Fantastic foraging post. I wish I had a friend who would take me mushroom hunting. I am told there's something known as 'Chicken of the Woods' and was wondering if it's that giant one you're holding in the first shroom picture?
I didn't know ground elder was edible either! I've always known it to be poisonous. I know the wood is not good for burning as it lets out many toxins.
Back to those morels though, they look fab and the food you cooked looks delicious. 💚🤗
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@holisticmom Thanks for your awesome comment. Always happy to share a mushroom hunting experience with responsible enthusiasts that respect the forests. That giant one I was holding is a Boletus. A regular porcini mushroom.
You mean the polyporous sulphureus, laetiporus sulphureus or chicken of the woods. I actually found that growing on an older pear tree. It's a saprophytic/saprotrophic fungi. It's also considered slightly parasitic or called weak parasitic. It's pretty easy to spot and to come by and very hard to mistake for another one once you know how to identify it, due to it's almost neon color when fresh and it's structure on the bottom side. I cooked it for some friends and it tasted intriguingly similar to chicken breast, depending on the way I cooked it.
Some of my friends would have this astounded facial expression and another would say: 'See, Nature is full of surprises?'
Another yet replied: 'It's so rich, everything exists'
Chicken of the Woods grows around July/August already and is best harvested when it's bright, shiny, young and fresh.
I looked through my photo library and found chicken of the woods that wasn't fresh or edible anymore just for documentation purposes. I actually ate quite a bit of it last year. Some older friends of mine had problems to digest it. It's better not have too much in the evening. Specially not ideal for senior citizens. I never had any complaints.
Ground elder is edible and pretty healthy. It contains iron, magnesium and vitamin c.
Oh awesome, thank you so much for this fabulous information. You are very knowledgeable. For now, I am too frightened to pick even a field mushroom haha just in case. I guess these things take time and experience.
I will save that photo to give me some guidance on what to look for come August. I am intrigued to try it.
There's plenty of ground elder springing up at the moment so I may grab some and give it a try.
Thanks for the speedy reply. Hugs x