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Friday, July 02, 2010

154/365: Fungus Five-0

Earned my "fifty" button from the mushroom club. I can now reliably ID over 50 wild mushrooms and slimes. Next stop, 100!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 10:18 AM |

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Moving Up!


Earned my "25" button at the WPMC meeting last night! That means I've found and identified 25 different mushrooms. ACtually, I've done 29, but the next button is for 50 mushrooms. Unfortunatly, I've ID most of the "easy" ones. Things start getting a bit harder on the road to 50!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 10:45 AM |

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Shroom Hunt!


Spent the morning with the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club hunting fungi in Indiana Township's Emmerling Park. Things started slowly until I bellowed "CHANTERELLE!" which sent all the 'shroomers, including my very pregnant wife, scrambling up a 50 degree slope to gather in the golden goodness. Abd yes, I didn't do it for laughs, I actually saw a nice clump of 'em.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:11 PM |

There were chanterelles everywhere! Mary and I collected over a pound, and everyone on the walk got at least as much as we did. I also saw lots and lots of chanterelles just poking up, so if we get a good rain next wekk, it may be worth a trip back.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:08 PM |

The false Caeser Mushroom!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:07 PM |
The Old Man of the Woods! This homely mushroom is supposed to be a good edible, but it turns black as ink when you cook it. I just can't get over the color!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:05 PM |
Go ask Alice.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:03 PM |
A pair of nice boletes. These are common, pored mushrooms, but identifying them to species is a nightmare!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:01 PM |
Look at that blue staining on that bolete!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:00 PM |

Sunday, May 10, 2009



Hey its a morel! Oh wait, no it isn't. Turns out this little bugger is verpa bohemica. Some people eat this. Some have no problems as a result. Some lose muscle coordination. I found about a dozen of these, and was really excited, until I cut one open and saw the cottony insides. Always check your mushrooms!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 3:39 PM |




Deceptive little buggers! They LOOK like morels, but they're actually verpas.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 3:36 PM |

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Fungi Frustration

Well, I've read reports that the morels are up, so I decided to take a look after work today at some promising areas I scouted out. There's an old overgrown apple orchard that I know of, where the trees transition to a stand of tulip poplars. Both types of trees are known to host morels, and with the recent rains, I thought I'd have a good chance.

Well, two hours of beating the bushes yielded: One bracket fungus and two LBM's (little brown mushrooms). I just might be a week early. More rain today, I'll try again next Sunday.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 4:49 PM |

Saturday, April 26, 2008

More! More!!!


I ate all the morels. More! MORE!!!!


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# posted by Ol' Froth : 8:18 PM |

Morel Madness At Mingo Creek Park!

Saturday we went to Mingo Creek Park in Washington County for the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club's annual Morel Madness outing. I'd never been to Mingo Creek, and its a very pretty county park near Washington PA. I figured even if we didn't find any mushrooms, we'd get to take a nice walk in the woods. Enjoy the photos below!

As always, click on the pics for a closer look.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 6:19 PM |
The first morel of the day! A woman in our group found this alongside the road before we even reached the trail head. Several more were found nearby.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 6:17 PM |

I found one!!! My very first morel! I found about a half-dozen more nearby this one. I spotted this right after our group leader found one a few feet away and alerted us that we were in morel country. Altogether, our group found several dozen morels in and around this area within a half hour.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 6:06 PM |
A Devil's Urn! This one isn't for eating.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 6:03 PM |


We couldn't get close enough to be sure, but it looked like a bunch of inky caps were growing in the hollow of this tree. You need to click on the picture to see the 'shrooms.

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:56 PM |
Not a bad haul for our first foray! We found eight morels and a bunch of Dryad's Saddles! Everyone in our group found about a half dozen morels, some folks in other groups found pounds of 'em.
UPDATE: OMFG we made morel burgers for dinner, and they were the tastiest damn burgers I've ever had! MORE! MORE!!!!

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# posted by Ol' Froth : 5:52 PM |

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