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Tag: mushroom hunting

  • Oyster Mushroom Hunting – GF Video

    Oyster Mushroom Hunting – GF Video

    Here’s a mushroom hunting video about some really amazing oyster mushrooms we found growing along the side of the road right near our house

    A few things to keep in mind when you’re going mushroom hunting:

    • bring along several identification books we like a couple that we listed at the end of the video here
    • learn from someone who already knows what they’re doing take a class or ask if you can tagalong with someone who is a mushroom expert
    • Join your local mycological society, in other words your local mushroom group. You can learn a lot from these people and they might even take you long to show you some really cool spots to go mushroom hunting.

    When you find some mushrooms you want to harvest, don’t take all of them. Leave one third of the mushrooms there so the mushrooms can propagate they will release their spores and they will grow more mushrooms that you would go in harvest.
    After a while you’ll be able to recognize some of the common edible mushrooms in your area but bring along several mushroom identification books anyway. I really like the Audubon guide and there are also several regional guides. We  have a few for the Northeast United States or New England listed those below.

    Avoid mushrooms that have slugs or bugs in them, yes they are a protein, but many don’t taste that great. You can wash mushrooms, but they usually only need to  be brushed off. You can use a towel, I’ve seen mushroom brushes that look like a whisk broom/porcupine thing. So again, if you’re not quite sure don’t eat it or check with your friend who is an expert OK?

    Want to grow mushrooms, watch this vid: How To Grow Mushrooms From Plug Spawn – GF Video

    Here are more mushroom hunting and mushroom identification videos for your here on GardenFork:


    Oyster Mushroom Identification

    cook-mushrooms-play
    How To Cook Mushrooms

    oyster-mushroom-hunting-2
    Wild Mushrooom Risotto Recipe

    Click here to see our other mushroom identification posts

    Cross check the mushrooms you find with several sources, books are best, I think. I use several books for identifying mushrooms , below are the mushroom identification books I recommend:


    Click Here To Buy From IndieBound
    Click Here To Buy From Amazon


    Click Here To Buy From IndieBound
    Click Here To Buy From Amazon

  • Oyster Mushroom Identification, Foraging, Hunting – GF Video

    Oyster Mushroom Identification, Foraging, Hunting – GF Video

    Foraging for Mushrooms this fall, I found a bunch of Oyster Mushrooms, and made this Mushroom Identification Video. Oyster Mushrooms are edible and delicious. They grow on dead or dying trees. The trees can be standing or on their side. I’ve found oyster mushrooms growing out of the ends of cut logs, and the stumps of dead trees.

    Oyster mushrooms grow in clusters, and are usually stacked on top of each other, the individual mushrooms are kidney shape. It has gills and doesn’t have much of a stem. Oyster mushrooms are white to tan colored, they are usually darker in color later in the season. The mushrooms in this video were harvested in late November.

    When harvesting, I always leave some mushrooms on the tree to allow the mother plant to spread spores to create more mushrooms. So don’t strip a tree of all its mushrooms, you may get a second growth of mushrooms on the same tree, so check back a week later, or after a rain.

    Be sure to be very sure what you are doing when foraging for mushrooms! Learn from someone who is a practiced mushroom hunter, or consider taking a class. Do a web search for your state or county or city and “mycological society” and you may find a group offering classes. Also check nearby nature centers.

    Click here to see our other mushroom identification posts

    Cross check the mushrooms you find with several sources, books are best, I think. I use several books for identifying mushrooms , below are the mushroom identification books I recommend:


    Click Here To Buy From IndieBound
    Click Here To Buy From Amazon


    Click Here To Buy From IndieBound
    Click Here To Buy From Amazon