# Hen-of-the-Woods bonanza

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hen-of-the-woods-bonanza/669831>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 27, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hen-of-the-woods-bonanza/669831 "2013-09-27T19:40:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hen-of-the-woods-bonanza/669831/1 "2013-09-27T19:40:49Z")

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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)

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**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hen-of-the-woods-bonanza/669831/2 "2013-09-27T19:44:50Z")

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Not what I was expecting at all. There was a _Bonanza_ episode where they mockingly called Little Joe the “Bull of the Woods.”