Weekend Edibles

[jerkin'm]

Took the kids out for a heat/bug endurance test over the weekend...they passed.. Chanterelles, black raspberries, chokecherries and sunfish...only a couple bad cell pics..

[pushbutton]

Nice combo! Did you get those up north? Need some rain in central Minnie....been out to a few spots and nothing yet......

[reinhard1]

way to go Dad!!!!something they will remember for a long time. good luck.

[jerkin'm]

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PB-Yes, they came from West Central Minnesota-I think you know about where....This is the whole haul. Wish we could have waited a few days as some were really small and we left a lot behind. Won't be able to get back up there until mid to late August and they will be long gone....It was really dry and I was surprised they were up already...

[Matt Breuer]

Nice work, jerkin'm!

We've been picking chants for about 2 weeks, and the guys in the Metro have been having nice hauls for longer. Even with the dry/heat it seems they are going well. We've been finding black trumpets and tons of coral too. Found the first hedgehogs of the year yesterday too!

[pushbutton]

Thanks for rubbing it in guys We just got our first kind of real rain in something like a month so hopefully some things should be popping here.

[jerkin'm]

Matt, you are finding stuff that I haven't ever seen in the woods before...I have used them all at work but never found any...LOVE the black trumpets, one of the only mushrooms I ever buy dried...very cool...It's the last time I will be out for a long time so I will just have to drool over others pictures now for a while...

[pushbutton]

Well we finally got some rain here in Saint Cloudville and the chants are finally starting to pop. This is really not much earlier than normal and we will see if the mini drought will affect the crop. Right now they literally are just coming up.

Did find a few for supper and a gift package for mom and dad, but left most to grow and get a little bigger.

Always have to be careful with this though as others critters find them tasty as well. Looks like a mouse had some good eatins

[Matt Breuer]

Nice! Hopefully some rain continues and they keep popping! How much rain did you get, pb? We FINALLY got a dose of rain last night, and they are calling for more tonight and into tomorrow. The woods up here are bone-dry, and are vacant of most things... I was out for just over 4 hours yesterday and found 1 bolete, a few yellow-foot, and 1 prime chicken, which was nice, as the last 6 I've walked up on were toast...

On a different note, 40 miles to the south of Bemidji it's a fungal bonanza!

[pushbutton]

Maybe a couple inches, but that was from essentially 2 downpours that lasted 10 minutes. Better than nothing though. On the flip side just had to mow the lawn for the first time in well over a month and the skeeters have been entirely tolerable this year. Have heard of those skull bone mushrooms before but have never seen one....how do they taste?

[jerkin'm]

Nice haul Matt! Jealous of the variety in your neck of the woods for sure....found a few toasty chickens last time I was out too...all were the ground growing variety, none were on wood yet that I have seen....time to make a little run in my neighborhood to see if anything came from our recent rains...good luck all...

[Matt Breuer]

The variety isn't exactly from my neck of the woods... I've had to travel to chase stuff down the last few weeks. Very dry here, and very little growing.

Those ground-growing cincinnatus sure are pretty. Love how different it looks when fresh. Tough part is finding it in good shape. Never enough time in the woods!!

I just shot PB an e-mail, still think we should all shoot for a foray...

[pushbutton]

Matt, check your Email. Think i responded on my smart phone...but I am not that smart and could have just sent myself a reply

[Matt Breuer]

Got 'er, PB! I know you and I have had issues with e-mails... but I think we've got it figured out. Haha!

[pushbutton]

Jr. and I just got back from a few hours/miles in the woods and while it is pretty dry, we concentrated on the lower land and had some success. Here are some pics from the trip...

Hey Matt / anyone, have a clue what these are?....... lighter brown when popping maturing darker, underside is spongelike, and pretty fragile skin and stem with a creamy slightly yellow tinted flesh. Found them on the slopes leading into really low almost muck areas.

[jerkin'm]

Nice work PB-They look like slippery jacks to me...not sure though...my family hunted my grounds today and with some phone guidance they did well...

[pushbutton]

Guess you did guide them well, hopefully they will save some for you. Are you up drilling the eyeballs and toothy critters in Canada?

Some type of bolete also came to my mind, but when I broke one open saw kind of a lavender/purpleish ringing around the flesh and kind of scared me.......as mentioned they easily bruise and did not know if that was the source of the color or it was the "bad bluing" you hear so much about....

[jerkin'm]

Don't leave til a week from tomorrow for Ontario, paying the piper for the eight day vacation now...have a couple local spots I might have to hit up for chickens one morning this week if I can get all my oil changing/bearing packing/boat rigging/gear packing done tomorrow..nice pics and variety..never picked that coral before, how would you rate it?

[pushbutton]

Ha! you got 8 days of payback when you get home too...its worth it .... well, kind of... sure spoils fishing around here though, just not the same is it!

As far as the corals, very similar to bears head or lions mane. They need to be prime though, which is the tough part as they seem not to have much of a "shelf life." Found oodles of them, but nearly all were shot.....a week or so too late I would guess. Don't hold up quite as well when cooking either. Definitely a texture thing ....personally like the thicker meatier types better, but if one happens to be a gourmet chef, would think there would be a lot of potential for them ....probably would be a cool in a fancy dancy serving/plate/bed arrangement type thing

[Matt Breuer]

If you connect with some crown-tip when it's fresh, and in big clump like you harvested, it's actually quite meaty in the base. A quick flash in a hot pan and they are a good compliment to lots of things. They look pretty neat on a freshly grilled burger...

They are some sort of blue staining bolete, PB. I see them all of the time up here too. I stay away from any bolete that stains blue...

NICE porcini! That's one thing I never find up north. I want to connect with one of the extremely bulbous ones for pics, like the one in your group photo. I can only seem to find variipes up here... no kings.

I was out for an hour up north near my cabin on Sat. and found the chickens to be in full force. Picked a nice specimen and found 4 others, 2 were far-gone, and 2 will be harvested in the coming week... Loads of lobsters as well.

[NoWiser]

I made it out on Friday evening and Saturday morning in the metro. I checked out a new woods and did very well on chants (lots of small ones just coming up, too), and also found 2 chickens that were just a bit too far gone for my liking. The coral is everywhere around here, but I never really had a desire to pick it. I'll have to try some next time I find a big, fresh clump. I also found 2 different types of blue-staining boletes. Like Matt, I'd love to find a porcini, but just have never stumbled onto any. I'll be in the Brainerd area this weekend, so I'm going to throw a dart at a map and head out in search of more fungi!

[Matt Breuer]

Brainerd area is where we were the last couple of weeks, and the amount of 'shrooms in the woods was incredible! Have fun!

Here's a pic of a perfect cincinnatus from Sat...

[pushbutton]

Yep, she sure is purdy! Mentioned this in another thread, but I just dont see chickens during the summer...

That was my first king and wish I could offer you guys some advice, but dumb luck is all I got......was just moving some ferns aside in an area that held lobsters last year and there they were...even stepped on one

[Matt Breuer]

pb, I remember you saying that, and find it odd. I found some in June, and a ton this July. 5 on Sat. alone, a couple had been there for a few weeks... It's definitely harder to venture into the woods when it's uber-dense and the bugs are insanely bad, so I can see it!

[NoWiser]

I had to head up to northern MN for the weekend for a wedding and made it out for a couple hours Saturday morning and had a blast finding multiple edibles including: Chanterelle, Hedgehog, Black Trumpet, Oyster, Yellow Foot, Lobster, and what seem to be porcini from all the research I've done, although I can't rule out some other very similar looking bolete. I found a couple that were too old that were the size of a dinner plate! Either way they are delicious! I wish I could get up there again, but I'll have to be content in the South Metro for the rest of the season. I've got a big patch of chants I need to pick tomorrow or Wednesday! I'll be in Canada in two weeks though, and will have to do some hiking while I'm up there to look for some fungus to go with our shore lunches.