I fished yesterday with limited success for Smallmouth but the night wasn’t totally wasted. I spotted a nice sulfur shelf mushroom that contributed to lunch today with enough left over to freeze for my next batch of chicken soup. Does any one else keep their eyes open for mushrooms while fishing?
Yes I do. I have made several meals from Boletes this year as well as morels. I also gather shaggy manes later in the year. I limit my gathering to those three species because I am sure tha I can ID them and not make an error and eat something that could prove disasterous.
Tim
Rainbowchaser, I never have, but my dad always put fungus as a priority over anything else he was doing. I know I’ve related this before, but it bears repeating due to your query: once, while bowhunting Utah Mule deer, my father and I were still hunting through some pine stands and I noticed he kept stopping now and again and looking down and then picking something up. As I got closer to him I realized he was picking mushrooms and we ended up having them with our supper that evening. After supper a fellow hunter asked my dad how he knew which shrooms were poisonous or not and my father replied that if he didn’t wake up the next morning, he ate the wrong ones - the look on this fellows face was absolutely priceless, but I also went to bed with a bit of a concern…Yup, I woke up and I’m still here!
Kelly.
:lol: LOL, Kelly! :lol:
My Dad would occasionally gather some mushrooms in a canyon where he occasionally worked. And we are still alive, too.
Anymore, it seems the places I fish are too high, or too dry for any 'srooms. Best I see are on the lawn sometimes. But I’m not going to eat those! I pee out there occasionally. 
We have a few edible mushrooms in our area, but its no secret that the vast majority of mushrooms are no god for eating, and in fact some are deadly, so i rarely take them. Once when I was a little kid, the field across form our house was covered in little white mushrooms that were good to eat…two years in a row. Never happened before or since, but those years it was nice. Every now and then we’ll come across a sheeps-head mushroom in the fall and take it, making sure to leave a bit so itll grow back next year.
There’s morels in my area too, but I’ve never seen one in my travels.
As a boy scout, I learned that there’s plenty of good stuff to eat out there without having to resort to guessing if a mushroom is good. 
Yesterday while I was out I collected enough oysters and chanterelles to freeze a bunch even after a wild mushroom risotto dinner.
Today…King Bolete… my absolute favorite
I don’t know enough about them to trust myself eating them, but the variety and uniqueness of them as a lifeform make me pause every time I see them. If I remember correctly, the largest living organism on the planet is a fungus.
I’m careful about what I eat. I have two field guides and if I can’t get a good positive I.D. they just get thrown away. Panman, watch those shaggy manes. They have a look alike that reacts badly (vomiting, not serious I guess) with alcohol for several days after their eaten. If you are getting them from the same place every year you should be all right. If you find a new place make sure they are the same as what you have been eating
Thanks Rainbowchaser. Never had any problems with the shaggy manes but again I gave up booze about 15 years ago…
Tim
morels only and then it is a two week season. when I was younger I could eat a ton of them but now that I’m older they are so rich I can eat only a handful. Heard that you could sell them for $50 a pound in Minneapolis this past spring. I might look a little harder next spring.
The black trumpets will be out around here soon. Very tasty, rich and buttery
I found a second, large patch last year so as long as I’m there right day, right time I should be able to collect enough to dry.
They’re very distinctive, but often hard to spot in newly fallen leaves
The only ones I pick are Rams Heads.
Didn’t get one this year
wet
I pick mine at the supermarket.
I know an “expert” that died a year ago so it isn’t worth the risk to me.
Some of you fungus collectors should/could post some recipies for same. Like Dudley’s “wild mushroom risotto” . I think I’ve got some cold crisp vine squeezins that would go really well with that.
Mark
Marc, the sulfur shelf I found is also called a chicken mushroom and tastes vaguely like cooked chicken. It can be fried and substituted for chicken in recipes or just sauteed and eaten alone. Dudley’s black trumpets are usually dehydrated and crumpled into soups or stew as a seasoning. They are too aromatic for most people to eat by themselves.
Jim,
The aromatic ones would be the ones I’d want. I buy mine dried at a Polish Deli, reconstitute them and use the “tea”, thickened with roux to make a mushroom sauce that is outtasight. The reconstituted mushrooms would probably be great for a “wild mushroom risotto”.
Mark
Marco, I based my risiotto on this http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1010613 Swiss chard is a year ‘round staple in our diet and I grow a lot of it in the garden. A recipe with both chard and wild ‘shrooms is just what the chef ordered. Rainbow’s sulfur shelf (chicken mushroom) and wetfly’s rams head (hen o’ the woods) are similar in flavor and make a rich soup. The trumpets (black chanterelle) are yummy in a cream sauce for pasta. The king bolete ( porcini, cep, borowik ) have a meaty flavor and are good grilled or any other way you’d use store-bought. Last night’s dinner had some in the tomato sauce. Wild mushrooms should always be cooked, never eaten raw… just to be safe… sulfur shelf 
… … … hen o’ the woods 
… … …King Bolete 