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Mushrooms are out


Lupara

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My grandfather called them simply "fungi" (pronounced foongee in Italian). Younger generations in northern Elk County call them "Stumpies"  or "Stump Mushrooms". Nationally they are "Honey Mushrooms" because the range of color of the cap is similar to the range of the color of  honey. I was just wondering if anyone called them by another name?

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Those look like Armillaria mellea. We also have Ameillaria tabescens around here.  A lot of people who pick them think they are different stages of the same mushroom but they are really two different mushrooms. They have to be cooked to be 100% safe but I've pickled them and eaten them raw with no bad effects. The Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club is a great (and safe) place to learn about mushrooms if you don't know someone who has been picking them for years and is still alive.   http://wpamushroomclub.org/

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No not mellea. It is a subspecies of armillaria gallica I believe.

 

http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/armillaria-gallica.php

 

My knowledge of picking this mushroom, as I alluded to earlier, was passed down to me from my grandfather and my father. Learning their proper identity came much later.

I also have pickled and canned this variety. Slow cooked in sauce was always a traditional way to enjoy it. My uncle once told me "you can't cook this mushroom too long" meaning it is impossible to overcook it. I've found him to be correct. Probably my favorite way of enjoying it is dried and stored in an airtight container. Reconstitute in hot water for an hour, then make wild mushroom soup. I find the flavor best preserved this way. A small handful will flavor a good sized kettle of soup.

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Thanks, I'm sure we have had all of them in the pot at one time but getting them identified while trying to get them processed is a challenge. They all make a great soup and the the dried ones are a good substitute in Chinese dishes for whatever they use for dried mushrooms. A handful in any kind of soup really improves the flavor. Somehow they enhance the beef flavor of soup. We did have to toss several jars of the dried ones when some kind of small flies hatched out. We do discard anything that has worm holes in them but we must have missed something. 

If you want to make your county extension agent turn green tell him you are canning them. This is apparently not something they recommend. I pressure can but I knew people who used a water bath canner. I asked how long did she boiled  them and she said two hours. No deaths that I know of even with the water bath so I'll continue to do it. 

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My daughter picks all kinds of mushrooms.  She has canned over a hundred pints of them.  She has picked oyster, hen in the woods, puff ball mushrooms, lobster, and others I can`t remember.  She showed me what Shaggy Manes are, and I have picked them the last 2 years.  Have them in my bottom yard.  I picked some Friday, and they are delicious.  You have to cook them right away, and pick them soon after they come up.  They will turn black in a couple of days, and then get gooey.  The daughter keeps us in mushrooms. 

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We have a bunch of them here. I call then inky caps. The are Coprinus something or other. Never tried them. I had a ton of those hen of the woods once and froze them. What a mistake! I should have canned them. They got tough and unpleasant. Puff balls don't freeze well either. I know a few kinds but won't risk eating anything else. It is fun to identify the odd ones but I'm not going to bet my life on being right. This is a really good on-line key http://www.mushroomexpert.com/major_groups.html  You don't need to know too much technical names for things to use it. 

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I think it is one of the Boletes. They are the mushrooms that have pores but no gills. It is difficult to work a key from a picture but maybe you can key it down from here http://mushroomexpert.com/boletes.html if you have the mushroom available. I'm just guessing that the picture is of a mature specimen. You might want to look for it in its button form which could be quite different. Pictures often show just one form. 

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Thanks, I'm sure we have had all of them in the pot at one time but getting them identified while trying to get them processed is a challenge. They all make a great soup and the the dried ones are a good substitute in Chinese dishes for whatever they use for dried mushrooms. A handful in any kind of soup really improves the flavor. Somehow they enhance the beef flavor of soup. We did have to toss several jars of the dried ones when some kind of small flies hatched out. We do discard anything that has worm holes in them but we must have missed something. 

If you want to make your county extension agent turn green tell him you are canning them. This is apparently not something they recommend. I pressure can but I knew people who used a water bath canner. I asked how long did she boiled  them and she said two hours. No deaths that I know of even with the water bath so I'll continue to do it. 

 

Because of the liability and dangers of potentially misidentifying wild mushrooms, Penn State does NOT give out information on eating them or processing them.

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Thanks, I'm sure we have had all of them in the pot at one time but getting them identified while trying to get them processed is a challenge. They all make a great soup and the the dried ones are a good substitute in Chinese dishes for whatever they use for dried mushrooms. A handful in any kind of soup really improves the flavor. Somehow they enhance the beef flavor of soup. We did have to toss several jars of the dried ones when some kind of small flies hatched out. We do discard anything that has worm holes in them but we must have missed something. 

If you want to make your county extension agent turn green tell him you are canning them. This is apparently not something they recommend. I pressure can but I knew people who used a water bath canner. I asked how long did she boiled  them and she said two hours. No deaths that I know of even with the water bath so I'll continue to do it. 

If I were to can these straight up, I would pressure can according to the canning manufacturers instruction. However I make a mushroom antipasta  marinate with two parts water, one part vinegar, serano peppers, Italian parsley oil and salt. The vinegar allows me to use a water bath.

The Eastern Hen Of The Woods dries well for later use.

And yes Bon that is some type of Bolete.

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If I were to can these straight up, I would pressure can according to the canning manufacturers instruction. However I make a mushroom antipasta  marinate with two parts water, one part vinegar, serano peppers, Italian parsley oil and salt. The vinegar allows me to use a water bath.

The Eastern Hen Of The Woods dries well for later use.

And yes Bon that is some type of Bolete.

Thanks, I've got lots of parsley to be picked so if I get any mushrooms I might give it a try. Wish I had dried that Hen of the Woods. It's still in the freezer waiting for me to find a use for it or toss it. 

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