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The Genus Suillus belongs to order Boletales, or what is called in plain English Bolete. The mushrooms in this genus have several distinct characteristics: love for conifers, especially pine family slimy cuticle on the cap remnants of partial veil  leaves a ring on the stem or sometime hangs from the cap margin glandular dots on the stem large pore openings, angular and often arranged radially Not all of the species posses all of the above characteristics. For example, Suillus spraguei (Painted Bolete) does not have slimy cap. On some of them glandular dots are hardly visible or not visible at all. Generally they are smallish or medium mushrooms and do not get to be huge as some of the Boletes. In the Fall they do come in  flushes, sometimes really huge. In my area two species are by far the most common: Suillus granulatus (Granular-Dotted Bolete) Suillus americanus (White Pine Bolete or Chicken Fat Mushroom) The majority of species in the Genus are edible (includi...

The first attempt in processing of Wild Grapes was quite successful, but very labor intensive. The worst part was destemming the grapes. Long and tedious process, not to mention messy. The second time around I decided to try to take some shortcuts and see how it will turn out. The grapes I collected this time was more ripe and therefore quite a bit less tart. First I soaked them in cold water and attempted to eliminate as many green and bad grapes as I could. Good swirl in the water also eliminates critters (spiders, small slugs etc.). The washed fruit, stems and grapes together, I added in batches to the stock pot simultaneously crushing them with potato masher.  I did not try to hard. The goal was just to get juices going and start the cooking process. After the crushed mass boiled I cooked it for approximately 10 minutes, or until majority of grapes disintegrated. The whole thing was poured through regular strainer and pressed with big spoon to extract as much juice as possible. Res...

The end of Summer is here, at least according to calendar. The weather forecasts for South-Western Ontario still includes humidex and daily highs are in low 30°C range. Overnight low gets to 15°C, quite a bit above seasonal.  In general, the dry weather trend is continuing. The main bolete season is over and woods are starting to turn into brown and red shades. At this time I would expect Blewitts, Puffballs and Honey mushrooms to be present, but none of that is happening in my area. After several checks in week intervals I did harvest some Hericium americanum , excellent edible and medicinal mushrooms. This mushroom is supposedly creating chemical compounds that actually stimulate nerve growth and regeneration. It is certainly not hard to spot, although quite frequently grows at the lower portion of the logs and can be seen only from certain angle. The older specimens I usually dry and use in soup. The young ones I prefer to eat sauteed or in some kind of vegetable meal. They taste ...

Some interesting finds in the last seven days. Aniseed Cockleshell ( Lentinellus cochleatus ) I encounter maybe once a year. It is edible mushroom and I did taste it. Very pleasant and mild. Grows at the base of the trees or stumps. [caption id="attachment_2694" align="alignnone" width="663"] Lentinellus cochleatus[/caption] Around one tree stump  huge flash of  Jack O'Lantern ( Omphalotus olearius ) showed. Amazingly beautiful, but poisonous. It is frequently mistaken for Chanterelle, although it grows in clusters and obviously has gills. All three pictures are taken around the same stump. [caption id="attachment_2699" align="alignnone" width="663"] Omphalotus olearius[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2707" align="alignnone" width="663"] Omphalotus olearius[/caption] The Giant Puffballs are still around.  The numbers are somewhat diminished, but they are certainly visible! [caption id=...

Chicken of the Woods is one of the most easily spotted and recognized mushroom of them all. This one you can hunt from the car. There is a lot of information about this mushroom on the web and in the books, but opinions on edibility, quality and taste are quite diverse. In my opinion it is really excellent edible, provided that it is picked at the right time and prepared correctly. During the growth cycle mushroom very quickly becomes quite woody and basically unpalatable. Therefore picking mature specimens probably results in lot of negative opinions and claims. To illustrate what I really suggest I detected one budding Chicken of the Woods and followed it in 24 hour intervals. The images I have taken are contained in the gallery that is a part of this post. Considering Mushrooming Window concept,  in my opinion only day three and four are the good time to harvest. Day five would still be acceptable, providing elimination of the part near to the tree trunk. Comparison with images in...

For a little bit different take on foraging and wild foods, I went out and harvested some wild grapes ( Riverbank Grapes ) - Vitis riparia . This is the first year for me to try and do something with this fruit. It seems wherever you look while walking the trails there is a blue tinge in the bush - abundance of wild grapes. [caption id="attachment_2726" align="alignnone" width="663"] Amazing abundance[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2727" align="alignnone" width="663"] Amazing abundance[/caption] It is probably happening every year, but I simple did not notice or did not pay attention. The taste of the grape itself varies, mainly being quite sour. That makes perfect trail side snack, very refreshing and thirst quenching. A little bit of reading shows that wild grapes were widely use by natives. Their technique was to wait for the first frost to harvest. Apparently freezing improves sweetness. Well, I am not waiting, at lea...

My usual routine for the weekend is to go bright and early to the trails, trying to beat heath, joggers, bikers and hikers. This summer that worked pretty good, until this morning. I left my car parked on the side of the road and started into the woods under very minor drizzle. Considering that at this time it was still quite warm it was none of my concern. Some 20 minutes later the putter-patter of the rain become more pronounced and some heavy drops started to fall. Very soon the rains started for real and I was unpleasantly soaked from head to toe within a couple of minutes. I turned around and started back to my car as fast as I could. At the moment I reached for the door handle, like a miracle rain stop and within seconds there was sunshine! During this ordeal I did manage to spot several Oyster patches and one beautiful, young Chicken of the Woods , prime for kitchen table (I actually spotted two, but the first one was too young and small). I went home and cooked my find. [capti...

After many checks in both deciduous and coniferous spots that I know, the king finally showed up. The King Bolete (Boletus Edulis) usually comes in several fruiting during the season, but this year these are the first I found. The spot was in deciduous woods, beech and birch grove surrounded by mixed woods. The majority of mushrooms were growing on the North slope of the medium size hill. I would like to point out that bulk of my collections of King Bolete come from coniferous woods, more specifically spruce groves. I did find fair number of specimens in good shape, indicating good match with mushrooming window .   The damage on the some of the mushrooms was done by slugs, and some were already wormy and soft and therefore left to finish reproductive cycle. [caption id="attachment_2601" align="alignnone" width="663"] Example of intact specimen (right) and slug damage on cap and stalks on the other three specimens[/caption] [caption id="attachment_26...

On Labor Day Monday I decided to venture to Cambridge Area (some 50km from my home).  In the old oak woods I found Giant Puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) . This mushrooms shows up at the end of the summer in various spots - meadows, woods, shrubs etc. It is quite common find and nothing unusual. But this time there was more than 20 giants in less than 100m². They did not form any noticeable fairy ring (I did find them before in partial fairy rings) but were scattered around like some toys on the playground. Furthermore, there was very little damage on the bodies, and that is quite unusual. Despite fairly dry conditions none of them was cracked and discolored. [caption id="attachment_2555" align="alignnone" width="663"] Beautiful Giant Puffball specimen[/caption] Here is the picture with my Blackberry Z10 for the scale (Z10 is approximately 14cmX7cm): [caption id="attachment_2557" align="alignnone" width="663"] Z10 for a Scale[/...