2008 wild mushroom harvest

I'm not certain as too how many other mushroom foragers there are out there that are willing to post but I thought I'd start a post for the 2008 season. I, of course, will be limited to my experiences with the forests near and around Stockholm, Sweden.

If there is one speck of silver lining to this summer's many storm clouds, it must be the abundance of early-season mushrooms growing in and around Stockholm right now. While the blankets of chanterelles in my recent dreams remain undiscovered, my 6-year old and I did not come home empty handed...



First off, though: a warning:



Amanita virosa, or the European “destroying angel”. Well worthy of its nickname and well worthy of respect, sighting this mushroom first in our searches acted as a stern reminder to stick to our old favorites.

And, pretty soon, we’d found one:



Boletus edulis. “Karljohansvamp” or “Stensopp” in Swedish, aka “Porcini”, “Cepe”, “Penny bun”. Honestly, though it could also be Boletus pinophilus or even Boletus reticulates. One way or another, they are all excellent and it’s always exciting to see one!

Once home, we examined our finds:





Not bad for an hour of walking, father and son, through the forest.

Traditional preparations in Sweden would be either to make a soup out of them or serving them “creamed” on toast. Being the season’s first made me want to take a less brutal approach.

I sliced them…



… and placed them on a hot grill:





Served together with grilled chicken, green beans from the garden and rosemary/lemon pearl couscous “risotto”:



Seasoned only with salt and the grill, the mushrooms were sweet, nutty and a welcome start to the season.

Just beautiful, Bridgestone.

I posted some photos a few weeks back:

here

and here.

I have returned to the forest several times since then and only found a few more. The weather has just been too cool this summer. Even though my mushroom bag is light, the dog and I return exhausted and happy because the setting is so peaceful and beautiful.

Bill/SFNM

Oh I saw your porcini posts, Bill...

In fact, your 1000-degree blasted porcinis (not to mention that sublime final pizza) were permenantly etched in my mind the entire time I frantically fanned my grill and later chewed my dinner.

Thanks for the inspiration to get out and find some of my own mushrooms. Please keep us posted if the weather turns any more mushroom-friendly!

Hi,

Boletus edulis is a very rare find in Illinois. The last one I am aware of was found on an Illinois Mycological Association foray several years ago.

There are people who will go to Michigan to hunt boletes. Another mushroomer who is far more passionate than most, plans annual trips out west to find these.

I have a pretty good stock of dried Boletus edulis from Russia, though I have seen prices of $99/pound in local delis here.

Regards,

Bridgestone wrote:Thanks for the inspiration to get out and find some of my own mushrooms. Please keep us posted if the weather turns any more mushroom-friendly!

Bridgestone,

Beautiful pictures.

Both you and Bill SF/NM are inspirational, causing me to seriously consider a wild mushroom hunt, though I would tap into Cathy2's knowledge of mycology before tasting.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bridgestone,

Another fine post from you. Thanks.

I find myself wondering if, in Sweden, that storied land of universal healthcare, you have pharmacists, who, like their French counterparts, are qualified mycologists. I remember my astonishment when, in Blois, France, I inquired as to why there was a display of mushrooms in the window of a local pharmacy. "For Public Safety," was the reply.

Josephine wrote:I find myself wondering if, in Sweden, that storied land of universal healthcare, you have pharmacists, who, like their French counterparts, are qualified mycologists. I remember my astonishment when, in Blois, France, I inquired as to why there was a display of mushrooms in the window of a local pharmacy. "For Public Safety," was the reply.

Wouldn't that be wonderful, Josephine?!

No, there isn't that level of healthcare service over/up here. However, it could also largely be due to the fact that many of the most popular mushrooms are very easily identifiable. Porcini have several species that grow in Sweden but the worst one(excluding the "devil's bolete" that only rarely shows up on the island of Gotland) is only extremely bitter (and that's easy enough to test in the forest). Chanterelles are also pretty hard to confuse with anything dangerous as long as you stick to mature specimens. Black trumpet and winter chanterelles are also easy to identify and tough to confuse.

There are plenty of other edible mushrooms in Sweden but the rest are somewhat harder to identify and slightly easier to confuse with something nasty. But, with 5-6 easily discovered, safe wild mushrooms, who needs to experiment? Not us beginners, anyway.

I did, however, promise my son that we would sign up for an organized mushroom hunt (held by a few local clubs and museums). It's honestly just-as or even more important to be able to identify the nasty mushrooms as the tasty ones and I'd like a little help with that. Plus, I know that there are a lot of really, really tasty mushrooms that I end up passing up as I'm just uneasy making the identification alone.

HI,

I once knew a Soviet who was assigned to Vienna, Austria to coordinate with an international atomic (energy) association. He told me the local mushroom experts would walk about the woods to inspect mushroomer's baskets for mis-identified mushrooms. He encounter one of these experts who looked through his basket pointing out mushrooms that were not edible. He disagreed, then asked to review the expert's basket finding mushrooms he thought were not edible. It made for a good story, though I have a feeling they each knew a few mushrooms as reliable and dismissed the others as inedible.

Regards,

Thanks, Bridgestone, for the tutorial. But I am shocked, SHOCKED that mycology is not a state-supported medico-cultural specialty in Sweden.

All kidding aside, I once read in a field guide to the mushrooms of North America that in order to definitively identify an edible mushroom, a microscope is required. (That kind of gave me pause, since the last time I had a microscope around the house I was in the 5th grade.)

What say you, experienced mushroom hunters? Was that just the publsher's legal team talking? Is there any kind of structured mushroom identification protocol that a layperson with minimal experience can use?

Josephine wrote:What say you, experienced mushroom hunters? Was that just the publsher's legal team talking? Is there any kind of structured mushroom identification protocol that a layperson with minimal experience can use?

Very simply, some mushrooms are easily identified by sight; others require careful examination, and some are just too ambiguous to take the risk.

I stick with the easy ones: porcini, chanterelles, and morels.

C2 turned me on to a very helpful book for begining mushroom foragers - Start Mushrooming (Tekiela & Sharnberg, Adventure Publications, 1993. It describes in detail six species (morel, oyster, shaggy mane, sulfur shelf, giant puffball, and hen of the woods) that are easy to identify (without a microscope), and tasty. Imagine my surprise last year when I found my friendly old oak tree in the front yard pushing out an impressive-sized sulfur shelf mushroom. The book is highly recommended.

Bill/SFNM wrote:

Josephine wrote:What say you, experienced mushroom hunters? Was that just the publsher's legal team talking? Is there any kind of structured mushroom identification protocol that a layperson with minimal experience can use?

Very simply, some mushrooms are easily identified by sight; others require careful examination, and some are just too ambiguous to take the risk.

I stick with the easy ones: porcini, chanterelles, and morels.

Bill/SFNM's classification system works perfectly (so far...) for me! I, too, stick with the easy ones. I suspect that Cathy2's acquaintances where most likely quibbling over the third, ambiguous group.

On what is perhaps a similar note to Cathy2's story, none of my Swedish mushroom books list Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) as "tasty" or even "edible" for that matter. This leads me to believe that there is a decent amount of culture and tradition involved in choosing non-poisonous mushrooms for the kitchen. What is "tasty" in Russia may well not be "tasty" in Vienna.

On an even stranger note, many elderly Swedes consider Gyromitra esculenta a delicacy after parboiling them repeatedly to remove the toxins. Recent research has shown, however, that variations in the mushrooms and/or the parboiling and/or an accumulation of toxins in frequent eaters may lead to poisoning despite decades of symptom-free consumption. These days, the mushroom is labelled as poisonous in all mushrooms books (Wikipedia has puzzlingly labeled them as both "choice" and "deadly"!) but can still be served in restaurants where it is assumed that professional chefs can properly handle them. So, keeping up with research also has a factor in mushroom identification...

There is (at least) one other factor in picking mushrooms that does complicate identification matters. Most people are smart enough to leave The Destroying Angel I photographed well and alone in the forest. However, inexperienced pickers may confuse immature specimens with edible button mushrooms or puffballs. There's an easy identification (simply cut the mushroom in half and you'll see the immature Destroying Angel inside) but I still don't mess with them. Nope, if I want button mushrooms I'll just pick some up at the store on the way home from the forest.

Bridgestone wrote: On what is perhaps a similar note to Cathy2's story, none of my Swedish mushroom books list Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) as "tasty" or even "edible" for that matter. This leads me to believe that there is a decent amount of culture and tradition involved in choosing non-poisonous mushrooms for the kitchen. What is "tasty" in Russia may well not be "tasty" in Vienna.

I will never forget my brief discussion with the mycologist at the Field Museum, who is very excited about edible mushrooms and eager to share his knowledge. He told a story about a couple from France foraging here, insisting that they knew what they were doing - but they didn't know that locally, Chanterelles have a poisonous look-alike, the Jack-O-Lantern, which apparently doesn't grow in Europe - they became quite ill. Though I'd agree about culture, it's also possible that you have a lookalike or poisonous variety there.

Beginnings of a Sulfur Shelf (aka Chicken of the Woods) mushroom, growing off an oak tree root in my front yard this afternoon. Should get much bigger soon.



For those who know where I live, if this mushroom goes missing, and you post that you've just found a great sulfur shelf mushroom, I'll be very suspicious.

On an even stranger note, many elderly Swedes consider Gyromitra esculenta a delicacy after parboiling them repeatedly to remove the toxins. Recent research has shown, however, that variations in the mushrooms and/or the parboiling and/or an accumulation of toxins in frequent eaters may lead to poisoning despite decades of symptom-free consumption. These days, the mushroom is labelled as poisonous in all mushrooms books (Wikipedia has puzzlingly labeled them as both "choice" and "deadly"!) but can still be served in restaurants where it is assumed that professional chefs can properly handle them. So, keeping up with research also has a factor in mushroom identification...

Cathy2, April 29, 2007 wrote:(Finding Gyromitra esculenta) These are not an issue in the Chicago area. While the Gyromitra esculenta looks like a brain on a stem, it is hefty and when cut in half is a solid mass. Whereas a morel cut in half is light weight and hollow inside. Those who mistakenly ID a Gyromatra esculenta often believe they won the morel sweepstakes because they are so generously sized.
...

In Missouri, Gyromitra esculenta's are nicknamed 'Big Red' with some people actively seeking them out. There were some rumors people in Michigan were also eating them. A friend went to a diner to check this by making casual conversation. One waitress advised, "I personally will not eat them, though I do prepare them for my husband." Her recitation of this anecdote was snort coffee through your nose moment for my mushroom friends. I'm sure there are Illinois residents who hunt them, I just don't have a related anecdote for them!

Cathy2, February, 2008 wrote:The False Morel Gyromitra esculenta , which pops up during morel season in various regions, is consider poisonous due to hydrazine. Just as often as false morels mentioned, the usual caution is stated, "False morels have hydrazine, which is a component in jet fuel. Do not eat it." Accordind to Tom Volk, "The active ingredient is called gyromitrin (N-methyl-N-formylhydrazine), which is metabolized to monomethylhydrazine (rocket fuel!) in the body." Despite the warnings, there are people who eat it anyway. The hydrazine has an accumulative effect, a gathering storm mind you, because it never leaves your system. You can eat them over some years with no ill effect, then once you have passed a certain threshold you have liver failure and chronic health problems. However depending on your body chemistry and general health, the consumption of the false morel can affect you quicker. There is research to suggest hydrazine can trigger tumors, which really isn't a swell residual affect from dining.

If you want to learn the straight story on the false morel, then please read Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month: Gyromitra esculenta, one of the false morels for complete information.

There is no way a professional chef can prepare a Gyromitra esculenta and render it safe.

Bridgestone wrote:This leads me to believe that there is a decent amount of culture and tradition involved in choosing non-poisonous mushrooms for the kitchen. What is "tasty" in Russia may well not be "tasty" in Vienna.

Long ago I was at a weekend cottage in Croatia, the owners had just returned from the woods with a quantity of mushrooms. When they learned I was an American, they lectured me quite angrily, "There would be more known edible mushrooms in America if you Americans had treated the Indians better." In North America, the English culture with their adversion of mushrooms has a lot to do with our culture's fear of wild mushrooms.

While there is certainly a mushroom affinitity very strongly in Eastern Europe and Russia, this was largely influenced by the Orthodox church. They had many extended periods of fasting where one abstained from meat, mushrooms with their meaty textures and flavor became a meat substitute. People in those countries learn their mushrooming anecdotally from one person to another with only the good (edible) collected and everything else is declared bad. Years ago, I had a Russian emigree who worked for us in Chicago. She told me she knew everything about mushrooms. I went a on a brief vacation to Wisconsin, I collected one mushroom of everything I saw. I laid everything neatly on a newspaper for her inspection. I already had in my mind a Royal Russian Feast dancing through my mind of preparing all these mushrooms in a sour cream sauce for lunch. Of the 40 different mushrooms on the table, she picked exactly two as edible. I quickly surmised her knowledge was limited and joined a mushroom club.

What one rarely sees in these mushroom collecting cultures are people who study the mushrooms beyond their favorite locally-prized edibles. I will surmise it is this reason why they have a limited edible vocabulary with the Austrians and Russians favoring and discounting each others finds.

The 'Death Angel' is from the Amanita family, which does have some known edibles. One friend's very first wild mushroom eating experience came from carefully identifying an edible in the Amanita family. Later when the full impact of what a mistake might have cost her, she never again even tempted to eat to anything from the Amanita family.

MHays wrote:I will never forget my brief discussion with the mycologist at the Field Museum, who is very excited about edible mushrooms and eager to share his knowledge. He told a story about a couple from France foraging here, insisting that they knew what they were doing - but they didn't know that locally, Chanterelles have a poisonous look-alike, the Jack-O-Lantern, which apparently doesn't grow in Europe - they became quite ill. Though I'd agree about culture, it's also possible that you have a lookalike or poisonous variety there.

I will guess you were talking to Greg Mueller.

Chanterelles rarely grow in clusters nor are they in the midwest very sizeable compared to the Jack O Lantern. When people encounter the Jack O-Lantern, they believe they hit the jackpot because of the size and quantity. They very much want it to be a chanterelle and will ignore their guidebooks. You won't die, but you will be so sick you will wish you were dead. Personally, I have come to the conclusion when people ignore the available information because of their hopefullness, then perhaps it is a bit of greed peaking in.

Regards,

I've had a little bit of luck with the foraging this year.

The first bit of luck happened in the alley behind my house in Humboldt Park in June. I blogged about it here. Improbably, Dish linked to the entry.

Here's a picture I didn't include in the blog - the full view of the tree with the mushrooms in many stages of the oyster mushroom lifecycle (within days the ones I didn't eat were a slimy mess, thanks to the heat and the rain). I ate only the smallest, youngest mushrooms. And unsurprisingly, no one would eat them with me.



In north central Maine in late July, I spent two afternoons foraging for chantarelles, which I blogged about here. I found a few boletes along the way, but I wasn't positive about variety so I left them. Here's one that I did pick and photograph:



I also came across a single lobster mushroom. Sulfur shelfs abounded in the woods, but I left those as well. I picked a few young puffballs, but they were few and far between.

The conditions were ideal, as it was rainy and warm, alternating with rainy and cool. The woods were full of mushrooms, but I recognized very few of them so I didn't pick them. I operate under a similar set of rules as Bill: if I don't know it, I don't eat it.

I'd like to go foraging again this fall. Not sure where, though. I don't know the Midwest as well as I know New England.

Damn. Someone walking along the sidewalk kicked my sulfur shelf away. Anyone know how to transplant a sulfur shelf mushroom to my more protected back yard?

Yes, I know that's impossible - it's a rhetorical question.

We went deep into the forest in search of porcini. None to be found, but chanterelles were plentiful:



Sauteed some up in butter, salt, white pepper, and flamed with some madeira. What to do? What to do? Well, duh:



Bill/SFNM

nr706 wrote:Damn. Someone walking along the sidewalk kicked my sulfur shelf away.

That is so...offensive, revolting, stomach-turning. It's like little kids stepping on bees because they sometimes sting people...oh yeah, and pollinate the plants that give us this marvelous life.

Some mindless vandals believe that destroying mushrooms is a good thing because, you know, they're sometimes poisonous...and so, sometimes, is beef. And jalapenos.

Condolences on your loss.

nr706 wrote:Damn. Someone walking along the sidewalk kicked my sulfur shelf away. Anyone know how to transplant a sulfur shelf mushroom to my more protected back yard?

Yes, I know that's impossible - it's a rhetorical question.

Maybe you can put some kind of protective cage over it?

HI,

If it were later in the fall, then leaves will do a fine job of hiding your immature find. It works very well for puffballs and hen of the woods (grifola frondosa).

Unfortunately that bright orange color makes your find an easy target.

Regards,

Despite being a fantastic year for mushroom hunting, the Bridgestone family simply has had too much going on to forage properly. I did, however, manage to get a few of the kids out with me this past Friday.

Sadly, our normal picking area has been deforested by its landowners. I suppose the downside to being able to freely harvest mushrooms on private property in Sweden is that one's favorite mushroom spot can simply disappear. However, more mushroom hunting was available a little further down the road.

Hunting mushrooms with a 4 and a 2 year-old generally makes for meager pickings. Luckily, we stumbled across some winter chanterelles pretty quickly.





Extremely common, super-easy to identify and very difficult to confuse, winter chanterelles are one mushroom that nearly every Swede is willing to pick and take home. I had 20 fingers eagerly waiting to help me out...



I always see the first-spotted winter chanterelle as a betrayer for the rest of her group. They grow in clusters and you normally spot the rest of the cluster (or even another cluster) right as you bend down to pick the first mushroom.



Spotted an (for me) oddity on the way out of the forest.


Gyromitra infula

As with a few other false morels, you'll find Swedes willing to eat these after "proper" preperation. We, however, left them alone after taking their mugshots.

Once home, the winter chanterelles simply made their way into a quick saute of ham and onion:



A little flour, some stock and a few tablespoons of cream later and we had a tasty sauce for our after-hunt pasta lunch.

Hej Bridgestone. I have enjoyed reading your reports on foraging in Sweden. I moved here to Stockholm from Australia less than two years ago. Australia does not have a history of mushroom picking among its citizens (at least not those of European descent) so I am a novice. Fortunately my fiance and his family are mushroom hunters so I have picked up some tips from them, and by cross referencing my English language field guide with 'Våra Matsvampar' I have managed to identify some good mushrooms growing here in spite of my poor Swedish language skills. Don't worry, we only eat what we are sure of.

We started hunting back in mid-August, and on our first few trips we mostly found kilos of ceps (karljohansvamp), orange birch boletes (Björksopp på svenska, I think) and a few specimens of some other boletes. After a couple of weeks, they disappeared from the forests near our summerhouse entirely but then we found a good haul of chantarelles (600g). The following two weekends after that, we found only trumpet chantarelles, or winter chantarelles as you call them. According to our Swedish book we found two different species (Rödgul trumpetsvamp and trattsvamp), but the English book had photos of both and described them as the same thing. Anyway, they were very tasty though eating too many in one meal gave me a belly ache. Nobody else suffered though.

Last weekend the trumpetsvamp were still growing nicely in absolute masses in the forests, and we also started finding hedgehog mushrooms (Blek taggsvamp) by the dozens as well.

It's quite funny how every time we go out we predominantly find only one variety of mushroom. I wonder if it's because our eyes become attuned to seeing just one variety, or if there really are no others around to see. I can't wait until next year to get some more karljohansvamp. I love them, and we didn't dry enough to last the year out.

Sorry to have missed your post, MissUnleaded!

Sounds like you've had a great year of picking and that you've found the species you are comfortable with picking. Those are essentially the ones I stick to, too. Hedgehog mushrooms seem to always be the first I see in the forest (the fact that they are normally white and tend to grow out in the open makes them stick out...) and I happily pick a few younger specimens. However, as they hunt progresses and the basket fills with other mushrooms, I generally end up throwing the hedgehogs out.

We were out yesterday and found many winter chanterelles. While searching (and while my wife and children were busy grilling hotdogs and marshmellows), I eventually found what must be this year's last golden chanterelles. These were well-buried and massive! Each was at least the size of a baseball. Size comes at a price, though and their advanced age meant that they were a little soggy. Four of them was enough for each of us to have a generous appetizer with our dinner last night.

I have been spending my fall weekends up in Saugatuck, Michigan. My buddy Mikey has taken up a serious mushroom harvesting hobby, which for the past few weeks has piqued my interest. Every morning he hauls in massive psychedelic (appearance-wise) clusters of hen-in-the-woods and chicken-of-the-woods and fries up some slices for breakfast. Finally the other morning he handed me a piece of toast piled high with sauteed hen. Thats all it took. I hit the woods. I scored.
Here is my cluster of hen (maitake):

And chicken, maybe a little past its peak- I'll probably dehydrate 'em:

Chicken-fat Suillus (Suillus Americanus), which there are tons of, though I have yet to sample its slimy sulfur colored flesh:

This one is a new one, Mikey pulled one in this morning and then I found one, Bear's Head Tooth (Hericium coralloides)
:
My guide suggested a slow saute, which yielded a delicate flavor, though slightly wet in its texture.
So far the hen is really doing it for me and good thing too, beacause Mikey is pulling in 18" plus clusters of the stuff.
I am incredibly grateful to have such a compelling new hobby, which really is a perfect intersection of my interests in culinary pursuits, native flora, and crazy fractal-like colorful natural phenomena.
The entire day's happy bounty:

Very cool mushrooms, Jefe! Thanks!

I forgot to take pictures, but Saturday night my friend brought over 2-3lbs of Hen of the Woods. Just sautéed them up with a bit of garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Delicious.

I was out on the Des Plaines River Trail biking on the last Sunday in Sept. It must have been mushroom day. There were 2 women with wicker baskets full of what looked like shitake mushrooms. And there was one guy with 6 foot long aluminum that said he was cutting mushrooms off the higher limbs of trees. he wouldn't show me what was in his bag, so I'm just curious if anyone knows what the heck those were.
I grew up in Central Illinois and have picked mushrooms since I was old enough to go out with the family, but just morels, nothing else. I am curious about all the varieties. I will look for a mushroom hunters group on google.

HI,

Shiitake don't grow wild around here. You can innoculate oak logs to grow them, though I haven't heard of any wild cultivated.

The guy with the long pole was probably trying to reach chicken of woods or sulfur shelf, which have a vexing habit of growing beyond anyone's reach more often than not.

Please note, Cook County Forest Preserves do not officially allow mushroom picking. The potential of receiving a ticket and a court appearance are not zero. You have to be a bit discrete when you do whatever you do. A friend had a warning conversation with an officer within the last two weeks.

Over ten years ago, Lake County Forest Preserves had maps showing preserves where berry, nut and mushroom picking were allowed. A few years later, they sent a letter to the Illinois Mycological Association advising any mushroom picking was forbidden.

Illinois State Forest preserves also had full prohibition on mushroom picking. This has changed and it is now allowed. Hopefully this change will trickle down to county forest preserves.

Regards,

Schuyler wrote:I was out on the Des Plaines River Trail biking on the last Sunday in Sept. It must have been mushroom day. There were 2 women with wicker baskets full of what looked like shitake mushrooms. And there was one guy with 6 foot long aluminum that said he was cutting mushrooms off the higher limbs of trees. he wouldn't show me what was in his bag, so I'm just curious if anyone knows what the heck those were.
I grew up in Central Illinois and have picked mushrooms since I was old enough to go out with the family, but just morels, nothing else. I am curious about all the varieties. I will look for a mushroom hunters group on google.

What looked like shiitake was probably Armillarea mellea, and the guy with the pole might have been going for Volvariella bombycina or Hypsizygus ulmarius.