TEST

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 ). ...

At this time of the year dried mushrooms are starting to be the main source of mushrooms for my kitchen.  In my opinion drying  is by far the best way of preservation of the wild mushrooms. I use Excalibur 9-Tray Food Dehydrator, but I am sure that any dehydrator should work. Even oven can sometimes be utilized if no other appliance is available. The air drying is certainly another option. The main thing for mushroom drying is to keep heat at minimum, while air flow is maintained.  Any higher heat settings will easily damage and burn mushrooms. That is providing that your dehydrator does have some temperature control.  This technique certainly requires longer time, but it is worth it. When preparing mushrooms for drying, make sure that pieces are roughly same size. At least stick to that rule for individual trays in dehydrator, so that everything on one tray is ready at the same time. I do prefer some of the species dried whole (e.g. Lactarius, Suillus and Blewits), regardless of the l...

At the end of day I decided to go and check one of spruce groves that I rarely visit. It is couple of acres of quite young spruce, obviously planted with rows still visible on the ground. Entering the woods I did not see any mushrooms. It is not easy to move through young spruce. A lot of bending and pushing of the branches is involved. After advancing some 50 meters with no results I decided to leave. At the last moment I noticed lonely Safron Milkcap and ventured a little further. When I squatted down and looked along the ground I discovered a huge patch covered with mushrooms. A little further there was another one, and another one.  This is what guides call "growing gregariously". It seemed that I missed " Mushrooming Window " a little bit. Most of the mushrooms were mature specimens of considerable size and already funnel shaped. When I checked even the mature specimens were totally bug free and in pristine shape. I estimate that within one hour it was possibl...