Friday, August 30, 2013

Our First Hen of the Year

Robert and the first hen of the day

The tail end of August has been a bit chilly at night, almost autumn-like. The honey mushrooms and Pholiotas started showing up last week, traditionally fall mushrooms. The Boletes have been scarce with the cool nights, along with the black trumpets.

Our second hen, smaller but still lovely

We went out to a large mixed forest today, with hopes of finding some trumpets or honey buttons to pickle, but came home with three lovely hen-of-the-woods (Grifola frondosa), or maitake mushrooms, one of our favorite edibles.

Stroganoff sauce made with hens

Dinner was Hen Stroganoff over mashed potatoes with sliced tomatoes and cucumber salad. The dehydrator is filled with fronds and I put a container of the solid mushroom core pieces in the freezer to grind up for burgers. Robert is still smiling from his finds, and we have a fun filled and busy weekend to look forward to with the COMA Rogerson Foray on Saturday and Sunday. Hooray for early autumn!

The third hen of the day

2 comments:

Donna said...

Looks great! I have a question, though. If one's lips tingled with two other kinds of wild mushrooms, would that happen for all of them? (Mica caps and Sulfur Shelves)

The 3 Foragers said...

That question is impossible for me to answer for you. I have no problems with any wild mushrooms so far, but know people who can't eat the more common ones due to gastric upset. If you are nervous about wild mushrooms, I recommend avoiding them.