Mushroom hunting

[Marshmallow]

I read the article about people looking for mushrooms getting lost in the "wilderness" and having to be rescued. We ate out last night and have the best mushroom sauce I have ever tasted. Does anyone here hunt for mushrooms? What areas of the country are best?

 

[campclose]

I don't hunt for mushrooms! We have a bunch of them growing in our yard in the summer. I'm sure they are not the kind you can eat though. I wonder where the mushrooms you can eat grow?

 

[firedancer]

Around here, morel mushrooms are very popular in springtime. They're the only "wild" mushrooms I've ever had.

I thought it was odd that people would be mushroom hunting in winter, but I suppose it's a different climate out there.

 

[oldsarge]

Same here, morel mushrooms are very popular. They are great!

 

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


A friend and I used to try finding "bread" mushrooms. They were fun to eat, but not much flavor unless cooked with something.

Several years ago I had an old neighbor from Russia. He used to be a cartographer there (they deliberately never had maps that a tourist...or invader... could believe!).

He would walk the local roadways hunting mushrooms, and find lots of them. I forget what kind they were, but he would have lots of them threaded on wires to dry, like a mushroom clothsline. They smelled wonderful.

 

[wvbreamfisherman]

Love Morels, and they are nearly impossible to mistake for a poisonous mushroom. They grow pretty much everywhere there is a forest, but the best patches can be hard to find.

I've hunted them here in WV, and with friends in the North-Central Lower Peninsula (they'd kill be if I gave any more specific directions- I had to swear a blood-oath before they took me to their mushroom hunting grounds).

 

[Pathfinder1]

Love Morels

I've hunted them here in WV, and with friends in the North-Central Lower Peninsula (they'd kill be if I gave any more specific directions- I had to swear a blood-oath before they took me to their mushroom hunting grounds).

Hi...


Where was that exact location again?

 

[wvbreamfisherman]

Well they blindfolded me- but it was somplace North and West of Detroit and South of the Mackinaw Bridge.....

 

[RogerWilco]

WV, that is very non-specific! I am not a fan of mushrooms so I definitely don't go out looking for them. I do know people who do hunt them though.

 

[Marshmallow]

Now I really want to go mushroom hunting. We had the best tasting mushroom sauce the other night on a steak in a fine restaurant. Gosh, but it was good. Do you know if mushrooms grow anywhere in the North Carolina areas?

 

[Grandpa]

As you drive, look for a corral full of cattle. Go back early in the morning right after a rain. They will just be poking up through the uhhhh dirt.

 

[dinosaur]

Around my ranch we get morels, black poppers, elephant ears, puffballs, white buttons, and sheepshead. All delicious.

 

[Pathfinder1]

Well they blindfolded me- but it was somplace North and West of Detroit and South of the Mackinaw Bridge.....

Hi...


I KNOW THAT PLACE...!!

 

[ppine]

Dinosaur,

Please tell us more about your ranch in Indiana.

A caution to all would be mushroom hunters: make sure you know what you are preparing to eat. Make a mistake and you might not survive. Ask for some help in IDing mushrooms.

 

[dinosaur]

ppine, my ranch is in Northwestern Indiana near Michigan City. It is a horse ranch of 50 acres about half of which is wooded. It has the highest and lowest ground in the area with variances of about a hundred feet. The timber is mostly Sugar Maple but there is also Elm, Oak, Hickory, Cherry, Tulip, Birch, Sassafras, Aspen, Boxelder, Osage, Willow, Black Locust, Catalpa. and Giant Sumach. Recently I found a Birdseye Maple. I have conifers but only the one's I planted.

The ground is clay but the woods has a thick humous layer and a resultant cornucopia of plants and mushrooms. Of course, the puffballs grow in the field where the horses have been.

 

[joegres]

Sometimes I go for mushrooms hunting, because it's fun.. Unfortunately I tend to have bad luck and then I find nearly nothing

 

[BGreen]

This is all so new to me. I would love to know more about mushrooms, but it's going to have to be added to an ever growing list of things I want to know more about. Life really is too short, isn't it?

 

[JeepThrills]

This is all so new to me. I would love to know more about mushrooms, but it's going to have to be added to an ever growing list of things I want to know more about. Life really is too short, isn't it?

Learning about mushrooms is on my "to-do" list too. I was wondering how most people learn to identify them? Are there classes you can take or did you find someone to show you?

 

[dinosaur]

I learned from my Dad and my uncles but you can take a course. Your DNR may have something, also the local university or extension center may hold night classes on the outdoors. Of course your best bet is to find some old-timer who's been doing it for half a century or more.

 

[wvbreamfisherman]

For a beginner- I'd suggest sticking with Morels. They are nearly impossible to mistake for a poisonous mushroom.