Black Trumpet Mushroom

Black Trumpet Mushroom

Monday, July 29, 2013

From Golden to Smooth...

An interesting thing has happened in this great mushrooming summer...Over the course of one week the Chanterelles have gone from 90% Golden to 90% Smooth. I still find the occasional Golden as shown in the photo but when I find a good patch they're all Smooth. The big patches of Golden's are gone.

If you take a look at the photo you can see a good example of the difference between the two...The Golden is more solid with bigger gills. The Smooth is thinner with a wavy cap but not exactly 'smooth'. The gills are still visible, they're just fainter.

The Golden's are generally considered to be better tasting but I believe that's simply because they offer a bigger bite. I'd never turn down a plate of smooth chanterelles.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Chanterelle Fairy Ring

Here's something I thought was quite unique - a fairy ring of chanterelles. I've seen fairy rings of other mushrooms before but not of chanterelles.

I searched on google for something similar and couldn't find anything. BUT being as this is the 3rd chanterelle circle I've found this year I think its safe to say they're fairly common under the right conditions. [edit: I just searched wiki and found a reference to mushroom fairy rings but chanterelles were not listed has one of the species so maybe they are a bit rare.]

Unfortunately many of these mushrooms were a little past their prime with the edges starting to dry out and the cores gone spongy from the rain. Had I found this 5 or so days ago I would have walked away with 4-5 lbs of prime chanties. As it was I came away with about 2 lbs, still not too shabby.

If you're curious about fairy rings the theory is that the spores and mycelia (mycelia can be considered mushroom roots) underground push outward in search of the nutrients they need to grow thus creating a ring. So next year when I come back here - and you better believe I will be back - the ring will be a little wider and should grow more each year.

Its was interesting to see that the pine tree inside ring didn't disturb the grow of the circle.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Chanterelle bonanza...

Sorry I haven't been posting lately but I've been busy foraging during this amazing chanterelle season we've been having here.

I'm relatively new at this game but from what I've been hearing 2013 is shaping up to be a great year for chanterelles here in upstate New York and in the northeast US in general.

Not only am I finding a lot of chanties but I'm finding a lot of large ones (see pic), about 4 lbs so far. They're so large that you might mistake them for smooth chanterelles. Smooth chanterelles usually show up later in the season in August but actually, after doing some reading, it turns out that the distinction between between them is more blurry then I realized.

The smooth chanterelle is larger, has a wavy cap, and is 'smooth' meaning no gills. But in my experience they do have gills, just not well defined ones. Meanwhile the ones I've found are quite large, have a wavy cap, but the clear gills indicate that they are golden chanties not smooth. What I've read is that the gills will run the whole spectrum from clearly defined to barely detectable.

Most importantly - from my point of view anyway - is that they are both equally delicious. That being the case I don't really spend too much time id'ing them one way or the other.