Any mushroom hunters here?

EastCoastMojo said:

In reply to poopshovel again :

Some critter beat me to it, it's long gone. When I first spotted it, I thought it was an albino hedgehog.

Also delicious! Tastes like Bald Eagle!

In reply to poopshovel again :

I actually called my dad last night to talk about the mushrooms. He says that he's always known them as "nassca" and that they grow on oak trees, and are only found around here in September after heavy rains. He said he hasn't gone hunting for them in a long time, and that my uncle was always better at finding them. We are going to go visit my uncle sometime this week to talk about them, because now my dad wants some.  I think we are going to go hunting for them later this year, as long as he's up to it.  

We have morels and porcini in the yard from time to time.  I had a huge patch of trip your balls off ones a few years ago.  We found a giant poofball once at a customer’s place and my buddy took it to his chef friend and it was on the menu for the night.  

In reply to Patrick :

We have brought home puff balls before and my mom cooked them. She would bread them and fry em in butter, and salt them quite a bit. The didn't seem like puff ball themselves had much flavor at all. But you can bread and fry just about anything and I would eat it and enjoy it.

Is it so wrong that the thread title conjured up images like this?

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I can't think of what else they'd be other than chicken/hen of the woods (probably the former.) Time and location are spot on, and they are delicious and "meaty!" Do they look like this?

In reply to poopshovel again :

They DO look like that!!! They are likely some variation of that, in any case. My family used to find them back in Italy, too. 

I've looked at buying the kits to grow some Gourmet mushrooms at home.

I don't think we have the right climate here and basements are almost unheard of in Florida, so I never followed up.

I don't think I've ever seen that.  All we have around here is puffballs, toadstools, and the ones that look like penises.

Floating Doc said:

I've looked at buying the kits to grow some Gourmet mushrooms at home.

I don't think we have the right climate here and basements are almost unheard of in Florida, so I never followed up.

I’ve found tons (okay...pounds) of Chanterelles and Oyster mushrooms in FL. I have a friend who makes $$$ with Shiitakes grown from a log-kit.

I typically do the morel thing as an excuse to get out and ride my dualsport bike new places.  People get weird when you encroach on "their" spot, and being just outside of Portland means that there's a LOT of mushroom hunters out.

I know that they are starting to pop up now.  Maybe I will try my luck on Sunday when the Bride of Burrito is at work.

Look in areas that were burned last spring, summer or autumn. Those areas tend to have a lot of morels or maybe they are just easier to see