His Majesty, the King

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.


DSCN5669


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"]DSCN5680 Example of intact specimen (right) and slug damage on cap and stalks on the other three specimens[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2605" align="alignnone" width="663"]DSCN5675 Almost pristine pair with visible reticulation on the stalk[/caption]

This beautiful experience was somewhat diminished by return of the heath wave to Southern Ontario, with temperatures in 30°C and humidex above 40°C. Not overly pleasant to roam through woods under this conditions! I ended up with modest crop:

DSCN5704

For the record, more than 50% of the mushrooms in the picture was discarded as too buggy or wormy. As the season progresses in the colder days, the bug situation will improve..

[caption id="attachment_2624" align="alignnone" width="663"]DSCN5707 Linda evaluating quality of my finds[/caption]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morels 2 (2016)

Image
Encouraged by the finds couple of days ago I visited one of my best spots for Morels .  There was no trace of any mushrooms yet. The only thing indicating something is going on are several Dryad's Saddles in very early stage of growth. The Trillium is everywhere, showing great variations in color. I did find many small patches of Ramps. All of them were too small to harvest.   I will try again on Weekend.
Read more

October 17, 2016

Image
Seems like I dismissed warm weather a little too early. Today expected daily high is 27°C! The forecast is still factoring in humidex! In the woods the fall change is well under way. I guess trees are reacting to calendar as much as couple of cold nights. The colors are amazing. All the shades of green, yellow, brown and red are present. On the floor of the woods big flourish of Honey Mushrooms has passed. There are still some around but big clumps are gone. At this time they are frequently infested by bugs. I found numerous traces of heavy harvesting. Blewits are showing in numbers. As usual they are forming partial or full fairy rings. Due to worm weather some of them are still buggy. This is excellent edible, definitely one of my favorites. Blewit color can vary greatly and it is not recommended for the beginners. For me the odor is one of the main characteristics for recognition. [caption id="attachment_3115" align="alignnone" width="663"] Clitocybe n
Read more

Morels 3 (Fiddleheads) (2016)

Image
Temperatures dipped back to near zero over several nights.I tried  foraging in North York Regional forest with zero result. The consolation price for the weekend of May 14th were fiddleheads. There is some controversial info on the web about fiddleheads. Some sources have a warning about carcinogenic compounds found in several species of fern.The fact is they are still  sold in grocery shops in Ontario. I limit my foraging to Ostrich Fern . It is easily recognized by 3 characteristics: Dark green, almost bluish in color Paper like membrane (visible on picture bellow) Presence of characteristic spore bearing fronds Anyway, I follow recommendation of Government of Canada and cook my fiddleheads thoroughly, just in case. The fiddlheads season is very short. The best way to preserve is to blanch(cook in boiling water 2 minutes, shock with cold water to stop cooking), dry and put in freezer bags). Fiddleheads have a great, buttery taste and can be eaten as side dish or cooked veg
Read more