Ginseng and mushrooms

[GRIZ]

Once again I went out and found a few of woods treasures.

For the most part the ginseng I found was small so I didn't harvest that much.

Also found a couple of chicken of the wood they are smaller so am letting them stay to see if they grow much. Also found a few more places where they grew last yr so am still hoping they will sprout this yr. Last yr was my first yr looking for these mushrooms so am still just starting to learn about them.

Would take pics but the camera batteries went dead.

[dakids]

Yes please take pictures.  Do you pick morrels? YUM YUM

[GRIZ]

Havn't picked morels. Just cicken o the woods, hen o the woods and some puffballs.

[GRIZ]

Sorry so late w/ the pics but have been out looking for these things. It takes me awhile to post pics so am late. The mushrooms it seems I should have found earlier as I found dead ones and the ones I did find and hoped they would grow didn't grow they died. Turns out what they said about them growing overnight is true. Here are Some chicken of the woods I did find and left alone to grow.



This is the same stump I found a 13# and 3 1/2# last yr. To show you better the size this yr is this pic.




Now I left them for a week to grow and here is what I found.




They were already rotting and being eaten on by ants. So if one finds them yea may as well pick em as they aren't getting any bigger.

[GRIZ]

I found some puffballs too and was a bit late on most of them also they looked good but when I pressed on the outside they split but tried them anyhow. Tasted awful, bitter taste. A few days earlier and they would have been good. Here is a pic of some.




Here are also some pics of chicken o the woods that have grow and died b4 I even got there.




So I'm still learning about shrooms but having found some new places by finding the dead ones I will go out and look earlier next yr and hope for better finds.

[Randy Kaar]

Thanks for the pics Griz, Sorry to hear your harvest didnt go as planned. I would like to
learn more about doing this.

randy

[GRIZ]

Now ginseng has been taking up most of my time and have been haveing fair luck. Not any more than usual but nothing less either. What has been better is the size of the roots, which you can't always tell by the plant. Generally you can figure that the bigger the plant stem the bigger the root but that varies from woods to woods also.

I have had many roots this yr around an once a piece (wet) with my biggest being 44 gms or if I did my math right about 1.6 oz.(wet) It varies due to weather that yr how much weight they lose whenm they dry and also varies from woods to woods.

Here are a few pics of some plants that I found a couple weeks ago. I will edit this after posting pics as it's easier for me to keep track that way.

This is what I'm looking for a nice mature 3 pronged plant


A couple younger plants I left for future harvest in a few yrs.


Here is one of a plant that is starting to turn yellow.


This is another mature plant that has a nice full cluster of berries


This one I put in here just to make you look. How many plants can you see?


This pic is one that is bright yellow. It is on it's last leg for the yr. Next yr a new plant will take it's place on the same root. At this stage they are easy to pick out as they have a color of yellow like nothing else in the woods, it kinda stands out like a sore thumb. This one I left for future harvest as it's just a youngun.


The oldest root I found this yr was about 33 yrs old. The oldest I've ever found was 44. That doesn't mean the roots wern't older but thats how many times they've grown a plant. Some yrs for one reason or another a root may not grow a plant. From what I understand it's usually due to a drought or other weather related conditions.

It would be nice if all the plants in the woods were in the same stage but not so. Yesterday I found a green plant w/no berries, A yellow plant w/berries, a dead plant w/berries and a dead plant all within 3 and a half feet of each other. I found the cluster by the most obvious the color of yellow that only they have. It won't be long now and the plant will all be dead.

[Woody]

Thanks for the pics and explanations Griz-very much appreciated!     Maybe I missed it, but how do you tell how old a Ginseng root is?  And say I come across some....how do I know if I should dig it up or not?  And say I do dig up a mess of it-then what? 

And yeah, I might be inclined to call you if I did spot a mess of it-as you aren't too terribly far away.  I am more or less asking should my dad be out looking for some now that he's retired.   

[GRIZ]

Thanks for the pics and explanations Griz-very much appreciated!     Maybe I missed it, but how do you tell how old a Ginseng root is?  And say I come across some....how do I know if I should dig it up or not?  And say I do dig up a mess of it-then what? 

And yeah, I might be inclined to call you if I did spot a mess of it-as you aren't too terribly far away.  I am more or less asking should my dad be out looking for some now that he's retired.   

If your pops is retired heck why not go looking? Good excuse to get outside an get some exersize. A plant must be 3 prongs or more to be a legal harvest. As you can see in the pics each prong has 5 leaves except some of the immature plants may not have 5 leaves. You can tell the age by counting the scars on the root where each plant has grown. They could be older if they have had some dormant yrs where they didn't grow a plant.

In the pic where I'm having you gues how many there are 2 legal plants. I only harvested the one as the other had too many immature ones around it so left it for seed. So jeff how many do you see in that pic?

Forgot to answer your ? What then. Dry them out by spreading out on a piece of cardboard, some place the mice won't get at them. I checked and this yr they are at about $300 a lb for good dry roots. That's a far cry from the $950 a lb I got 2-3 yrs ago.

[GRIZ]

Mushrooms just had a bright spot today.

Well just went over to my bosses house today to drop off my time slip for last week. He likes mushrooms also but has only piced morels and puffballs. I was telling him about some chicken o the woods I found on a oak stump. He said he had a stump he carved into a squirrel in his back yard that this june had a mushroom about 2 1/2 foot diameter. Now it's coming back again and wanted me to look at it. Here's what I found



this is the bottom side



He wanted to keep one for himself to try and I didn't have a camera with me but went back to take a pick of the one he'll pick later this afternoon. He only lives a mile from me so it's no biggy to go there just for the pic. Just thought it was neat to see the shrooms growing on one of his carvings.
Here's his carving. The little bit below the shroom in the pic is left over from the one he let me have.



Now I'm wishing he knew what they were back when he tore that 2-3 footer off cause he figured it'd ruin his carving.

[HD]

Griz....how do you know which ones you can eat and which you can't?

I seen one of them puff balls almost as big as a basketball...you can eat those?

And does the chicken o the woods just grown on oak stumps?

I seen something that looks close to it that was on an ash tree stump, but wasn't sure if it was the same. It wasn't as bright orange as the one you have pictured...so, I wasn't gonna take my chances.

Hunter

[GRIZ]

They grow on many different kinds of trees. Most always dead ones. I think ash would be OK. It is one of the few mushrooms that depends on what type tree it grows from weather it's edible or not. It doesn't happen often but occasionally will grow from dead trees with needles such as fir, spruce, pine , etc. They are toxic then. I've found them on other trees w/o needles and was uncertain about the type of tree so I didn't eat them. I'm still pretty new to this shrooming stuff.

A good rule of thumb to follow with any mushroom from the wild is "if in doubt throw it out". Know what your after and how to identify it. With chicken o the woods you must also know the type of tree thast dead and producing it. It don't have any look a likes that I know of but don't take my word for that.

Here is a pretty good site that can help others identify various mushrooms.
http://americanmushrooms.com/edibles4.htm
I'd hate to have anyone get sick or even worse. I'm kinda new to this stuff so will only take responsibility for myself. The site seem pretty good to me.

I did get sick from some mushrooms last yr. They were edible as far as I know but some individuals such as me aren't able to handle certain types of shrooms. I really don't know it could have been something really different as a bunch of us ate them and I was the only one to get sick. The shroom that made me sick possibley was a miniature puffball. It doesn't mention anything in this site abiout them possiblly being allergic, so who knows. I lived so if I find more I will try one or two to see. I will not try a couple dozen like last yr.

[dakids]

I found a couple of the chicken type mushrooms this last weekend.  Is this common and is there a time of year that you will find more or do they grow all season long?
Also what do they taste like?

[dakids]

Another question.  How do you prepare them?