Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine

Late Summer and Early Fall Mushrooms

By Eric Taylor

Although morels are considered to be the most sought after and delicious mushrooms in the spring, there are others that taste great and can be used in a variety of dishes. Oyster mushrooms and chicken or sulfur shelf mushrooms can also be found in the spring around May. Like all mushrooms it depends on temperatures and rainfall. But toward late summer through November, when temperatures are mild and rainfall is good, these two mushrooms — along with a wide variety of other mushrooms — begin to pop up almost anywhere.
The first and most important part of collecting mushrooms is to remember to be very careful of your identification. Know what you’re eating, and even touching in some cases. I recommend reading a couple of good books on mushrooms with helpful color photos.

One book I recommend for the novice collector is the ‘National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms’, which is small and can be taken with you on your trip.
It’s a good idea to go with someone who knows the different types of mushrooms because some have close look-alikes. Others have a look all their own. With that in mind, here a few favorites: Oyster mushroom (pleurotus Ostreatus), which grow on a variety of dead trees and logs. They grow on quaking aspen and can be found by the bags full. They have a sweet smell like that of apricots or licorice and have a soft, moist feel. Its color is cream with a touch of brown or pink on the top and white gills underneath. They have almost no visible stem and resemble oysters growing from a log. They are delicious. The chicken or sulfur shelf mushroom grows in massive shelf like clusters off of trees or logs of oak, cherry, and yew. The color is bright hunter’s orange with yellow bands on top and bright yellow with small pores, not gills, underneath. When picked or cut off, they should be bright in color and moist. If fried in butter it shreds and has the closest taste of chicken of all other mushrooms.

The hen-of-the-woods (grifola frondosa) is a very good and easy mushroom to find since it comes up near the same tree almost every year. This mushroom grows only on or near the base of older red and black oaks. It looks like a clump of leaves or a giant brownish-gray rose. When found just roll it out of the ground and take it home, clean it, cut all the lobes from the branches and throw the central stem away and fry in butter with whatever seasoning you prefer. This mushroom, like the sulfur shelf and others is in a group called polypores, meaning they have pores instead of gills. The hen-of-the-woods variety is parasitic with the oak and take years to kill the tree, but it can still be found growing near the stump. It grows normally to 7-15 lbs.

There are three other closely related types: polyporus umbellatus, Frondosa Intybaceus (they are not as tasty) and Meripilus Giganteus. The meripilus giganteus is known as the black staining polypore because it stains black when pinched or damaged when cooked.
Some of the most strange and beautiful mushrooms are the icesickle or coral types. They’re known as Hericium Americanum, Hericium Ramosum and Hericium Erinaceus. They are bright white with icesickle-like branches and some have the flavor and texture of crabmeat and are delicious edibles.
Other great tasting mushrooms are chanterelles and black trumpet Sparassis Herbstii, hedgehog (sweet tooth), shaggy mane, woodblewit, old man of the woods, beef steak (ox tongue), meadow or field mushrooms (Agaricus Campestris) and some of the boletes.

Just a word of caution when picking toadstool type mushrooms because two of those are the most deadly types. Known as ‘death cap’ and ‘destroying angel’ these and all types in the Aminita family should be avoided. When they are eaten one might not notice anything for hours, but once its poison starts hitting ones system there is little chance of survival with a 50-90 percent chance of death. The poison keeps recirculating through the body, shutting the liver and kidneys down within a week or two.
Note: If eaten, dissolve a teaspoon of salt in water and drink every 1/2 hour and get to a hospital.

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For additional information on mushrooms or to get a DVD copy of Taylor’s video visit his website at www.taylorboysvideo.com.