Foraging for Wild Mushrooms

[laughing beetle]

Well, my plants Latin name is Sempervivum Tectorum, and they are completly different from the one you mention.. Papaver Somniferum, which is the opium poppy. Regional names can make things rather confusing.

[canid]

btw: in binomials, only the generic name [the Genus] is capitalized, not the specific [species].

[edr730]

http://flickr.com/photos/beyondmainst/2142947114/ this is a link to a picture of "hen and chicks" mushroom from MN. As I mentioned, I don't collect it. I also don't recognize it, haven't ate it and I have only been told about it by people who have ate it. This kind of third party verbal information could have errors including the name. I'll ask "some" people who have ate it. This makes the case for scientific names, but in that area, I'm pretty weak. I will watch for the Irises here, both in the ditch and in the yard and see how our irises time out. I mentioned minnows because I've trapped them for many years with an older friend. His wife would write down when the minnows began their run each year. We'd run the river in a boat and watering trough til the boat seemed that it would sink from the weight. We broke down once and I told him I would hold the plug and he could pull the cord a little to check for spark. He smiled and said ok. You know what he did, and he nearly fell out of the boat laughing. He was the same when I was in the water without waders, it was always a little deeper and then he laughed as I got wet and cold. He was a good friend. We helped each other. Those times and dates I remember a little better.
It seems to be the same weather in California when the morels arrive as it is here. I've rarely found early morel mushrooms covered with a bit of warm snow. But, I don't try to be the first one out either. The whites usually pop up best when it's t-shirt weather in the afternoon, but still cold at night. Colder weather gives a bad yield. Hardwoods and hills are the best here also. I seem to be lucky around white ash, but I don't know that it is anything more than luck. We don't find them in the swamps and cedars, but there are a few that are close to the swamp in the aspen, black ash, mixed beech and spruce kind of areas. Firs are less common here. The season here is about a month I guess, but only about half of that is in the peak season, something like the length of season strawberries have.

[laughing beetle]

Wow! Never seen a 'shroom looking like that unless it was on a log.

[ClayPick]

This is a lobster mushroom and quite edible. I have only found it once so I never picked it. Strange damn thing it is!
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[Rick]

You may be surprised to learn that the world's largest organism is actually.......drum roll please........a mushroom.

http://www.extremescience.com/biggestlivingthing.htm

[Styric]

I have recently taken up the mushroom foraging art. My methodology for safe practice is to pick 4 common edibles and learn as much as I can about them and how to identify them. Each time I hike or go foraging it helps to take a notebook and jot down the spots that I find them in and the conditions. If you have one take a camera and take some snapshots. I am starting with Morel, Chanterelle, Chicken of the Woods, and Puffball. As I grow more confident I will add new types of mushrooms. We have a few clubs in the area specific to mushroom foraging and they hold hike meets with guides. If you have one in your area I would recommend it.

Cheers,
Richard Styrsky (Styric)

[canid]

lobsters are a wonderful mushroom. they are one of the species of parasitic mold of the genus Hypomyces, which selectively target a few species of Russula and Lactarius, covering their surface during maturation, deforming them and hijacking their reproductive function by colonizing the hymenium [the surface of gill tussue which contains the spore producing cells (basidia in this case)] and replacing them with their own reproductive cells] the result is a complete change in shape, texture and flavor of mushrooms which otherwise can be extremely bitter and peppery, becomming reminiscent of shrimp, with a pungent odor.

in the northwest [Wa. and Or states] i've found hey very quickly get rotten, soggy and are often targeted by browsing animals. i saw much evidence in Or. of bears eating them

[swampmouse]

Like the picture.