In the fall after tick season is over, I like to go hiking or walking with my friend Sue in the woods near where I live. Over the past couple of years, we have become very interested in the mushrooms that we’ve been seeing. Red ones. Pink ones. Red and pink ones!
Purple ones. Polka dotted ones. 
Bright yellow ones. Oodles of brown ones. We had no idea what they were, but they were fascinating.
Sue and I belong to the North Shore Horticultural Society, a more than hundred year old society that hires speakers to come to our meetings to lecture on all things horticultural. We were both on the board of directors, and I suggested to the other officers we get a speaker to talk to us about mushrooms. Through another friend, I was introduced to a local mushroom expert, Gary Gilbert. He’s going to present to our group in January.
Last Friday, I noticed an article from a local newspaper posted on Facebook about the bumper crop of mushrooms in the woods this year because of all the rain we’ve been getting from spring through the fall. The article mentioned that Gary was leading a two hour walk through a local forest on Sunday. Sue and I decided to go, and Jeff who is always game for a walk in the woods came along. At least 50 other folks joined in. It was quite a crowd. Gary and his colleague, Chris, a professor at University of New Hampshire and a marine botanist (think seaweed) who now studies mycology (mushrooms and fungi) came along to be another resource for our big group.
Sunday was freezing. It was about 40 degrees, and the wind was very strong. I bundled up, and thankfully, it wasn’t as cold and windy in the woods.
We saw a lot of mushrooms. Gary gave us some pointers on how to identify the different types of mushrooms. Key indicators include the color, the gills, whether the gills curve onto the stem or not, the color of the spores (a dust on the top and on the gills), the ring around the stem, the shape of the stem, and whether it grows on wood (either live or dead trees) or on its own on the ground. Actually, it’s very complicated because there are so many variables!
Many of those in the group were interested in edible mushrooms, but telling the edibles from those that are either poisonous or those that will make you sick is no easy task. It is critical to go mushroom foraging with an expert if you’re after mushrooms to eat! We mostly wanted to learn how to identify the different mushrooms that we see on the trail.
Nevertheless, Sue found quite a few edible honey mushrooms that she gave to me. Jeff won’t let me eat them because a small percentage of people have a hard time digesting them, and he thinks I will be one of them. He’s probably right!
But I found a few small oyster mushrooms, and last night I sauteed them with some diced onion, and they were delicious.
Gary gave those of us who wanted them big hunks of a giant edible mushroom cluster called hen of the woods. Of course, I was game since Gary knows what he’s doing, and I felt safe eating them. In fact, he cleaned them before he gave them out to us. Tonight, I cooked some of them for dinner. I separated the “leaves” and brushed them with a mushroom brush just to be sure (though they were very clean already).
I spread them out on a roasting pan, sprinkled them with a bit of olive oil as well as salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, and then roasted them at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes. I turned them over after 15 minutes.
They were absolutely delicious. They were very “meaty”, and they reminded me of portobello mushrooms in terms of texture and flavor. Yummy! I ate them as a side dish, but frankly they would have been a good main dish on their own.
Are you interested in mushrooms? Have you ever eaten hen of the woods?
How fascinating, Allison! What an inspiring way to spend the day, and what a delicious looking meal! I absolutely LOVE mushrooms, and would have ben thrilled to have been there!
I wish you were nearby, Helen, coz I’d happily give you some hen o’ the woods since I have way too much for one person. Hopefully, my friend Kim will take some. It was a fun and educational event. I noticed this morning that I have a ton of honey mushrooms (the ones Jeff won’t let me eat) growing at the base of a dead tree in the woods in my backyard. I never noticed them before!
Your close-up photo of Hen-of-the-Woods looks like an Old Masters painting! Beautiful.
Well, thank you, Kim! It was just a quick snapshot. I have to bring you some mushrooms tomorrow. I put them in the fridge. I am trying to write up a long giveaway post for tomorrow, make pumpkin spice bread to take with me tonight to the NSHS meeting. I’ll check in with you and find out when you’re home tomorrow.
Mushroom hunting is rather big here. You’d probably never be able to get a group together for an educational walk like yours in my neck of the woods. Anywhere that you’re allowed to hunt for them is picked over, and frankly so are the places you aren’t. It would have to be a walk in the woods peppered with comments like “and right here at the base of this tree is just the kind of place where you could find variety A, if there were any left. Please pass the photos around so everyone can see what variety A would look like” 😛
People are quite protective of their turf and crazy secretive about their hunting spots. Most of it is due to the morels which are highly salable. Some of those hunters don’t care about the other edible varieties so there are still some up for grabs, but like you said you’ve got to know what you’re doing! I don’t so I stay out of it. I’ll definitely eat what someone trusted brings my way though! Yum.
Wow, I’m glad to know that mushroom hunting is a thing where you are, Rachel! If we had morels here, I’d be even more into it. A friend from FB Fedexed me a box of morels that she and her husband (my former boss from years ago) picked either in Minnesota or Iowa, and boy were they delicious! I found a slew of honey mushrooms at the base of a dead tree in the woods at the edge of my yard today, but I wish they were a variety that I felt more comfortable eating 🙂
If a “small percentage” of people have trouble with that one it would be just like me to be in that percentile as well. Those kind of statistics seem made for me, hahahahaha
I’ll have to look up what said trouble entails. Depending on what may or may not happen, I might be willing to try it anyway.
Here you go: “Yes, these mushrooms are edible. They have, as you can imagine, a slightly sweet taste along with a chewy, first texture.
A species of honey fungus, Armillaria melleaYet despite the appealing name, these mushrooms can also be slightly bitter and are known to cause some gastric distress. That’s why many people recommend parboiling them for one or two minutes before cooking. Parboiling is the process of partially cooking something in boiling water but removing it before it cooks all the way.” Frankly, I don’t think it’s worth the trouble to eat honey mushrooms. I’d rather wait for better ones like oysters, morels or hen o’ the woods!
Haha yes you’re probably right.
Yet…if they were right there in my yard….might still go for it. Hmmmm lol
I avoided mushrooms for years – I’m a picky eater. I’ll eat them now but very few kinds. Other than the weather this sounds like a great learning experience.
It was a great learning experience, Marcia. Actually, the goal of the hike with Gary was not to find mushrooms to eat, but to learn to identify some of the zillions of species of mushrooms in the woods. I was amazed at how much I did learn in a couple of hours!
You know I love mushrooms. I cook them many ways. That would be a happy escapade for me, wish we have something like that! Funny thing, I have a mushroom post scheduled for tomorrow….
We’re on the same wavelength! Looking forward to your mushroom recipe!
I think it would be fun to go hiking but I am not a fan of eating mushrooms–never developed a taste for them.
Though I love mushrooms and Gary was generous to give us rare hen o’ the woods to cook, the goal really was a hike in the woods in order to see and learn to identify different species of mushrooms. So few of the mushrooms in the forest are actually edible. Two and a half hours of hiking was great exercise!
I’m not an adventurous mushroom eater, but it is fun to hunt for them. My dad and I used to look for puffballs when I was a kid.
Now I have to look up what puffballs are and if we have them here!
They’re a large (sometimes volleyball size) white spongey type of mushroom. I don’t know the specifics, but I would think they’d grow much the same as other mushrooms, given the right conditions and can grow anywhere.
Gee. I would have noticed those in the woods! But I will keep my eyes open. And I will look up more info. They sound very interesting!
I LOVE mushrooms but have never eaten hen of the woods. I do love me a good portobello with some marinara sauce, olives, and other mushrooms, baked in the oven for a bit.