Foraging for groundless foods is n’t something confined to the prime grow season . mushroom-shaped cloud , in special , can be found along the timberland story and acquire on fall logs in the colder months . So while you ’re waiting for the season ’s first seedlings to sprout , take a walk and hunt for these edible and medicative mushrooms on your farm property .
call back , if you ’re new to mushroom , take along an experient forager and a trustworthy mushroom - designation guide . Many edible mushrooms have toxicant facial expression - alikes , so it ’s important to know for certain what you ’re forgather for food or medication .
Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus)
How to I.D.
Oyster mushroom cloud ( image above ) are common and comparatively easy to identify . The blanched or wan - grizzly , sports fan - shaped mushroom cloud grows in the wild , but it ’s also a popularcultivated mushroomfor beginning mushroom growers . Oysters grow in close clusters , often found on moulder tree diagram trunk . Aspore mark , used to properly identify a mushroom cloud , will be brilliant blanched for huitre .
Eating Oyster Mushrooms
Oyster mushrooms have a unattackable taste when eaten sore , but that mellow out into a balmy seafood savor when cooked . huitre mushrooms can be sautéed in butter and eaten as a side or added to a pasta dish . They are really great sautéed and then cooked down in a broth or white vino to be used as a sauce for a soft Pisces .
Preserving Oyster Mushrooms
When huitre mushrooms are useable , they are often available in abundance . If you get hold you have scrounge more than you could run through , the best way to uphold these mushroom is by dry them . Simply lay them in a single layer , gill - side up , on a locker protect with an absorbent paper . Put a fan directly on them and entrust undisturbed until all of the moisture has vaporise . Once whole dry , store in a great - duty plastic udder . When you are ready to cook with them , remove the amount of mushroom you require to expend and overwhelm in warm water . Depending on the thickness of the mushroom , this will take 20 to 30 minutes . Once rehydrated , manipulation as you would fresh mushrooms .
Medicinal Properties
Oyster mushrooms have antibacterial , antiviral and anti - hypertension belongings . They are also a cholesterol reducing agent , a nerve soda water , and full for your cardiovascular organisation .
Wood Blewit (Lepista nuda)
Wood blewit is typically found in the spill when the dark start to get cold . They arise around the base of oak tree and in encounter piles on the side of the road .
Identifying forest blewits is slightly catchy than identifying oyster mushroom . vernal specimens have a bluish or lavender colour . old specimen or those grow in the Dominicus will be tan but will still have a bluish color in the gills . The theme can be lucubrate at the base but it is not bulbous . The identifying spore print is white with a pink tint .
Eating Wood Blewits
Wood blewitsshould not be rust raw . They have a unequaled flavor that guard up well in pork , Pisces the Fishes , pasta or rice dishes . Before you decide which dish to add them to , sauté some for a taste tryout . Once you know what they taste like , it is easier to decide what recipe to add them to .
Grow Your Own
Wood Clitocybe nuda are easy to propagate . Put a wise , clean mushroom in a jarful filled with white hardwood sawdust . Once you have mycelium growth , remove the mushroom and put the sawdust in compost - plentiful soil .
Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus)
This is by far theeasiest mushroom to identify . It is a bloodless , meaty , globe - shaped mushroom with cascading spines . you could occasionally find this mushroom in the spring , but you ’ll have more luck finding it in the declension . They originate on many types of dead or dying hardwood trees , including maple , beech , oak , birch , walnut tree and sycamore . New specimen will be shiny blank , and as they get on , the bakshish of their spines will work brown .
Eating Lion’s Mane Mushrooms
This mushroom is extremely absorbent . rather of trying to broadcast dry out it , go forrader and extort it like a sponge . To cook it , cut it into morsel - sized pieces and sauté in butter or oil . Because Lion ’s Mane taste like lobster , you may habituate it anywhere you desire a seafood savor . It works well in pasta dishes , but my preferred thing to do with it after it has been wangle in a pocket-sized amount of butter is to add it to a cup of tomato soup .
Not only is Lion ’s Mane delicious , it has some pretty amazing health benefit . Lion ’s Mane is approximately 20 percentage protein . Like other mushroom , it has antibacterial and antiviral property . It has also testify to be undecomposed for modality disorder , such as depression , though the most exciting research has shown it has noted boldness - regenerative and re - myelination property , which would benefit those with neuro - degenerative disease , such as Alzheimer ’s and multiple induration .
Artist’s Conk (Ganoderma applanatum)
Artist ’s conk is usual on dead and dying hardwood trees , especially oak and maple . It is a woody , shelf - like mushroom and can grow quite large because it is a perennial and tally a new layer of tubes each year . There is a definitive test for identifying Artist ’s Conk from other shelf - same mushrooms : When you take a marijuana cigarette and scrape the underside of this mushroom it will turn dark brown . Artists use the underside of this mushroom as a sail , hence the name .
creative person ’s conk has laxative and diuretic effect . It is antibacterial and anti = inflammatory . It is beneficial for the lungs and respiratory arrangement and has anti - tumor effects . It ’s normally used in a tea leaf for medicine .
Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor)
Another mushroom gravid for use in a medicinal tea that is fairly well-to-do to identify , turkey can is colorful and grows on drained tree diagram , log , branches and stumps . It is a bracket fungus , stand for it take shape tenuous body structure in concentric circle . It ’s a polypore , so or else of gills , it has lowly pores underneath from which it releases spore . True turkey tail end has a white underside , which is the best elbow room to distinguish it from it ’s look - alike , pretended turkey hindquarters , which has a tan underside .
Turkey tail is antibacterial , antioxidant , anti - tumor , and antiviral . It is immunoboosting and has been used as a kidney and liver tonic . It has been successfully used in aesculapian trials to address the human papillomavirus ( HPV ) and hepatitis C.
Make a Medicinal Mushroom Tea
To make a medicative afternoon tea from turkey can or creative person ’s conk , chop into doable piece , rinse under cold water and simmer until tea is fairly dark and strong - tasting . you’re able to tot veggie , chicken , fish or red inwardness to the tea broth in Holy Order to make a medicinal mushroom soup .
I boost you to try one or all of these mushroom . They have such great sapidity and wellness benefits . If you forage for them , all the better .
BiteYourBum.com/Flickr
BiteYourBum.com/Flickr
Outdoor Alabama/Flickr
Jenny Flores
Jenny Flores
