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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...

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...

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...

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 ). ...

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.

It is a common knowledge that mushrooms and rain go hand in hand, right? Well, this summer in Southwestern Ontario it does not seem to be the case. I did not check any official statistics but I am pretty sure that there was not a 3 day period without rain. After quite disappointing start of the summer with absence of any significant growth of chanterelles, I expected boletes, puffballs, rusullas and milky mushrooms (especially orange milky mushrooms) to make up for that. The reality is quite different. Up to this day puffballs are almost completely absent. I did not find a single giant puffball yet. Rusullas are rare and far between and therefore almost always attacked by slugs and bugs. As far as lactarius goes I did find several Lactarius volemus and handful of Lactarius hygrophoides,  but certainly not enough even for a single meal. Retiboletus ornatipes  is present in significantly smaller numbers than usual, but still enough to collect a decent meal if you really try. The one mush...

The middle of July is here, but despite quite rainy and dump weather my hopes for good chanterelle season did not come true. I find some small groups, far apart and well hidden. That is hardly enough for half decent meal for one person. I am steel hoping that my luck will improve in near future. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="54" gal_title="Chanterelles July 2017"] The very present mushrooms are Amanitas, Xerulas and Tylopilus. As far as numbers go, Amanitas are the most present mushroom in the woods in my area. That goes for both coniferous and deciduous woods. That is nothing really new since the same happens every year. Somewhat unusual is the presence of great numbers of Amanita rubescens and Amanita porphyria. Both have somewhat pink tones over the whole mushroom, but porphyria is usually dark pink, almost brownish and smaller overall. According to many sources (mainly European) Amanita rubescens (known by common name the Blusher due to above mentioned pinkish ton...

A week ago, the chef from Minnesota I follow published a  post about preparation of the cow parsnip blossom. Although mushrooms are my main interest, I forage for many other things. In the spring, my favorites are chicory and dandelion greens. I guess I picked up that tradition as a child in my homeland (Croatia). The Cow Parsnip (Heracleum maximum) is unknown in Europe. It is native to North America and apparently quite common. I did not have any experience with this particular plant. The only thing that I knew was that it can cause a bad rash, activated by ultra violet rays. In my book, avoiding it was a good idea. Howver, the Alan Bergo post peeked my interest. I happen to know a forest fringe area with quite a presence of the Cow Parsnip,  and according to Mr. Bergo, this is the perfect time to harvest unopened blossoms for food. I put on a long sleeved shirt, pocketed a pair of gloves and went on the trail. The Cow Parsnip is a big plant and hard to miss. I must admit that unopene...

Last weekend I did have some minor success in morel hunting. It took a trip to Durham Regional Forest. At this stage, there were a number of already -crumbling specimens; too old to pick for the kitchen. Some were damaged. Anyway, there were enough of the good mushrooms for a decent meal. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="44" gal_title="May_30_2017"] I think that morel season is coming to a close. It's not just the date on the calendar. The trillium bloom is ending. The forest canopy is now almost full. Oysters are starting to show. In my experience, this indicates a sure end to the morels. It is worth mentioning that the first oysters are very meaty and mainly tan in color. Later in the season,  summer oysters are quite white and grow in big flushes. I found a whole cluster of beautiful cup mushrooms. Although the soil was not overly sandy, I think it is the Sand-Loving Cup ( Peziza amophila ) or a very dark version of the Spreading Cup ( Peziza repanda ). [gallery ...

This time around I did find giant Dryad's Saddle . They were on the big log, looking quite amazing. I left my knife in one of the pictures just for proper sizing. The mushrooming knife is around 11 cm long There is a lot of contradictory information on the web concerning edibility and quality of this mushroom. Personally I only tried them once, baked and it was nothing spectacular. I still did not give up on this mushroom and do plan to try some more ways to cook. My favorite chef  has quite high opinion of this species and has some pointers how to prepare it, including several recipes. The good feature is pleasant smell, very similar to water melon rind. Of course, the specimens in pictures above are well beyond any usage in the kitchen. All Polypores  tend to get very tough and woody in later stages of growth. For the consumption you are looking for something like this: I did not mentioned before, but from the very early in the season you can find Mica Cap ( Coprinellus micac...