fresh after cleaning....