It was Jack-o-Lantern mushrooms, orange, gills instead of ridges, I need to go back and pick a few so I can see them glowing in the dark just for fun.
Hi Don
My wife, from Russia, says itās not Jack o lantern! Rather she thinks itās a chanterelle. So do I. Your pics do not at all resemble the picture I see if I Google Jack o lantern
Should you revisit the site there are a few tests you can perform to make you own conclusion. My field guide says:
- Itās found growing on or near hardwood stumps and trees ( may appear to be on ground if originating from roots)
- The flesh when cut open is never white.
- Bring a fresh specimen home, then sit inside a dark closet and allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness while observing the mushroom gills. If they glow āgreenā in the darkness, then they are most likely Jack o lantern.
- āThe western Jack o lantern dyes wool purple as well as green or blue dependent upon the mordant usedā
Good luck, maybe you could find someone from the Seattle Mycelium Society to give a new opinion.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Oh my God, I found a huge, somewhat amorphous white mass, about the size of a medium size garbage can, (in fact two of them about 20 feet apart), in the words right next to the sidewalk where I walk my dog. I assumed it was a discarded large piece of insulation foam. However I touched it and it was slightly cool and moist to the touch and had the consistency of mushroom. It smelled a little fungi as well.I have no idea what this was and Iāve never seen it before. I did not want to kill it since I did not know what it was, but it probably weighed 5 to 10 pounds, based on wiggling it a little
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What can you do with this thing? Is it poisonous? If it is edible, how do you cook it? I think it would feed a whole village. Or maybe poison then, if it is lethal
go back to my post a bout 10 messages ago. Anyone finding mushrooms? - General Gardening - Growing Fruit
looks like you too found your first Giant Puffball mushroom. So far its like the eggplant of mushrooms and one of the dishes most commonly recommended is puffball parm. Mine is apparently a little over ripe as it started to change yellow inside. @jcguarneri says they go downhill fast at that point. Good think like you noticed where there is one there are more.
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Thank you @lordkiwi iāve tried to do some quick Internet reading about potentially lethal look-alikes, and I cannot really find any that would be viable mistakes.So I think I may eat it, but I do like to follow my general rule of thumb which is to eat a small amount of something new at first and make sure I donāt die, before I eat more. So I feel kind of bad about wasting this much fungi protoplasm, if I only eat a couple morsels
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Whoās gonna eat it if you donāt?!
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I hope youāre not allergic to poison ivy looks like some near that mushroom
The only lookalike to a giant puffball mushroom is a soccer ball.
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Lucky you, it is delicious. Cook it as a breaded schnitzelā¦hmmm.
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@Harbin somehow I had thought that puffballs were inedible based on my experience in Poland. So I never ate them.
This is the first time I found the giant one, 
There is a poisonous look a like the Earthball mushroom. Its interior is going to be black and the skin is much thicker. Found lots earthballs growing up before finding my first puffball.
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We havenāt had a good rain for over a weekā¦would i find anything if i go out looking? August was crazy wet, but man it has dried out a lot lately (lots of sun/wind/dry air).
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Iām in the same boat with the hot dry weather here in Pennsylvania. No meaningful rain for about 10 days. Went out yesterday and found a nice maitake. Always worth going out and if you come up empty you had a nice walk in the woods.
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Iām overwhelmed by shaggy manes. They grow next to my workshop and I gave up harvesting because i got tired of processing.
This is from today, they just keep popping up.
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So it hasnāt rained here in about 2 weeks but still found this beauty:
Rain certainly helps but you never know what you will find.
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Iām going to go out maybe today. We had 3/4 inch of rain 2 days ago. It has been a lot cooler (low 50Fs/right around 70F for high temps). Iāll take my camera and see if i find anything.
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Found some more nice chicken today. Itās always amazing how these just seem to pop up out of nowhere and how they are both super easy to see while at the same time easy to overlook. This log looked like just every other log when I first walked past. It was only because I turned around and looked back that I saw that the back side was loaded.
!
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I found my first hen of the woods last year, but I didnāt find it as good as I was hoping it would be. How do you prepare it? I definitely enjoyed it breaded and deep fried, but everything is good that way, and I didnāt find another way to cook it that I really liked.
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@cousinfloyd So hen of the woods is something different than chicken of the woods (the orange ones in the above post). For chicken of the woods, you can prepare it any way you would prepare a boneless skinless chicken breast. I think pan frying or sauteing is the best options. If you like it a little more moist you can just add a little broth while cooking to always keep the skillet a little bit wet. If you want a little healthier alternative to deep frying try this: lightly coat mushroom with flour, then dip in egg, then dredge through some flour with salt/pepper/garlic/seasoning. Pan fry in a little bit of olive oil. We had this the other day as chicken of the woods parmesan and was wonderful. I donāt want to over hype it because ultimately it tastes like an average chicken breast, but there is something definetly neat about being able to cook and enjoy something you found randomly growing in the woods.
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