It’s amazing you all get Chantrelles already. We don’t get them in the Rockies until things start cooling down, a few frosts really gets them going.
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Still can’t seem to find golden chanterelles in quantity, but the cinnabar reds didn’t disappoint. Found these and some bicolor and wine cork boletes that were a little too far gone. The woods are also chock full of Amanitas, Suillus, and LBMs. But very little in the way of things I want to eat.
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Wow, Jay!
The cinnabars here are tiny little things…only about 1-2 inches tall, 1/2 to 3/4 inch across, max.
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Yeah, that was by far the largest one I’ve ever found, about the size of an average golden. Most of them from today were on the large end of what I normally find. I think the 10" of rain in the last two weeks may have something to do with it.
I still wonder why I can’t find many goldens ever. I’m beginning to suspect they don’t like the sandy soils that I frequent.
Here’s a nice picture, unfortunately most of mine are full of worms or have too much sand on the gills to even mess with but I’ve still gotten about 15 lb of clean chanterelle in the last 30 days.
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Very nice! I’m envious.
@Lucky_P Here’s a more representative sample of the sizes I chose to pick today.
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Wow! Jackpot! That must have been the end of the rainbow!
Jay, All of those are ‘huge’, compared to the cute little diminutive cinnabars I’ve encountered here and last summer in MD.
On our last foray through the woods, I ran across several big 'shrooms that I’m thinking now may have been king boletes. Need to go back and check more closely… I’ve looked at several videos and articles on IDing them…
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King boletes are super tasty! Even if they’re not B edulis, there are some other very tasty boletes that look quite similar. Keep an eye out for wine cork boletes (B variipes) and Lilac boletes (B separans). Boletes are at their absolute best picked in the button stage (they’ll look like champagne corks), as they get soggy and wormy very quickly. The bitter boletes (Tylopilus) can also look quite similar, but you can rule them out easily by taking a nibble in the field (spitting it out when you’re done, of course). The good boletes will taste mild and nutty, whereas most Tylopilus will taste very bitter.
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Jay, any good online references on bolete ID that you have come across? I found about 6 distinct types when I was out the other day.
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Here is a good online reference for Boletes in PA: https://boletes.wpamushroomclub.org/product-category/filter-set-1-regional-filters/zone-1-found-in-the-northeast/found-in-pennsylvania/?fbclid=IwAR3s4eVcUTFrSIiNeuRRRdq_C_3wfGxyOoZ5nqhV575t2ugL4wBT4DoYiG4
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My wife has partnered with Western PA Mushroom Club for programs in the past. Those guys know there stuff. One of them, John, has over 3,000 mushrooms memorized, scientific name/edible or not, etc. Pretty amazing. He wrote a book I have called Good Mushroom, Bad Mushroom. It’s a good start but not all encompassing.
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I like to use the keys at http://mushroomexpert.com/ along with a guidebook or two to cross-reference pictures and descriptions. It’s even better if the guidebook has its own key.
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Some nice bicolor bolete from under the neighbor’s white oak. This handful for fresh eating and some large ones for the dehydrator.
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First time trying wild shrooms… Wish me luck!
Chicken of the woods found at work. I’ve been eyeing them up for years but I always catch them when they already have lots of bugs. This time was fresh and I had a bag to store it.
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How easy is it to differentiate these from Boletus sensibilis which is a potentially poisonous lookalike. Saw these the other day but were hesitant to try them. I already had about 10 pounds of chanterelles so aside from the novelty aspect of trying something new I didn’t think it was worth risking it.
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That one looks like pseudosensibilis to me, but it could be bicolor. Bicolor tends to have red almost to the top of the stem. Sensibilis turns blue pretty much instantly when you cut it, bicolor slowly or not at all, and pseudosensibilis is in between.
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I’d say Boletus edulis. These are very popular in Europe (Eastern Europe that is), very much sought after.
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Agree on type, very popular here in Washington state, the summer drought though is continuing beyond most years, so until we begin to get some precipitation, there will be none to hunt. Usually by mid October we begin to get sufficient rain to cause them to emerge along with many other tasty treats.
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We call them Cepes, they are delicious. BUT, there are many look-a-likes out there!
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