Hunting oysters in trees

[TBRS1]

Cool nights, warm days, and wet. Perfect weather for hunting tree oysters - oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus.

In order to find something, you need to know 2 things:
1. What the thing looks like
2. How it looks different from other things.

Check this picture. Notice that one thing is not like the others:



The thing you are seeing (or not seeing) is this:



Fifteen minutes of wandering around with a bucket gave me this:



Going out again today ought to give me a couple more buckets of free food.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Ok. That makes more sense. I was wondering what oysters were doing in trees.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

They are very, very yummy.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Isn't harvesting wild mushrooms supposed to be risky?

 

[TBRS1]

Isn't harvesting wild mushrooms supposed to be risky?

Only if you don't know the bad ones from the good ones.

Oyster mushrooms are safe - no toxic mushrooms look like them. Even if a person mistakes a shelf fungus (closest look-a-like) for an oyster they will just end up with something too chewy (but not toxic) to eat.

The dangerous mushrooms - aminitas (death cap, destroying angel) - are the first mushroom people are taught to avoid. The other really dangerous ones - galerinas - are generally not collected accidentally (unless some goof mistakes them for one of the hallucinogenic varieties).

So, yeah - dangerous to the uninformed.

 

[Outdated]

So, yeah - dangerous to the uninformed.

Very dangerous. We currently have a big court case going on here because a woman killed 3 of her family members with poisonous mushrooms. They're trying to decide if she committed murder or if she's just terminally stupid.

Five things we learned yesterday in Patterson mushroom murder trial

 

[TBRS1]

Very dangerous. We currently have a big court case going on here because a woman killed 3 of her family members with poisonous mushrooms. They're trying to decide if she committed murder or if she's just terminally stupid.

Five things we learned yesterday in Patterson mushroom murder trial

I've been following that.

Very disturbing... If a person wants somebody dead, there are much less painful ways to do it.

Aminita poison has no cure, takes days and days to die, and treatment is "palliative care."

Most toxic mushrooms, though, only cause server barfing and diarrhea.

The saying is: "There are old mushroomers, and there are bold mushroomers, but there are no old, bold mushroomers."

 

[FayetheAspie]

Call me a coward, but I think I'll just avoid all of them.

 

[Mary Terry]

At first, I thought this thread was about Rocky Mountain oysters. Ugh. Glad it's about mushrooms instead.

 

[Outdated]

I've been following that.
Very disturbing... If a person wants somebody dead, there are much less painful ways to do it.

Most Aussies have trouble believing that she didn't know the difference. They look a little similar to regular field mushrooms when looking down from above, but the gills are white and they smell wrong.

We can believe foreigners make mistakes like that, but not someone who grew up here and spent their whole life living in a rural area.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I was wondering what oysters were doing in trees.

Hurricane aftermath.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

A very long time ago, my professor told me of a case on Poland in which one button of a amanita got into a pot of stew, along with heaps of edible mushrooms, and 40 children died. A button is a little bump of developing mushroom that looks like a harmless puffball.

I read that account, Outdated. The mushroom killer. I’m torn. So much of the circumstantial evidence looks bad. OTOH people really can be stupid about mushrooms.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Cool nights, warm days, and wet. Perfect weather for hunting tree oysters - oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus.

In order to find something, you need to know 2 things:
1. What the thing looks like
2. How it looks different from other things.

Check this picture. Notice that one thing is not like the others:

View attachment 143124

The thing you are seeing (or not seeing) is this:

View attachment 143125

Fifteen minutes of wandering around with a bucket gave me this:

View attachment 143126

Going out again today ought to give me a couple more buckets of free food.

Nice. It is hit and miss here, though once my spouse came walking back to the house with about 5 lbs. We made Oyster Mushroom Gyoza.

In the fall on our property are King Boletes, Boletus edulis. And nearby we get Chantrelles and Slippery Jacks, Suillus luteus.

 

[Outdated]

I read that account, Outdated. The mushroom killer. I’m torn. So much of the circumstantial evidence looks bad. OTOH people really can be stupid about mushrooms.

It's a tough call. When Lindy Chamberlain's baby was taken by a dingo no one believed her and she was jailed for murdering her own child. It was many years later that more evidence was found and she was exhonerated.

 

[TBRS1]

At first, I thought this thread was about Rocky Mountain oysters. Ugh. Glad it's about mushrooms instead.

I used to watch a particular food show with my daughter.

We actually counted and determined that in 1 out of every 4 shows (1/4, 25%) the host ate mountain oysters - by one name or another.

Math lessons were interesting in my house.

 

[TBRS1]

A very long time ago, my professor told me of a case on Poland in which one button of a amanita got into a pot of stew, along with heaps of edible mushrooms, and 40 children died. A button is a little bump of developing mushroom that looks like a harmless puffball.

I read that account, Outdated. The mushroom killer. I’m torn. So much of the circumstantial evidence looks bad. OTOH people really can be stupid about mushrooms.

This CAN happen if a person is harvesting the golfball-sized "puff ball" mushrooms.

A wise person always cuts them in half to check the internal structure. "Cutting in half" is also how one can be absolutely certain they have a true morel, and not a look-a-like.

There are some tricks a person can use to tell if a particular mushroom is really what one thinks it is.

Unfortunately, there are no tricks to tell if an unknown mushroom is poisonous or not, but there are people who believe b.s. "old wives tales" that are sometimes believed to work.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Nice. It is hit and miss here, though once my spouse came walking back to the house with about 5 lbs. We made Oyster Mushroom Gyoza.

In the fall on our property are King Boletes, Boletus edulis. And nearby we get Chantrelles and Slippery Jacks, Suillus luteus.

I am soooo jealous!

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

It's a tough call. When Lindy Chamberlain's baby was taken by a dingo no one believed her and she was jailed for murdering her own child. It was many years later that more evidence was found and she was exhonerated.

I remember that one too.

 

[TBRS1]

This is what I've ended up with:



On the right, the best clusters to eat fresh.

In the middle, nice specimens that I will pickle.

On the left, small or broken, or otherwise not pretty mushrooms to dry.

If I were a nomadic hunter/gatherer, an area like this would definitely be on my itinerary for this time of year. Tomorrow I could probably harvest another bucket, but these piles will be enough for me.