My Favorite Mushroom Guide
It’s always important to be extra careful when foraging for mushrooms! So, I always refer to my favorite guide to be absolutely sure I’ve got the right ones.
Oyster Mushrooms
I’ve been foraging for mushrooms since I was a kid. My father was an amateur mycologist, so one of his favorite things was to take us out and teach us all about how to identify and forage for fungi. After collecting, we would take them home and cook them up in loads of butter and feast like kings! Regardless, I still consider myself a novice, so I always rely on my trusty guide for help.
My favorite guide for mushroom hunting is, hands down: How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying: an Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms, by Frank Hyman. Its super easy to pick up and read, its got fantastic photos, and some wonderful checklists for verifying what you’ve got.
My Favorite Guide
Just the other day, I came across a group of oyster mushrooms growing on an old oak stump that I try to check fairly often, because it usually has a nice range of interesting fungi on it. And sure enough, on that day I struck gold! Oyster mushrooms are fairly easy to identify and are really good eating! As decomposers, they grow all year round. Oyster mushrooms can fade pretty quickly, but these were incredibly fresh and perfect for harvesting. Folks often ask—how do you know when a mushroom is ripe for eating and not too old? My rule of thumb is to ask myself: does this look like something I would put on my salad? *I do not however recommend eating any wild musrhoom raw. Even if you know with confidence what you have, it’s always important to cook musrhooms, including the ones you get in the grocery store! Cooking breaks down the flesh and makes it more easily digestible.
I think the best way to enjoy a mushroom harvest is to serve them over pasta. I like to sauté them in olive oil (I don’t eat dairy, but if you do go for the butter!), add garlic, thyme, lemon and some coconut milk (or cream) for a hearty and delicious linguini sauce.
So, if you are lucky enough to find a fresh batch of oyster mushrooms, here is the checklist from Hyman’s book to get you started*
Oyster Mushroom Checklist: All Must Be Correct
They project out of a deciduous tree trunk or dead stump
Caps are the size of your palm or larger
Each mushroom overlaps two mushrooms below it—like shingle on a roof
Gills continue along the stem
Gills are white
Stubby stem that comes off from the side of the trunk
Smooth cap (no salt) that ranges in color from bright white to gray to brown
*Disclaimer: it is your responsibility to correctly identify mushrooms correctly. Do not rely on this blog when identifying wild food. It is always important to remember that eating fungi that you are unsure of can be dangerous and can even lead to death.
Below is a video that shows me going through the checklist.
Do you like to forage for mushrooms? Let me know in the comments below—I’d love to hear your stories!
