Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Thought I missed them again this year, but they were about three weeks late. Found four big clusters by where I was working. A steak would have been better, but a burger and rye bread was handy. One of nature's little treasures.

Tim, I only tasted wild fresh mushrooms twice but the taste was amazing. I can only imagine how good your meal was. Wish I knew which ones are safe to eat!

What kind are they? Don't quite look like Elm Caps.The last couple weeks I got 2 grocery bags full of Elm Caps and 7 Pheasant Backs. Cooked up in butter and frozen in 43, 1 cup snack bags. Except the Pheasant Backs, they were added to my sandwiches for work


Gordy

Eugen wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:34 pm Tim, I only tasted wild fresh mushrooms twice but the taste was amazing. I can only imagine how good your meal was. Wish I knew which ones are safe to eat!

They were good, wouldn't really have needed the burger. I look forward to a meal or two every year, but they come and go so quickly that I miss them.

We only pick a couple of varieties that we know. Not keen on trying to identify some of what grow here. To many look alike, one is good the other is not. Some don't taste good, some have no taste, some can make you sick or worse. I'm not that adventurous, I stick with these.

Gordy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:49 pm What kind are they? Don't quite look like Elm Caps.The last couple weeks I got 2 grocery bags full of Elm Caps and 7 Pheasant Backs. Cooked up in butter and frozen in 43, 1 cup snack bags. Except the Pheasant Backs, they were added to my sandwiches for work


Gordy

You've been busy, Gordy
Everyone here that picks calls them "honey mushrooms" but I think that's pretty broad.
I could have filled a bag from the four clusters I found, they were all coming off the same oak stump.

Eugen wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:34 pm Tim, I only tasted wild fresh mushrooms twice but the taste was amazing. I can only imagine how good your meal was. Wish I knew which ones are safe to eat!

There is are small pocket books that show what is safe and NOT. There are 6 I look for.

Elm Caps, this time of year. Grow on Box Elder trees (go figure) where a branch has broken off and the wood has started to rot. May be 30+ feet up, I modified a telescopic pole saw by adding 1/2" electrical conduit to make it 3 sections with a serrated knife on the end. The pole knife is 19' long + as high as my 5'4" frame can reach

Pheasant Backs. Get their name from the dark triangles on them that look like the feathers on the back of a pheasant.They are a shelf type growing low on dead elms. Very active in early spring, but stragglers show up into the fall. Can be very tough if large, I use a sharp knife to test them, straight pull from the edge to center, if it goes in with little resistance I the test the circumference with the knife. Again straight pull if you have to use a sawing motion it will be like crewing on shoe leather when cooked. This means I often leave 1/2+ in the woods to act as seed and less I have to carry out just to toss later.

Crown Coral. Should be white, tan to brown will be bitter.

Chicken of the Woods. A bright orange shelf type with a pale yellow bottom. Sauteed in butter has the taste and texture of chicken. Generally on solid but rotting hardwood logs.

Hen Of The Woods. Pyramidal to cone shaped with lots of petals, dark grayish in color. Grows around Oaks.

And of coarse the illusive Morels. I find them around sick or fresh dead elms and populars in early spring.

There are other rarer edibles I just don't spend the time looking for


Gordy