shrooms

For all you shroomers out there.  It is happening in full force.  Lake Sonoma for golden chantarelles under the madrones on North facing slopes and the north coast is going off with black chantarelles, yellow foot chantarelles, hedgehogs and various others.  Just a heads up that the fungus is among us.
Dave

Dave would you have any reliable on-line pictorial or photo resource fro us to use to ID edibles?

I know there's some great mushrooms in my neighborhood, but I'm paranoid....

Also I have those cool red with white spot death mushrooms right in my backyard.   Evil....

thanks Allen

Dave would you have any reliable on-line pictorial or photo resource fro us to use to ID edibles?

I know there's some great mushrooms in my neighborhood, but I'm paranoid....

Also I have those cool red with white spot death mushrooms right in my backyard.   Evil....

thanks Allen

Allen,

It's generally not safe to rely on books or online photos to ID mushrooms. You should have gone to the Fungus Fair in Santa Cruz two weekends ago! They had every local species on display. The Santa Cruz Fungus Federation has free identification classes at the museum on East Cliff (the one with the whale statue out front). The next class is on February 6 at 7 PM.

http://www.fungusfed.org/

By the way, the red ones with white spots aren't the most deadly ones. The red ones are Amanita muscaria. They will get you very sick and have psychoactive effects, but nobody uses them for that purpose because of their toxicity. The ones that will kill you are Amanita phalloides, the death cap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides . By the time you feel sick, your liver is already severely damaged. Every year, people die from eating this mushroom.

*shudder*

thanks for the tips on E Cliff museum and FEb 6  I will try to make it.

Allen

What?
Shrooms in Santa Cruz?
Who'd have thought?

LMAO!

*shudder*

thanks for the tips on E Cliff museum and FEb 6  I will try to make it.

Allen

Yeah, that death cap is a nasty mushroom. By the way, the Wikipedia article's season is incorrect for our area. Around here, death caps tend to come up in late fall and early winter. After that, another species of poisonous Amanita comes out in late winter and spring (Amanita ocreata - the death angel). As you can tell by the name, not good to eat! That's why it's good to take an ID class. Once you see edible chanterelles and black trumpets, you'll be able to identify them without getting sick or worse.

As the saying goes,
"There are old mushroom hunters,
And there are bold mushroom hunters,
But there are no old, bold mushroom hunters."

any Matsutake around here???

any Matsutake around here???

That looks like the Asian brown matsutake. We have a white variety on the west coast. They smell like cinnamon. Not very common down here, but very abundant in northern California and Oregon.

We have Matsutake mushrooms in the Ukiah area - more specifically around the Redwood Valley area in the hills towards Willits. One of my neighbors found so many earlier in the season he sliced, spiced and canned them after having his fill of fresh ones.

John

We have Matsutake mushrooms in the Ukiah area - more specifically around the Redwood Valley area in the hills towards Willits. One of my neighbors found so many earlier in the season he sliced, spiced and canned them after having his fill of fresh ones.

John

When is the season?

We have Matsutake mushrooms in the Ukiah area - more specifically around the Redwood Valley area in the hills towards Willits. One of my neighbors found so many earlier in the season he sliced, spiced and canned them after having his fill of fresh ones.

John

When is the season?

Down here, it's usually after the first heavy rains in late fall or early winter. They like sandy soil. I have found them under manzanitas on ridge tops. Up north, they are more widespread.

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Down here, it's usually after the first heavy rains in late fall or early winter. They like sandy soil. I have found them under manzanitas on ridge tops. Up north, they are more widespread.
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It is the same here - after the first good rains in late fall beginning of winter they pop they lil heads up.

John

Down here, it's usually after the first heavy rains in late fall or early winter. They like sandy soil. I have found them under manzanitas on ridge tops. Up north, they are more widespread.
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It is the same here - after the first good rains in late fall beginning of winter they pop they lil heads up.

John
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Up in your area, do you find them under pines?

My favorite on-line site is www.mykoweb.com  Really great photos.  I guess probably everyone knows about "mushrooms demystified" and "All that the rain Promises" by David Arora.
Dave