They were everywhere. All were either in or within 10 yards of a natural drainage run on a slight hill amongst the oaks, maples and ferns.
Just ate two plates full of these chanterelles, a first for me. They were delicious and had a hint of peanut butter flavor after they were sauteed in butter with salt & pepper. Time to clean the rest.
What a fine day.

CB

In 1967, we lived with an English family while learning English.

A Norwegian student was living in the same house.

Our hosts were a professor at university and his wife.

At breakfast, our Norwegian friend wanted to ask the land lady for something with mushrooms.

Neither of us spoke very much English.

“Mrs Muir. Can we have muslims please for dinner” he said very carefully!

Her husband, laughing his head off, said “you can gave Saeed!” And pointing at me.

That's a lovely haul of chanterelles. August seems early, but that's by Pacific Northwest standards.

Nice haul!

July is chanterelle month here in the Ozarks. If summer stays moist enough (rarely happens) there can be nice flushes of them into fall.

Best way to preserve your chanterelles is to dry saute them (no oil or butter) to where they release most of their moisture then bag and vacuum seal for your freezer. Chants do not rehydrate well so don't dehydrate unless you plan to turn them into powder as a soup or stew thickener.

Cool comments. Shght. I forgot about the ones in dehydrator at 105F for 4 hours. Just checked them ... it barely made a difference, still moist. Turned up the heat 140. TBC

Ann: The conditions on the fourth day were perfect for mushrooms beginning with a day of hard rain at 65F, a day of 50% hard rain at 68F (hunted that day - few mushrooms), one day mostly sunny at 79F and yesterday around 76F with full sun and an occassional shower. It smelled like mushrooms as soon as I got out of the SUV. The only other mushrooms seen after checking 3-4 other places nearby were the big (5-6" across) fat dark red topped ones with a yellow white gills with fairly wide spaces in between..... I instinctively passed on those as suspicious/poinsonous. Plus, the usual small 3/4" wide off-white ones with a long dark stem parasols (my nickname) that I see in my yard. No boletes anywhere.

Today, 1.5 pounds were cooked in a tall pot with a small amount of olive oil, sea salt & pepper on medium heat for 10 minutes, lid on until they sweated out some moisture. Then, 10 more minutes lid off reduced them to about 1/3 size. They're in the freezer.
Some of those will accompany a tri-tip sirloin roast browned over high heat to a medium pink center in an iron pan with some bacon drippings for Sunday dinner tomorrow, seasoned lightly of course and sliced to 1/4 inch across the grain. Hopefully, I'll hit it just right. Gravy to follow of course unless I mess up the drippings with carbon again. It's a fine line between perfect and blackened with this 75 year old thin Griswold cast iron pan.

About 4 pounds are still in the dehydrator and will be processed into powder to flavor soups and gravy and anything else that comes to mind.

I kept about a pound of fresh ones in the fridge to use for breakfast or whatever. Had some this morning with salt & peppered thin shell eggs from a local farm (dropped over not scrambled), some fresh tomatoes from behind the house and some Vermont cheddar. Simple yet tasty.

Sounds like some very fine cuisine!

I found a flush of hedgehog mushrooms today in my woods, plus about 70 seed ticks.

Oh yeah, the seed ticks. They used to be much worse down here until the fire ants invasion. That cleaned them out for a time but they are back, just not so bad ...yet.

What is better, frozen or dried mushrooms?

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
What is better, frozen or dried mushrooms?

Some mushrooms do not rehydrate well and with those species I cook them down to freeze. They must be cooked or you will end up with inedible mush when you thaw them out.

Some examples of those that dry well are boletes, black trumpets and shiitake. I also cultivate shiitake and dry most all of them for storage. I cook down and freeze chanterelles and hedgehogs.

Dehydrator died. Needs a temp control and timer.
So far;

Hog burger chili made with mostly dehydrated (oven) chanterelle crumnbles, organic mild salsa, Vesper Bros. mild Italian sauce, etc.

Mushroom soup with half deydrated chanterelles, fresh half and half cream, mirepoix, Better Than Gourmet roasted chicken stock, fresh thyme, etc.

Next time, hunting for boletes where I found a few last year. Cheers.
CB

quote:

Some mushrooms do not rehydrate well and with those species I cook them down to freeze. They must be cooked or you will end up with inedible mush when you thaw them out.

Some examples of those that dry well are boletes, black trumpets and shiitake. I also cultivate shiitake and dry most all of them for storage. I cook down and freeze chanterelles and hedgehogs.

Good to know. Thanks Ann!

Thanks Ann. Just some cooked ones (no fresh) went in my freezer. Tips appreciated.

I'm hoping to score on 'shrooms today. Heading out to my northeast woodland to battle seed ticks and chiggers in hopes of finding some choice summer boletes.

Hit a few boletes (1.5 pounds) yesterday.
Boleteus Variipes (C), common name variable stalk bolete. Cheers.

Find any boletes Ann?
CB

Nada! It's been very dry here which is pretty normal for SW Missouri. The seed ticks are ravenous so I will take my tractor to run down my trails to have a look-see but don't get off unless I see some caps. I'm a sissy anymore for tick bites.

I just caught a chicken killing possum in a trap and it at first looked like it had mange all over its back. Nearly hairless but the problem was ticks. LOADS of them. I fed it to the pond turtles. Hoping for more moisture in the coming weeks. Still a good 6 weeks or so of summer weather left in my area. I don't even start deer hunting until after mid October due to the heat.

Ann, no joke here. When I used to go bow hunting down in the Bastrop area + we were infested with ticks, fire ants, etc. we would wear panty hose under our camos + dust liberally in the hose with D.E. (diotemachacious earth) [SP.] It really works to repell those blood suckers. When we hunted we went in pairs because the fire ants were so bad that if you broke a leg or something, they would clean you off before anyone knew you were late coming home. So the story went + having some experience with fire ants, I was not willing to test it.

Randy, that's a double dose of pests. No fire ants 'here' but there are very annoying tiny black sugar ants that attack my figs and tomatoes. Daily battle right now as both plants are fruiting.

I have been picking tomatoes off the vines to ripen inside. Figs do not ripen further once picked so I am stuck spraying them with permanone.

FYI Here's an update on these type "C" boletes. Just made some in butter alone (no eggs or ham) and they have a slight bitter taste that cleaned up with a bit of sugar.
I'll try the tops only, see if the stems were the culprit. May just pass on these next time.

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
FYI Here's an update on these type "C" boletes. Just made some in butter alone (no eggs or ham) and they have a slight bitter taste that cleaned up with a bit of sugar.
I'll try the tops only, see if the stems were the culprit. May just pass on these next time.

CB, your bolete there is probably a bitter Tylopilus species. Won't hurt you but really, inedible.

Today, I found a single Old Man of the Woods (Strobilomyces) and a really nice, big Bi-color Bolete in a wooded area of one of my sheep pastures. They are in the dehydrator already along with dozens of cherry tomatoes and figs from the garden.

I'll make a run through my woodlands tomorrow after running chores in town. I have a feeling stuff is popping. Maybe I can smell them?

Cool. I'll take another look at the Tylopilus in the "book" on boletes.
I dried some in the dehydrator. I'll rehydrate some with boiling water to see if it did anything to improve on the bitterness. May end up tossing them. No worries. Live 'n learn. TBC

Ann,

Thanks for the tip. Tylopilus felleus looks to be about right according to info and photos from the internet. I have no clue which of the 100 varieties this one is. Most photos show a chain link type color pattern on the stem. A couple did not. None of the cut caps observed had a white upper and a brown pore section on mature examples. Tough call. Tough species to differentiate as well, as in boletes in general.

If you are on facebook I can direct you to a real helpful bolete group. There are a lot of true experts there.

Well Thanks for the suggestion. Don't do much FB. Much appreciated the thought.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
If you are on facebook I can direct you to a real helpful bolete group. There are a lot of true experts there.

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
Well Thanks for the suggestion. Don't do much FB. Much appreciated the thought.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
If you are on facebook I can direct you to a real helpful bolete group. There are a lot of true experts there.

I like it for such groups. They are very helpful for the most part.

Very. Terrible.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Sad

Unfortunately things like that happen here too. To bad the author is spinning things that the 'poor refugees' weren't being fed enough. That helps no one.

There is an old saying: every mushroom is edible- once. That is why I advocate studying, getting books and making sure of what you have before you put it in your mouth.

There is an old saying: every mushroom is edible- once. That is why I advocate studying, getting books and making sure of what you have before you put it in your mouth.

Sage advice!

I hear that Doug. You are absolutely correct with some caveat. A book can only get you so far when researching subspecies. After reading most of my book on North Eastern American Boletes, the conclusion was evident that none are poisonous. So, to test taste some was not a threat.
THE best teacher is an avid mushroom expert. There's middle aged guy on Utoob that knows a lot about a lot of mushrooms. Happy hunting. Be safe.
CB

quote:

Originally posted by Doug1017:
There is an old saying: every mushroom is edible- once. That is why I advocate studying, getting books and making sure of what you have before you put it in your mouth.

Sage advice!