No, not morels. Too late in the season and we found none this spring. We have found several species of Oysters, Dryad’s Saddle, and close to 20 pounds of Chicken Mushroom (Sulfur Shelf).
But today, just a short walk from the house, we found a huge patch of Shaggy Parasol (Lepiota rachodes). It is a very tasty mushroom, and there is a ton of it here.
Then there is the “rush” of eating something nearly identical in appearance to a poisonous shroom. I did a spore print on ours, and had a second opinion from a mycologist who checked my spore print.
Actually, meaty and nutty. We are having it with a venison roast. Good times!!!
And I have since gotten a third opinion supporting genus and species. (I sent out a bunch of emails earlier and am still hearing back, but the PhD was first in.)
Actually, seriously, people in the shroom community do make spore prints on aluminum foil, wrap in foil, then a baggie and send it to friends so that they can then suspend the spores in sterile water (working within a hood or glove-box), grow mycellium, and propagate the fruit (mushroom). Culinary and other types of mushrooms are traded in this way.
Take the cap (remove the stem, if any) and place the cap on a piece of paper, or aluminum foil. Foil is for spore collection, paper great for color determination. Then cover with an appropriate sized drinking glass to block air currents and raise humidity a bit.
I use a few different colors of construction paper, overlapping, so as to get spore dropping onto multiple colors. Best is to use clear, stiff plastic so that it can be looked at with different colored backgrounds.
We have found several species of Oysters, Dryad’s Saddle, and close to 20 pounds of Chicken Mushroom (Sulfur Shelf).
