Mushroom Monday Blasts from the Past

Here are a few blasts from the pasts on various #mushroommondays eventually I will be getting outside again to look for some winter mushrooms.

Here is some blue turkeytail I found years ago. During the spring it gets really blue but during winter it looks more gray.

Here is some Exidia recisa aka amber jelly roll. I can still find this during winter and it is great for spicy soups to keep the colds away. I doubt it has any nutritional value but it adds a great texture and absorbs spices well.

Here are some Tricholoma matsutake aka Japanese pine mushrooms. I found these rare guys at an Asian grocery store and they were very expensive. They had quite an interesting taste to them and even had a hint of pine to them.

Here are some winter mushrooms aka Flammulina veluptides or velvet foots. These are about the only edible mushrooms growing in my area right now and they taste great. Just be careful to do a sporeprint and inspect them carefully as they sort of resemble deadly galerinas but only for a noob.

Here is some witch's butter. This is theoretically possible to still fine in winter but I usually find it during spring.

I usually find leftover drayd's saddle while looking for winter mushrooms. Sadly at this huge size they have the texture of a sponge and become inedible. The tinier guys in the upper right corner are the perfect size for harvesting where they are still soft. They work great in stir fry or sweet and sour sauce.

Sometimes during the winter doldrums I buy a mushroom kit like this lion's mane. These lion's mane kits are very hearty and I was able to get multiple fruiting bodies out of one bag. What is nice about this is you can choose when to harvest them vs finding a tough one out in the wild. I like to harvest them at this size where none of the spikes have turned yellow yet.

These are the ultimate prize to find around here. Blonde morels are what I usually find, but I have to be fast enough to get them before the other mushroom hunters in my area.

Here was a rare find for my area. This is a Boletus barrowsii aka white king bolete. They are a choice edible with a great firm texture and nice mushroom taste. Sadly I've only ever found one and it must have been a fluke because I've never found another one.

That's enough of blasts from the past. Hopefully I can find some new batches of mushrooms this winter... If not maybe I'll get a mushroom kit.