Santa Cruz Mushroom Excursion

the lady and i recently got back from mushroom hunting in Santa Cruz with a good friend of mine and a new acquaintance.

i thought i'd share:

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i haven't taken the time to lable them in the post, but the thumbs link to the full size images with labels and brief descriptions.

this trip was a blast, and i have enough Porcini drying now to last till the next trip.

after cleaning the Boletes, i sliced them up, between two piles. the first pile was for all the crisp, firm slices with no bugs. these are spread out to dry until crisp, at which point they will be bagged and stored in the freezer to be used as needed.

the second pile, all the specimens which are beginning to get soft, but are still sound to eat, or had some bugs [trimmed away] are stored in a paper bag in the fridge for use within the next few days, as they do not dry well. they are just as good to eat and i will be cooking them much in the next few days.

the smaller pieces, such as those which crumbled off as i was slicing where held aside for immediate use, fried in butter with a dash of salt and two cloves of garlic. these are going into a mushroom chowder i'll be making today. i hope to take a few photos and write up a recipe for the chowder.

not pictured, i also brough home a nice big specimen of Boletus appendiculatus, the butter bolete. these are good to eat, but by most accounts must be cooked very thoroughly to avoid gastic upset.

To be sure you do not want to eat the Amanita Muscaria pictured near the bottom of your post. I am sure you know what it is but, you may want to make it clear for others what it is?

it's not muscaria; the north american red fly agaric is actually Amanita amerimuscaria.

they are psychoactive and toxic, but not all that dangerous overall. the intoxication they cause is unpleasant for most, but i have several friends who still eat them.

i do not recommend it, but you can actually render them non-toxic by parboiling in water. this is used in some parts of europe with the true A. muscaria.

it is many of the other Amanitas you should watch out for. i don't much eat any of the edible species in that genus, even though i can identify them pretty well, due to an outright phobia.

another handy warning: if you own a mushroom field guide, it is out of date. i've been spending much time lately trying to catch up with the overwhelming changes that have been going on in the field over the last two decades. the last five years have increased the volume of such changes many fold, thanks to genetic analysis.

Looks like a bountiful harvest and a nice trip.

it was wonderfull.

mushroom hunting is an obsessive, passionate interest of mine, and i've been starved for wild mushrooms in this dry valley since last winter. it was great to visit the coast, to see so many mushrooms, to have so many good edibles to bring home, and to share the trip with friends.

this was my lady's second mushroom hunting trip and she seems to like it quite a bit.

edibles we brought home:

Boletus edulis [well: one of the north american species that passes for it],
Boletus barrowsii [the white king bolete],
Boletus flaviporus,
Boletus appendiculatus [the Butter Bolete],
Suilus pungens.

some pictures of the haul:
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...ul-Porcini.jpg http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...h_IMG_0001.jpg http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...h_IMG_0004.jpg http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...h_IMG_0007.jpg

we searched also in areas known to produce Boletus subtomentosus and Leccinum manzanitae [the Manzanita Bolete], but the area is frequented by commercial hunters who harvest a little too liberally, and tend to kick or stomp species they don't know. we where running out of light as well, so we drove back to town, grateful for the fine haul we had anyway.

if i ate Amanta lanei or any of the Amanita vaginata group, we could easily have come home with a hundred pounds of them.

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