One very positive thing that the rain brings forth is mushrooms. In South Louisiana we have a couple of different types mushrooms that grow wild and we've learned to forage for them, identify them and then cook and devour them. I found this painting on the Internet that I've credited the artist below. I think it is a beautiful painting. It shows people out foraging in the woods for those delectable mushrooms.
Franciszek Kostrzewski |
Yesterday Russ went walking in the small patch of woods behind the house and discovered a nice stash of oyster mushrooms growing in their favorite habitat - on the trunk of several dead willow trees. Oyster mushrooms' scientific name is Pleurotus ostreatus. We really like to eat these!
Oyster mushrooms have gills on the underneath side and are a whitish-light brown or grey color. Unlike many other types of mushrooms, they don't have much of a stalk at all. They have a nice, "woodsy" scent to them. We collect them in paper bags and then store them in paper bags in the fridge. You want to preserve the moisture in the mushroom without introducing a lot of excess moisture. They'll store well like that, but we seldom store them for long. They don't last. We eat them too fast.
They seem to grow in communities, with layers and layers of oysters all together, almost piling on top of each other. They are a parasite and help to break down a tree. Since we only remove the fruiting body, the mycelia (the vegetative part of the mushroom that is threadlike) is left in the decaying tree and will continue to produce mushrooms.
When you've found where they are growing, you can continue to return time and time again to collect additional mushrooms. Russ took many pictures of the immense quantity of mushrooms he harvested. We tried, unsuccessfully, to inoculate an area in these woods with Chanterelle spores, but up to this point, we've been unsuccessful in getting Chanterelles to grow. The oysters are doing just fine, though. The trick is to make sure you check 'your spot' often, because some of these, like the ones on the bottom at the center right of the photo below are past their prime. Russ just picked the ones that were in good condition. We didn't weigh them, but he had a nice harvest. (You can see our red barn in the background.)
Russ brought them inside and cleaned them up. Since they are in the woods, they'll have some sticks, leaves, and small bugs on them that you want to clean up before eating.
Oysters ready for the skillet |
He promptly heated up a cast iron skillet and dropped some butter, garlic, onions, cream and some of our chopped fall tomatoes in and then added the fresh chopped up Oyster Mushrooms. He ate the entire skillet by himself! I didn't get to eat a single one! Tricia made another batch for us tonight, though.
Freshly foraged Oyster mushrooms cooking |
While the mushrooms were cooking, Tricia made some homemade pasta. It is so much better! When the mushrooms were done, the creamy mushrooms were spooned on top of the fresh pasta, with a side of some of the last green beans of the season until spring. We thanked the Good Lord for providing great food for us to eat. What a meal!
In yesterday's post, we talked about eating 'tuna' from a cactus and today we're eating oysters off of a tree! "Seafood" from dry land! It is so interesting how there are lots of edible goodies all around us - delicious treats right under our feet, just waiting to be found and eaten. It's a garden you never have to water or weed. How cool is that?
Hi, I'm Anna, the managing editor of the St. Charles Herald-Guide newspaper in Boutte, La., and I'm hoping you know of anyone in St. Charles Parish who harvests oyster mushrooms in St. Charles Parish. I'm at 985-240-9045 or annat@heraldguide.com
ReplyDeleteAnna, thanks for reading. I'm not aware of folks who harvest oyster mushrooms in your neck of the woods. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDelete