I was out wandering the woods behind the house last night when I found a beautiful Grifola frondosa, also known as Hen-of-the Woods or Maitake.
I couldn’t believe my luck, so I marked my spot and headed back to the house to get a knife and a shopping bag to carry it in. Imagine my surprise when on my way back through the woods I found another one!
So I now have about 20 pounds of Maitake (Japanese for “the dancing mushroom”, supposedly because foragers would dance with joy upon discovering one!) ready to put into the bellies of my family and friends. I made wild mushroom risotto with the last one I found, along with some dried morels from this spring, which was fantastic but now I’m looking for some other recipes, or if anyone has experience with drying them. (and also trying to elicit oohs and aaahs from my fellow foragers :p)