Category Archives: Wild Foraging

Cultivation, Montana Mushrooms News, Wild Foraging

Conifer Coral

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The Conifer Coral, Hercium abeitis,  grows on pines and would be a good candidate for inoculating pine stumps.

Conifer Coral

I have seen this mushroom growing from partially submerged logs. The fact that it enjoys this habitiat leads me to believe it would be happy growing from stumps. Literature from places that sell plug spawn for this mushroom (Fungi Perfecti) support the theory.

The Conifer Coral is from the Hericium family and is related to the Lions Mane which is a beatutiful mushroom also. They are both choice edibles and are easy to prepare.

I am going to spread this mushroom around to some pine stumps this year. There are plenty to inoculate with the pine beetle kill. I encourage you to do the same.

Montana Mushrooms News, Wild Foraging

Boletes

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The King Bolete, or Boletus edulis is a treat when you can find them!

This has become my favorite wild mushroom to eat. They are tasty and can be quite large, although I prefer them about the size of this little fella. The king is sometimes hard to find and cannot be relied upon every year. Most of us that are hooked on this mushroom usually pick all we can…eat all we can…and dry the rest for another day.

 

 

Sometimes if you are lucky you can find a lot of food with this mushroom. You can eat them rehydrated in the winter, while thinking about when you found them. This mushroom keeps very well if dried and stored properly.

So learn this mushroom, the same way I did, through the books. Your closest friends probably won’t show them to you!

Montana Mushrooms News, Wild Foraging

Forays

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Going on an organized foray is a good way to learn identification. They usually have an expert to help id mushrooms, and other mycophiles at different stages. The group is able to really cover an area and find lots of variety. The mycologist then identifies the finds and someone logs them.

My first organized foray was with Larry Evans, the guru from Missoula with the WMMA (fungaljungal.org). We found edibles even in October and quite a bit of variety. I was hooked on learning as many mushrooms as I could. The ones I have attended since then have always been worth the time. Larry has taught me many tricks to learning mushrooms, but I have a long way to go!

If you get the chance to go on an organized foray, give it a try. You will learn about identification and meet other mycophiles. We will post forays here as they become available.

Cultivation, Montana Mushrooms News, Wild Foraging

Mushroom Patches

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Mushroom hunting, or harvesting, is all about the patches that you find or grow. Once you find some good places that mushrooms grow, you have a (hopefully) private patch. Patches have obvious advantages because you have found or placed mushrooms there, so you have a better chance of finding mushrooms than wandering around the woods. Don’t get me wrong, I love to wander around the woods!

So you have your patch, and if you are careful you can harvest it for years. I also have found that patchs or mushroomy places sometimes produce several types of mushrooms at different times. Another handy thing about known patches, is they tell you when to wander about looking for new patches. If Oysters are flushing in your known spot, you are likely to find new sources when searching in the woods. I also keep my eye on some patches in town that I won’t eat for a variety of reasons. These patches tell me when my hidden mushroom patches, that are harder to get to, are ready to check.

This brings up an earlier topic of cultivating stump mushrooms, and watching them to indicate when their wild cousins are ready to check . I think this is an excellent way to know when to look for wild mushrooms and helps with identification of the wild cousin. Once you have grown Oysters you will know them in the wild.