Hey everybody! I’ve made some significant progress since my last post about mushrooms and even decided to eat one of my finds! (I’m still alive!) But I assure you that I double, triple, and quadruple checked my find even though it is considered to be one of the easiest mushrooms to identify.
So, recently after the rains, mycelium invigorated by moisture and fresh nutrients see the good weather after a nice hard rain to sprout fruiting bodies. Which is why after a rainstorm you often see mushrooms pop up over the next few sunny days almost overnight!
Here’s what I found in just my yard (and Dan’s yard too, thanks Dan!).
The first one I found was a bright orange mushroom that was at the base of a tree right near our driveway:
Say hello to Omphalotus illudens! Also known as the Jack-O-Lantern mushroom. Its key identifying characteristics is its bright orange cap, orange gills that run decurrent with the stem (meaning attached and runs down the stem). It’s an awfully pretty mushroom, and perfect timing with Halloween as it often shows up in the fall near the base of trees and off of decaying wood. The first picture above shows the mushrooms in a very young state, the caps are nice and convex, smooth with no warts or hair-like structures. The picture at the bottom left are the caps a few days later, much larger, expanded to flat or even close to concave. Middle bottom is a close-up picture of one of the caps, smooth like a baby’s bottom (even smoother I dare say!) and the last is a picture of the gills. Apparently, these mushrooms were said to have bioluminescent properties, but I haven’t seen them glow and other sources on the internet call balderdash on that. Also, they are toxic, no munchy unless you like severe intestinal cramps and the poops.
The second shroomie was located on a stump outside my house:
There were more of these located up and down the stump, but this was a nice specimen on its own. This is Trametes betulina! It is classified as a poly-pore which is incorrect since instead of pores, the fruiting body has gills. It was very pretty and quite a sturdy mushroom. The cap had wonderful colors and was covered in very short fuzzy hairs, soft and kind of adorable and not slimy at all. (Remember you can totally touch mushrooms without fear of being poisoned! Just wash your hands afterward.)
Apparently, this mushie has some medicinal benefits when consumed, I’m assuming as a tincture or tea since this guy was one tough homie to chew.
Last, but certainly not the least:
Meet Calvatia gigantea, or the giant puffball mushroom. This enormous guy was about the size of a volleyball in my neighbor Dan’s yard. He was nice enough to pick it up and give it to me, rather horrified that I wanted to cut it up and eat it. The hole in the picture on the left was caused by a falling acorn, those things are dangerous, man.
When properly identifying this mushroom, you want to cut the fruiting body straight down the middle, like in the upper right picture. The inside should be entirely smooth and white. If it is yellow or brown it’s too old to be eaten and will cause gastrointestinal upset if you do. Here you can see that it’s beautifully white with the bit of brown at the bottom that I cut away because it was in contact with the soil and not because of age. Another reason why you want to cut it in half is to make sure that there are no structures that look like gills or stems, usually, this is really important when you harvest a puffball that is much smaller than this (size of a golf ball). The reason why is because there are other mushrooms (including deadly ones) that look just like the giant puffball when they are this small size. However, this guy was about the size of my face, so that wasn’t much of a worry. The bottom right-hand picture is after I peeled away the outer tough skin (don’t eat the skin), and cut it up to fry with a bit of butter and salt.
The resulting fried mushroom was delicious, soft in texture like a marshmallow, but with the flavor reminiscent between a white mushroom you’d buy from the store and a Portobello mushroom. Entirely enjoyable if you like mushrooms. Apparently, you can also slice it up, dry it, grind it into a powder and it’s great to go in soups as a thickener and umami booster. I froze the remainder and will try and dry it once I get my hands on Dan’s sweet sweet Breville drying machine.
Until next time, remember to look down by your feet and marvel at the world around you!
Through the Eyes of a Life Long Learner 