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Late Fall Oyster 2017

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The sudden cold snap in Southern Ontario introduced deep minus overnight temperatures. I think that will mark the end of blewitts, shaggy parasols, orange milkies and other mushrooms. Tricholomas will probably proliferate after the frost. Unfortunately none of them are on my list of edibles. Too many similar gray species and some are known to be causing severe gastric upset. The mushroom that I look forward to pick is late fall oyster ( Panellus serotinus ).  It is very good edible, greatly under valued and neglected. It will be very hard to find any sources with information about cooking this mushroom. They grow exclusively on logs and trees. If they are on the live tree, it usually means that it is dying. It greatly prefers older logs with still some bark on them. The size can vary, but cap rarely grows more then 7-8 cm. Color is mainly shades of dark green but can turn tan and yellowish if frozen or growing in the some hole. The gills are dirty yellow-tan and quite dense. Frequently
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Black Walnuts 2017

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It is hard to walk through any wooded area or neighborhood in  Southern Ontario in the Fall without spotting green balls on the floor. This is the  black walnut , belonging to a tree species native to North America.  Walnuts are a tasty treat, but harvesting and processing requires a lot of work. This year, the crop seems to be extremely abundant. Here are several facts that are good to keep in mind if you decide to harvest some walnuts: walnuts are ready to harvest if your finger leaves an indentation on the green husk the green husk contains natural herbicides and it is not really suitable for compost (although oxidation fairly quickly neutralizes that chemical) green husk leaves yellow stains, so gloves are mandatory the green husk is poisonous to horses and dogs blackened and rotting husks do not affect the quality of the nut the black walnut tree fruits every two years it is not advisable to harvest directly from the tree; wait for fruit to fall on the floor T
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October 17th, 2017

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After I returned from Scotland it was quite busy at work for several weeks. Than it was time to do some preserves for winter so I did not have too much time to visit trails. Weather was quite hot and humid. Walking through woods was not really overly pleasant and mushrooms seemed to be totally absent. I found some traces of old honey mushrooms indicating that I missed them this year. I am not really disappointed since honey shrooms are not on my list of favorites. Maitake is and it seems that I missed them completely, too. Finally, a weekend for mushrooming came. In some areas of the deciduous woods it seemed that nothing changed and it was hard to spot even traces of mushrooms. On the logs there was several clusters of oyster mushrooms, but all of them were too old to be used in kitchen. In other areas, mainly under maple, there was the whole big crop of blewitts . Definitely mushroom high on my list of edibles. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate several additional observation
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Scotland Fall 2017

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Last three weeks I was in Scotland, more precisely Edinburgh, getting to know my first granddaughter Josephine Rae Redmond.  That was one of the best experiences of my life.     Of course, I could not help myself and snooped around checking for mushrooms. My daughters family lives near Edinburgh in somewhat country setting with lot of green areas. I was quite surprised how different mushrooms are. Before trip I did check several websites and some literature. They were all dealing with usual suspects: oyster, meadow mushroom, fairy ring mushroom, blewit, chicken of the woods etc. I did not find any of them (OK, maybe one blewit, one horse mushroom and several shaggy manes) Predominant environment is probably meadow, but I did visit some quite wooded areas with mature trees and river. In the meadows I found a number of waxcaps and great quantities of what I think is some species of paxillus. In the woodlands, under white birch I found great quantities of birch bolete (Leccinum scabrum).
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Cambridge, August 27th, 2017

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On weekend I visited forest near Cambridge (Ontario). The area is some 45 km North-West of my home. I was passing through really old hardwoods and area with mature spruce. Hardwoods The most spectacular was strong showing of clusters of Clitocybula oculus .  In my main field guide ( Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada ) the name is differently spelled, so there is some difficulty finding info on this mushroom. The main prize was my first find of the Hericium americanum. Excellent edible tasting very much like seafood (scallops). This mushroom loves old decayed logs. Some years I find them in great numbers. The one on the picture is very young and fresh, with pink overtones in the tips. It still did not develop relatively long "teeth", typical for this species. As an interesting find I will mention Geopora sepulta. Very handsome cup mushroom. I do not encounter it frequently. Coniferous Woods The first mushroom I noticed was chicken fat mushroom ( Suillus americanus ).
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Barrie, August 22nd, 2017

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On August 22nd I was doing some work in Barrie Ontario. This is some 160 km from my home in north-east direction. I finished a little earlier than expected and on my way home visited one of the forests surrounding Barrie. As a general rule, more North you go in Ontario it is easier to find crown lands and regional forests that allow mushrooming. Barrie is surrounded with excellent mixture of forested areas. Some of them are natural and some were planted in the second half of 20th century. Planted areas are usually pines. The area I visited is situated north west of Barrie. And what a treat that was! The forest is mixed woods with hardwoods and conifers relatively evenly distributed. On the bases of my previous visits I expected to find some lobster mushropoms .  I did find couple, but the host species (Lactarius and Rusulla) were quite present, especially Lactifluus piperatus.   Therefore I expect in September much more of the lobsters around. During my short visit I found a great vari
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August 21st, 2017

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Since nothing overly exciting is happening in deciduous woods I visited one of the young spruce grows. Later in the season this is the place to find some Lactarius species, blewits and puffballs. This time I found really beautiful specimens of earthstars ( Geastrum saccatum ) in different stages of development. This is not something I find regularly, so I thought it is wort mentioning. All the earthstars and bird nests mushrooms belong to puffball family and are quite widespread in Ontario, but not that common. I usually encounter them while visiting North York Regional Forest or Durham Regional Forest.
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