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Stinkhorns, indeed look like cocks: Right now here on the west coast we've been finally getting some good rains after two years of hell-drought, so I headed up to Sonoma County to look mainly for Chanterelles, specifically Cantharellus californicus. What distinguishes it from other Chanterelles is that it has this habit of indeterminate growth, which means if left alone in a good spot, it can grow quite large, I've found a specimen almost the size of a football. But that generally is only found on private lands, most of the time on public lands they never get that big, because someone picks it well before that happens   If you find a good spot with one or two poking up, look around, there's generally more. You might have to dig a bit (which is why I bring a hand rake with me) under the pine needles and other duff. There's also two small Hedgehog mushrooms in that basket as well, Hydnum repandum, which from the top are often pretty easily mistaken for Chanterelles. Tastes pretty similar, less likely to be covered in dirt (the tooth gills underneath miraculously tend to be clean) Another good mushroom that grows around the coast is the Candy Cap or Lactarius fragilis rubidus/Lactarius rubidus  Called fragilis because of the rather fragile hollow stem. Like all lactarius, when the gills are broken, a milky fluid oozes out. In the case of the Candy cap, the fluid should be watery white, and not rapidly change color. The distinctive and desirable trait this mushroom has is most readily evident during drying or cooking, it smells like maple syrup. It's good in desserts, and I personally like making pumpkin pie with it. One important side note is that after eating it you may smell like maple syrup for a day or so afterwards. The Porcini.  Boletus edulus granedulis, these guys were huge. Found them not on my trip, actually while jogging in SF. Lucky me. I somehow managed to get to it before the banana slugs messed them up too bad.
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Dec 19, 2016 17:48
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:57 |
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Haha, I keep forgetting that I always have a knife on me for cutting them off. What I do is generally separate the pores from the cap, (as usually the pores tend to be damaged from banana slug feeding more often than not) and also peel off the pellicle, the brown skin on top, and then slice and sautee in a bit of butter or really good olive oil with a small amount of shallots and garlic. If there's a lot, after briefly sauteeing them, I freeze them. The stems are generally tough, so what I do is I make a stock with them to flavor sauces, gravies or make soup with. I pour the cool stock into an ice cube tray sometimes, freeze, and then shrink wrap the cubes to add a bit of flavor to various things. I'm going to head up to Sonoma again in early January, but the last time I went I only saw one or two really mushy looking oysters. There might be more at...either Samuel P. Taylor or Jackson park, can't remember which one in CA was loaded with them.
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Dec 23, 2016 21:11
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