September - Central PA Wild Mushroom Club

This past weekend I went out to Whipple Dam State Park to hunt for wild mushrooms with the Central PA Wild Mushroom Club.  There were several highly experienced mushroomers there who led different groups into the woods to search for a wide variety of mushrooms.  It was extremely informative and a fun walk in the woods.

As soon as we arrived, a few members found a couple hens of the woods mushrooms.  The above picture is not one of the ones that we found, but it gives an idea of what they look like and the general size.  This was the main objective of the outing as there are many hens out at this time and they are apparently very tasty. 

I didn't find any myself, but I did find three interesting varieties. 

The first was the Jack o' Lantern Mushroom (Omphalotus olearius). 

Again this isn't my picture, but this is what they looked like.  These are a poisonous mushroom, but they do have a beautiful color and they have a rather unique feature.  They apparently glow in the dark!  I didn't get a chance to see this in action, but they are slightly phosphorescent and if you place them in complete darkness, they glow.


I also found Granulated Boletes.  We found them under a white pine in clumps.  In order to eat them, it is sometimes recommended to peel the cap.  Some people have reported that the slimy coating has a laxative effect.  Bill Russell, a leader of the club, said that he has never had this problem, but I went ahead and peeled them anyway. 

I haven't eaten these yet because I didn't want to eat more than one kind of new mushroom at a time.

The mushroom that I did try was the "Small Chanterelles" (Craterellus ignicolor).  They look like a bright orange true chanterelle; however they have a trumpet like center as they age and are hollow near the top.  They do have the false gills. 

I fried these up in a little butter and they were very tasty.  They also had an almost citrus smell to them. 

September - Staghorn and Smooth Sumac

Around my house there are many Sumacs, both the Staghorn (hairy) and Smooth (no hairs) variety, and I am used to seeing their signature red seed stems.  Turns out, these produce malic acid and you can make tea, a pink lemonade-like drink, or pie from them.

In my first attempt, I followed the directions here, but my sumac concentrate was a bit on the weak side, so I just added a bit of water and sugar and drank it as Sumac-ade.  It has a wonderful pink color and the taste is like pink lemonade with a hint of tea.  Amanda says it has a more natural taste than pink lemonade and I'd agree. Very delicious.

This is definitely my best find of September so far.

I'm going to pick more and dry them for tea in the winter.   I'll update after I see how that goes.

September - Puffballs

We were walking along Spring Creek with our dog, Cinci, when Amanda pointed down the hill and asked, "What are those things?"

They were 4-5 huge puffball mushrooms, Calvatia Gigantea, growing in the flood plain area beside the stream.  Each one was at least as big as a softball and the biggest (pictured below) was as big as a basketball.

Mushrooms are how I really began being interested in wild edibles, so I was pretty excited.

We cut it and brought it home.  Then we researched online about the dangers of this variety.  Turns out puffball mushrooms are pretty safe (though with mushrooms, you can't be too safe).  They are sometimes confused with Amanitas, which can kill, but the Amanitas only resemble puffballs when they are immature and you can cut open a puffball to see if there is signs of a developing stem/gills.  If there are, DO NOT EAT IT. If it is all white flesh, it's probably a puffball.

So the first thing I did was cut it open to check for the white flesh...and I hit something solid.  Amanda was stressed about the whole endeavor, worried that it might be an Amanitas, so I didn't want to alarm her, but I was a bit freaked out.  The knife clinked against something and stopped dead.  Then the mushroom split open and...

There was a rock inside.  The mushroom had grown around it.

After that, I cut away the outer layer and any sections that weren't completely white (dirt).  I then cut it into thin steaks (less than an inch thick) and fried them in garlic and olive oil.

After they cooked for a few minutes on each side,

I switched them to the grill.

They looked amazing.  However, the taste was less than I hoped.

If you like a slight mushroomy flavor and the texture of mushrooms (I don't really), these might be great for you.  I couldn't get around the texture.  Too bad too because I could have eaten several meals off of just the one I brought home.

Any thoughts or advice would be well appreciated.  For now, I'm just saying that I don't like puffball mushrooms.  However, I might be willing to try again with a different recipe, maybe a puffball parmesan over pasta...