Mushrooms! Mushrooms! Mushrooms!

[moribundman]

I love eating mushrooms. When I was a kid we picked them in the woods and the ones we wouldn't use fresh, we'd slice finely, dry and store them for later use. Sour mushrooms (basically a mushroom and veggie stew in sour cream sauce) is my favorite mushroom dish.

To those of you who now freak out because of the possibility of mushroom poisoning, let me assure you, I know my mushrooms, and I pick only very specific ones that I know exactly. I know what to look for and how to check them. I reserve the deathcap meals for special guests only!

Back to mushroom picking. I used to find them by the dozen in oak and fir tree forests and in meadows in the summer and until late fall. I miss picking mushrooms and my efforts in California have not been sucessful. The local woods have terrain that's the too difficult to navigate. So let me ask you, where in California can you go and find edible mushrooms? I'm mostly interested in boletes.

Here are a few pictures from my last mushroom hunt in Bavaria a few years ago. While I found a lot that day, I didn't eat them. In fact, I haven't eaten mushrooms from Bavaria since 1986. Some of you may know why. Click the thumbnails for larger images.


That's a good spot in the Bavarian Forest for finding boletes like porcini. That shadow there, that's me.


Maybe Little Rude Riding Hood will come along?

A rather large porcini



My loot of an hour or so of searching for mushrooms. Saw a badger, too. The one mushroom that looks like a phallus, a morel, is edible when young and when it still has an egg-shape, but it smells like carrion when older. I attracts insects and that's how it spreads its spores. I only brought that mushroom to take the picture, it's not something I'd want to eat. All the other mushrooms in the picture, with exception of a portobello mushroom (middle right), are boletes.


A baby cep (porcini) and small red-cap (bolete). My photographer was unable to focus on the subject, which was supposed to be the mushrooms and not my chin.

So, where can find those in the wild in California? They must grow somewhere, because I see them fresh at the market for over $20 per pound!

[ July 21, 2006, 06:52 AM: Message edited by: moribundman ]

 

[MarkC]

I don't know about California, but in Washington they can be found in great numbers.

 

[Pablo]

I like some mushrooms - truffle comes to mind. We have even grown ****ake. I like some few mushrooms just plainly sauted. But I'm not a mushroom nut, and hate them in some cooked dishes - especially Mexican food.

If I eat too many of certain kinds I get kinda sick.

In Ca? Dunno.

 

[alreadygone]

Woods here in North AR used to be full of good mushrooms,especially morell(sp). Now their full of deer, and mushrooms can't be found. Like eating the deer also, but can't seem to impact the population enough to help mushroom production.

Bob

 

[moribundman]

Sh*take, ewww! They really deserve that name.

Truffle hunting might be fun, but I'd have to get a trained pig, and probably I'd end up making pork chops with truffles. Poor, tasty Babe.

I don't believe boletes are suitable for growing in mushroom farms, at least I've never seen any. If they exist, I have no idea if farmed mushrooms would even be any good. Take farmed crimini, which have no taste compared to wild field mushrooms (Agaricus). Farmed chanterelle are okay, though.

There's a website about wild mushrooms in California, but the description of where to look (Northern Coast, Sierra Nevada), are just a little vague! Well, I'd never rat out the exact hunting spots either. They're a family secret.

quote:

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Like eating the deer also, but can't seem to impact the population enough to help mushroom production.

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I may be able to help. Mmmm, venison...

 

[Shannow]

The polish people in Sydney roganise busses to come up this neck of the woods to pick those flat leathery looking ones with the sponge looking underside, and (I believe) some red looking thing.

We used to pick heaps of field mushrooms years ago, but unfortunately, another toadstool/poisonous thing has taken over nearly all the good fields.

moribundman, your sour mushrooms sounds like stroganoff without the meat...I always leave the mushrooms to the last when eating stroganoff.

As to truffles...the flavour of those things is incredible.

There are a couple of native truffles, but they are more like rotting meat apparently.

If I ever get a few acres, I'm going to try growing the marketable variety...$10,000Aus/kilo, and all you need is some innoculated nut trees, and a pig-dog.

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Where I grew up in N/W part of michigans lower peninsula we had lots of white tail deer and morel mushrooms. Nothing like Venison steak smothered in fried mushrooms. Washed down with hard cider. Good eats for sure.

 

[moribundman]

quote:

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those flat leathery looking ones with the sponge looking underside,

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Well, you wouldn't want to eat the old, leathery ones. You would also not want to eat the sponge, but remove it, unless the mushroom is still tiny with a very dense sponge. Just like people like mushrooms, bugs and maggots like them even more. I'd never eat an infested mushroom. Once you cut it into two or four pieces you can tell if it's infested. As for the storebought, dried porcini, etc, look for little holes in the slices. If you see any, don't buy it -- unless you don't care about such things.

Sour mushrooms isn't even close to Stroganoff. Every region in Europe has their own style sour and other mushroom dishes.

I second Oldmoparguy 1's suggestion of venison and mushrooms. I'll skip the morels, though, and go with boletes.

 

[sprintman]

We are hoping to get some of Perigords truffles established here in the ACT as well as Tasmania, Victoria, and NSW. There's a good map of all the sites at these URL's below.

http://www.perigord.com.au/

http://www.tastruffles.com.au/

We buy Li-Sun Exotic Mushrooms at the Canberra Region Farmers Market from these guys. Strange looking things.

http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/stories/s1672698.htm

 

[JHZR2]

Id like to grow $hitake mushrooms... I hear theyre very healthy to eat. Do you need to grow them in #2?

In Kennet Square, PA, there are a LOT of mushroom farms. I remember in college at the University of Delaware, when the breeze was right you could smell them.

JMH

 

[MarkC]

quote:

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Originally posted by alreadygone:
Woods here in North AR used to be full of good mushrooms,especially morell(sp). Now their full of deer, and mushrooms can't be found. Like eating the deer also, but can't seem to impact the population enough to help mushroom production.

Bob

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You need to get some wolves, maybe a few cougars too.

( or have the deer hunters put down the beers and step out of the trucks into the actual woods to hunt....)

Not referring to you, of course.

 

[moribundman]

I'm sick of truffles since spending three months as an exchange student in Frèjus in the Provence. It's truffle country. I had a torrid affair with the local boulanger's buxomy daughter. She always gave me the freshest baguette, and oh my, my French improved so much!

Let me see if I can find a picture of sweet Marie...

 

[Shannow]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman:
I'm sick of truffles since spending three months as an exchange student in Frèjus in the Provence.

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You need to get a life...ohhh...errmm...gettoverit