Fungi Foraging With Harv the Pomchi!
For the past week it has been SO rainy up here where I live in Sullivan County, NY. It’s kind of a bummer, and a little scary because of all the lighting and trees down, but the bright side is that the forest is FULL of mushrooms! So many funny little shrooms are popping up everywhere I look! Join Harvey, my pomchi, and me on a fungi foraging walk in our yard (and a little of the neighbors, but I don’t think they’d mind since they’re never there anyway). We spotted 24 (!!) different types of mushrooms in just a couple hours. I even found some things to take home for dinner and show you how I prepared them at the end of the post.
Disclaimer - I’m just a beginner at foraging and mycology and plan to use this blog to help me learn as I go. Some of them I know, some I don’t, so if you know any of the names I’m missing or have a correction please let me know in the comments, I numbered them for that reason :) I use a mushroom ID book, Mushrooms of the Northeast, by Teresa Marrone and Walt Sturgeon, and the website INaturalist for ID help. I’ll be updating this post as I learn more.
Welcome to our woodland!
1 - Orange Mycena Mycena leaiana. So cute!
3 - Eyelash Cups Genus Scutellinia, what a name!
4 - Omg a Chanterelle!!!! Cantharellus cibarius. Its edible!
Found her sister too :)
5 - I thought this was a chanterelle, but I believe it is a Hygrophorus Milkcap Lactifluus hygrophoroides
See how the gills stop abruptly when they hit the stem? Thats how ya know. I think.
6 - So cute!!! Green-spored Parasol Chlorophyllum molybdites
For scale.
These are the same as above, just when they’re wee babes.
Hi Harvey boy!
It’s really so fun to run around in the woods looking at all of these! You never know what you’ll find. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my grandparents lived in a senior living community that backed up against a golf course and we would go hunting around in the woods for golf balls. It was like an Easter egg hunt every weekend and I feel like my eye has been expertly trained from these exercises. My grandma would then try to sell them back to the golfers or we would set up a table at the craft fair in my town, but surprisingly not many people wanted to buy egg cartons of used golf balls for 25 cents each...
7 - Emetic Russula Russula silvicola this is also commonly known as “The Sickener” because of the gastrointestinal distress it causes if eaten!
8 - Ghost Pipe, Monotropa uniflora. They can be made into a tincture for nerve or emotional pain.
9 - Totally no clue about this one, what do you think?!
Get a load of this tree! It stopped me in my tracks and I took 90 thousand photos of it, but none could capture its beauty. I count 4 types of shrooms!
10 - I think those are oyster mushrooms on top, and I dont know what the fuzzy stuff is to the right but it looked super purple IRL.
11- I believe Crowded Parchment Stereum complicatum on the left and 12 - violet toothed polypore, or Trichaptum biforme, on the right.
13 - Another example of Crowded Parchment with some sweet sluggies.
The color is amazing!
Such a patient and good boy while I geek out over all the shrooms!!
I really can’t get over how good Harvey is when we’re out in the woods. When we first moved to our cabin I had to carry him around half the time because he wasn’t very agile on the rocks and was in the process of regaining strength after being injured last August. Now he races around climbing rocks and charges through the creek, but always stops when I say “wait” and comes when called! Who knew a pomchi would be such a tough and obedient little cookie!?
15 - One pomchi nose and Eastern North American Destroying Angel Amanita bisporigera
I love this little parasol! It’s cute but apparently this is a deadly poisonous little mushroom.
16 - Dog vomit slime mold, and not the kind from Harvey!!
17 - Maybe an Earthstar before opening?
Now that I think this is an Earthstar I’m bummed i picked it up for this photo! I did put it back where I found it so fingers crossed it’ll have opened when I go back!
18 - OYSTERS!!!! Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus I was so excited when I found these, they look like angel wings. Little did I know the next day I would find a million more.
19 - I think these are baby oyster mushrooms?
21 - Beautiful ruffly gills of a Deer Mushroom Pluteus cervinus!
This photo was taken July 14th!! I didn’t think robins laid eggs this late, let alone in a nest on a slope.
22 - Marasmius capillaris
23 - Not sure about this one! Please let me know if you have any ideas.
I feel like a wet wilderness walk would not be complete without a little Eastern Newt Notophthalmus viridescens! These little guys are EVERYWHERE, i have to be super careful where I step!
Now it’s time to celebrate!!! I brought back the two chanterelles and the oysters, sautéd them with garlic and butter and threw them on some chickpea pasta with pesto I made from scratch with basil and walnuts!
First cook out the extra water in the mushies, then add butter and garlic.
Cook them till they’re a bit more cooked than this. I didn’t take a photo when they were done, sorry!
Throw them on some pasta, glob some pesto (which I’ll definitely be doing a post about and link to in the future) add extra parmesan on top and you’re good to go! Bon e petit!
Thanks so much for coming on this litle journey with Harvey and me! He was jealous he didn’t get any pasta, but he did get to lick the bowl clean. Tell me what your favorite mushroom we found was and let me know if you can ID any of the mystery mushes are in the comments!