A vegan goes stalking wild mushrooms in the Pine Barrens
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
I met a botanist from Princeton gathering mushrooms at Apple Pie Hill. He was from Italy and told me there is an old saying. "There are old mushroom gathers and there are bold mushroom gathers, but there are no old bold mushroom gathers"
There's three rules I always follow when I go hiking in the Pine Barrens.
1) Never touch a rattlesnake.
2) Never eat a mushroom.
3) Never annoy anybody holding a gun.
This policy has kept me vertical for 53 years.
1) Never touch a rattlesnake.
2) Never eat a mushroom.
3) Never annoy anybody holding a gun.
This policy has kept me vertical for 53 years.
From my encounters, it seems that foraging for wild mushrooms is more common among those raised in the "old country". A few I have met have indicated they have not been in this country a long time and when asked about how they honed their I.D. skills, they replied they learned back home. That kinda frightens me just a bit. Many mushrooms are easy to identify, others, not so much. Throw in an ocean to separate the species and it could turn out to be a problem!
I admire people with that skill because wild mushrooms are heavenly. My sense of self-preservation, however, is too strong to even pursue knowledge of edible mushrooms. I currently have a stand of chicken-of-the-woods in my back yard that is two feet across, I am pretty sure it's the right thing, but I am still not going to risk eating it. Mushroom toxicity is a bad way to go. "Pretty sure" is not good enough.
There is a woman who collects and sells wild mushrooms at the farmer's market here, and I bought some. On my way home, I realized that I don't know this woman, and I am trusting her with my life. I ended up not using them. I am confident in my ability to identify morels, which grow in abundance here. That's as far as I am willing to go.
There is a woman who collects and sells wild mushrooms at the farmer's market here, and I bought some. On my way home, I realized that I don't know this woman, and I am trusting her with my life. I ended up not using them. I am confident in my ability to identify morels, which grow in abundance here. That's as far as I am willing to go.
Central and Eastern Europeans are big on mushroom hunting in the Pines. I’m always amazed how European mushroom hunters can go anywhere in the world and pick with confidence. Russian colleagues do this all the time. One recently took an academic position in southeastern Brazil, where he and his family forage mushrooms on weekends. My grandmother tried to teach me the basics, like to avoid the ones without insect holes.
Honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea) or “popinki” (Ukrainian; opinki in Polish) were her favorite – especially relished around Christmas. Collected from and by tree stumps after the first frost, they were then canned, frozen, or dried and hung on strings behind the coal stove. My mom wasn’t so keen on popinki’s flavor, so that delicacy dropped from my foraging repertoire. As much as my family enjoys mushrooms, its time to relearn how to pick them.
Honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea) or “popinki” (Ukrainian; opinki in Polish) were her favorite – especially relished around Christmas. Collected from and by tree stumps after the first frost, they were then canned, frozen, or dried and hung on strings behind the coal stove. My mom wasn’t so keen on popinki’s flavor, so that delicacy dropped from my foraging repertoire. As much as my family enjoys mushrooms, its time to relearn how to pick them.
My Grandfather would being me along on his gathering trips when I was much, much, much younger than I am now. He immigrated from what was known as Czechoslovakia in the early 1900's. He would pick baskets of them, then dry them. Made a bitter tasting soup with them. But it wasn't in the Pines, but Willowbrook Park on Staten Island, a ferry and bus ride from home.
My great-grandmother, born and raised in Poland would take my mother (age 6-12) from their home in Phila. to NJ via the ferry. Once in NJ they would harvest mushrooms and pick wild blueberries. It would amaze my mother that her grandmother was so familiar with the edible mushrooms of the US after living for most of her life in Poland.... the harvest was a staple of their regular diet.
Looks like Hericium erinaceus, Lions Mane, but I'm no expert and you need an expert to be sure.
That is what it looks like to me, too. They are good to eat and are apparently a good "beginner's" mushroom since they are pretty easy to ID and don't have any poisonous mimics, but I would still be wary. They are prized for their yummy flavor.
http://themushroomforager.com/2010/09/29/lions-mane-a-foolproof-fungus/
http://themushroomforager.com/2010/09/29/lions-mane-a-foolproof-fungus/