Mushroom report - chanterelles, morels and soon Spring Kings!

WOW!!! I'm incredibly jealous. Those all look amazing!

Could it be a meyer lemon?

This can't be real.  If it is I'm incredibly jealous.

is it what they call a mapo here?  The link is in italian but the picture is in english  

http://www.agraria.org/coltivazioniarboree/mapo.htm

it's the cross between a mandarin orange and a grapefruit

Those baked mushrooms look wonderful

Just got some fresh Morels in at my work today

Using them in a wine dinner Sunday.

That's insane. I live in Florida and wanted to try finding my own mushrooms, then I read about it, and basically even the experts that promote doing it, say don't ever do it without an expert, too many confusing species in which some may very well kill you. I am guessing you don't have that problem in NorCal?

I guess there are, we have something like the morels, we have an edible truffle, and we have a "florida shitake" among about 12 other highly sought species. My problem with it, is if making a mistake could be so damaging to your body, and possibly kill you, it's a little unnerving to have to do spore prints as the only sure way to identify some species. Do you do them each time it is questionable, would you just steer clear of any questionable varieties? No matter how much research I might do, and how certain I was that a particular variety was identified, I would have a hard time swallowing it even though I absolutely love mushrooms.

I guess I am trusting the mushrooms in the super market 100% .. and I wonder how much risk there is with the "wild variety" packs they sell? No matter what, your photos are astonishing and really make me want to reconsider giving up my own pursuit. I fish and garden here we have great seafood and good climate, but foraging is something that eludes me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ekinoderminator 

I buy them from the local Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian farmers - they call them "grapefruit oranges" - I think it might be "New Zealand Grapefruit" also called "Poorman Orange" - incredibly sweet, mild acidity.
 

Maybe a tangelo?....a cross between a Tangerine (mandarin orange) and a Grapefruit...very sweet but most noticeably really juicy! Believed to have originated in S.E. Asia 3000 yrs back so might be the connection to the growers.

NZ Grapefruit came from Australia as it wasn't hot enough for the usual varieties but is not particularly sweet, grew up blanketing them with sugar! Does look more like a Grapefruit than a Tangelo though...

Oh for goodness sake - stop showing me all these 'shrooms!  Arrrghh Grrggg hehe.  We get nothing like the variety you have there, and in such abundance.  Pretty much all we see here (dunno what you call them locally) are button mushrooms, prtabello, occasionally straw,  and swiss brown.  And that's it. <sigh>  You can get dried 'shrooms of various types, but is nothing here as interesting as morels.

ekinderminator....I think you are on the right track.  At first glance I thought Grapefruit - the seeds don't look like any lemons I've seen.  I think my father lived on grapefruit for breakfast for at least a decade when we were kids, and it looks very familiar.

Thanks Ekinoderminator. I started researching again today. I plan to start roaming through the woods on my property, as well as going out around what luckily is a very large park across from my home that has 3 different forest types, sand hill, oak canopy, and hardwood. I won't eat anything at all, until I get to a point of being very comfortable and right now, I think my first candidate will be to find either grifola frondosa aka "maitake" or another in our area laetiporus sulphureus aka "chicken of the woods".

From what I understand those two types are relatively easy to identify and don't have any real look alikes that are dangerous, so long as you understand that they DO NOT have gills.

For other mushrooms I might find, I think I will still do my best to identify them, as I know the only true way to safely harvest and ingest mushrooms that have dangerous look alikes, is to know very well both the desired and the deadly and to know the differences between them. Thanks again for inspiring me to get back into this, I love mushrooms and they have good health benefits if you don't eat one that ends up with you being "kilt".

There are some that do not have  poisonous look a likes.   Where exactly do you live in Northern Cali? I have family in Grass Valley....

NAMA north american mycological society has chapters all over the US....they typically have forays for members and will ID shrooms.

Morels this late?! wow. 

it's hot and wet here, time for chanterelles to start popping....along with chicken of the woods, hen of the woods are slightly later, woodear, oysters, LBM's.....black trumpets......some weird blue bolettes....1997 was a very good chanterelle year, I'm hoping the amounts of rain are so prolific that mushrooms will be too.

Thanks for sharing....oh and try, tarragon and fingerlings with those chanterelles.

WOW I live in a Morel state and I have never seen a haul like that well done.PS the cooking pictures are top notch, should be on the cover of Gourmet.

I went hunting today.. and found.. well.. I'm not sure what I found! These first ones are the most interesting I found. I don't have my fields guides yet, they should be here tomorrow. They look like a kind of chanterelle look alike, but they were hairy.

The gills did taper onto the stalk..

I also found a number of downed trees that had these on them. They are fleshy, thin, smooth on the underside with no gills.

I figured I could get started early exploring and taking some photos, then when my field guides get here, I can use them as samples to practice identifying.

Nice boletes.We are having our season in Florida too. I have been looking around for them but so far the ones I have found are not plentiful and they seem to be attacked by insects immediately. The boletes, chicken, and hen of the woods are the ones I have been trying to find.

How long does it take you to gather that many? I went looking yesterday and the only thing I got was a tick

Ekin.. I walked through the woods on my property last night. We've been getting a lot of rain. I found some decent boletes, the big one was full of insects/infection or something. I am also 99% certain that I found a chantrelle! It did not have true gills, and the size and color were exactly what my books listed, and it had an almost fruity smell. I didn't eat any of them, but the bottom most bolete, I think was a good candidate for eating, it had the little white network at the point that the stalk and cap connect, which my book uses as a key characteristic of a Cep/King Bolete even though this one was relatively small.

I was going to take detailed pics of them all but my camera flash is broken on my nikon, and I don't really have another suitable camera. Thanks for the suggestion on the "white king bolete" .. that does resemble it. The underside has an off white tight pore surface which bruised just a tiny bit olive/yellow. I couldn't tell if that was due to so much moisture or not. I should have done a spore print.

You'd love Florida I'm sure. Since you have so many awesome mushrooms I will have to post my equivalent of lobsters

Very interesting.. I think the portability is a real strong point. How does one propel it? Would you paddle it out like a surf board?

Edit: I see in your avatar now how it would work. Fins! So it's kind of like a body board. Very cool. I think that would be popular in south Florida where the gulf comes in close. Up in central florida, the first reef is something like 10 miles out.

Also, how would it be anchored so that you don't surface to find yourself floating without your board? I guess a diver down flag would provide some extra visibility, but those ocean currents can sometimes move you far more than you realize in a jiffy.

Those are abalone on that board aren't they?

Awesome! I found it growing under an oak canopy all by itself. I guess I need to seek out areas where there are large concentrations of oaks without too much scrub brush. How do they taste? I have never had a fresh golden chanterelle .. I read they are somewhat fruity? How would they compare to something like a cultivated white button?