There's a Fungus Among Us

Our beekeeping friend occasionally blesses us with edible delicacies other than local honey.  Just last week he brought us a paper bag with some fresh mushrooms that he had just foraged.  They can typically be found after a rain and they like to grow on dying hardwood trees.  We see them most on willows.  In a previous post, I showed you how we went hunting for them and then cooked them.  Due to the generosity of our friend, all we had to do was cook these.  Although we know what oyster mushrooms look like and positively identify them before eating, we like to joke around with him:

Tricia: "Warren, are you sure these are safe to eat?"
Warren: "I'll call tomorrow and if you don't answer, I'll know I killed ya'll." or "If you wake up dead tomorrow, you'll know they weren't oyster mushrooms."

A brown paper bag containing oyster mushrooms

These 'shrooms are so big and meaty.  Just look at the picture below and look at my hand for perspective.  I read that in World War I, oyster mushrooms were grown for food and today they are cultivated around the world as a food source.  Oyster mushrooms are good for you from a medicinal purpose as they contain statins that reduce cholesterol.

Food from the forest

We dusted them off and washed them and then Tricia sliced them up nicely and put a cast iron skilled on the stovetop with a pat or three of butter to start melting.

Slicing the mushrooms

Then we dropped the chopped oyster mushrooms in the skillet to saute.

Sauteeing 'shrooms

They were done in no time and we gobbled them up.  Delicious!

Suppertime

As if that wasn't enough, the very next day he brought us a bag with a couple of handfuls of Chanterelle mushrooms that he found.  As tasty as Oyster mushrooms are, Chanterelles are even better - they are truly a culinary delicacy with a rich, hard to describe taste.  Tricia sauteed them with some onions and we ate a lot of them straight from the pot!  Oh, my, were they ever great tasting.

Chanterelles sauteeing with sliced onions and butter

Chanterelles, at least the ones we're eating, have a yellowish-gold color to them and they are 'funnel-shaped.' 

Yellow Chanterelles

One thing we learned when we went foraging for mushrooms is that what we know as the mushroom is the fruiting part of the fungus.  The mycelium is the thread-like, vegetative part of the fungus.  You don't want to disturb this, so it is better to cut, instead of pull, the mushroom.  By doing so, you ensure that you'll have more mushrooms next time in that location.  Just don't forget where you found them and check back in that same location for more!

Mushrooms are produce from a garden that you don't have to tend to.  Nice.  Oh, we didn't "wake up dead," so Warren's mushroom identification skills are excellent.