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Mike E. Member
Joined: 13 Sep 2002 Posts: 687 | TRs | Pics Location: Mount Vernon |
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Mike E.
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Wed Mar 05, 2003 10:42 am
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With the weather being unseasonably warm and dry, my thoughts have been wandering towards when the first morels of the season will be popping up. Just out of curiosity, do many of you go after mushrooms and berries or other wild foods ? What are your favorites ? Of course the obligatory question, (asked with a sly, hopefull smile), where are your favorite places ?
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reststep Member
Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Posts: 4757 | TRs | Pics
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reststep
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Wed Mar 05, 2003 2:27 pm
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I look for matsutake mushrooms in the fall of which I found none last year. It was too dry. I can't remember where I look for them at however.
"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
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catwoman Member
Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 888 | TRs | Pics Location: somewhere near Tacoma |
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catwoman
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Wed Mar 05, 2003 6:23 pm
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Of course I go for berries and also a few shrooms. Mostly chanterelles, but have also recently learned puffballs and angels wings. The latter two aren't that tasty, IMHO. Would love to learn other ones. I actually like to keep my eyes open for anything tasty in the wild.
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Rich Baldwin Mister Eddie
Joined: 22 Dec 2001 Posts: 1686 | TRs | Pics Location: Martinique |
This question should be saved for September, when our fingers and mouths are stained purple.
Was you ever bit by a dead bee?
Was you ever bit by a dead bee?
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Mike E. Member
Joined: 13 Sep 2002 Posts: 687 | TRs | Pics Location: Mount Vernon |
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Mike E.
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Thu Mar 06, 2003 12:04 pm
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Fall is my favorite time to collect wild foods and the berries are definitely my favorite. The fall mushrooms are also some of the best. The chanterelle's and the similar hydnum's, (they've got teeth instead of gills), are my favorite since the bugs rarely get into them. Those huge white snowball looking ones ,(hericium), that grow from the sides of dead rotting stumps are pretty good when spiced up, as are the "chicken of the woods" if you get them soon enough.
The nice thing about the spring mushrooms is that you can get out collecting when there's still too much snow in the high country for long distance hikes. The rolling pine and larch forest land on this side of the Cascades can be very productive given enough rain. I've found excellent morel areas as high as Tronsen Ridge and Red Top on Blewett Pass and as low as the Teanaway and Lake Wenatchee. The neat thing is that right after they're done, the big Bolete's start to pop up and in the same time frame the wild asparagus starts to sprout around the orchards and river and creek bottoms. An excellent location for late spring bolete's is the Entiat Ridge plateau, in the Mad and Lost lake region, (even though it's open to motorcycles the trails are good and if you're focused on mushrooms you hardly notice the infrequent motorcyclist). Just remember that the best way to ensure your safety is to drop those bags of goodies off here and I'll test them for you.
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McPilchuck Wild Bagger
Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Posts: 856 | TRs | Pics Location: near Snohomish, Wa. |
I often eat wild foods...miners lettuce, berries, nuts, mushrooms, and some root stocks, as well as grouse, frog legs, crayfish, etc. I have always thought many people just don't realize the amont of wild food there is in the wild or for that matter in thier own backyards. Years ago, my father and grandfather taught me a lot of this to eat when hungry out there, and then in 1964 I bought a small book called Food in the Wilderness by George Martin and Robert Scott, to further that knowledge. It's a great little book, still have it. At any rate, I even eat occasionally wildflowers...Glacier Lily tender shoots are very good.
McPil
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MCaver Founder
Joined: 14 Dec 2001 Posts: 5124 | TRs | Pics
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MCaver
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Thu Mar 06, 2003 12:45 pm
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Can anyone recommend a good book and/or online resource for edible plants, mushrooms, etc? I'd also be interested in herbs' and plants' medicinal value as well.
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Mike E. Member
Joined: 13 Sep 2002 Posts: 687 | TRs | Pics Location: Mount Vernon |
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Mike E.
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Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:52 pm
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There are a lot of good online resouces for mushrooms as well as some very active clubs in this part of the country. A search on Google will provide you with a huge response.
Herbal information is another thing entirely. There seems to be a billion or so people on the net selling their favorite brand of cure for this or that and getting decent information is a little more time consuming. A couple of really good online resources that offer good science based, peer reviewed articles are
http://www.herbalgram.org/ and http://www.herbs.org/
The herbalgram site is the American Botanical Council and under the educational section they offer several books on local ethnobotany. This is the study of what the native peoples used plants and their byproducts for, medicinal and otherwise.
I'll post the titles of a couple of my favorite mushroom books this evening when I get home.
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Damian Member
Joined: 18 Dec 2001 Posts: 3260 | TRs | Pics
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Damian
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Thu Mar 06, 2003 8:32 pm
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McP- What kind of nuts do you find in the woods of the NW? (serious queston, even though Quark might be a true answer)
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catwoman Member
Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 888 | TRs | Pics Location: somewhere near Tacoma |
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catwoman
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Thu Mar 06, 2003 8:36 pm
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Hey MCaver!
We might have a more comparable pace if we were shrooming!
And Mike E..... I think you might be referring to the puffballs (snowball-like mushrooms). What do you spice them up with to make them taste better? And do you dice or mince them? Or leave them in big chunks?
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Malachai Constant Member
Joined: 13 Jan 2002 Posts: 16088 | TRs | Pics Location: Back Again Like A Bad Penny |
BTW watch out for puffballs they cannot be positively identifed many aminitas have a puffball phase.
"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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polarbear Member
Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 3680 | TRs | Pics Location: Snow Lake hide-away |
"There are old mushroomers, there are bold mushroomers, but there are no old bold mushroomers.""
"Some mushrooms you only eat once."
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Bushwacker Comfortable
Joined: 28 Jun 2002 Posts: 834 | TRs | Pics Location: Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand |
I'm safe.
I can't stand mushrooms.
BW
"Wait by the river long enough and the bodies of your enemies will float by"...Sun Tsu
"Wait by the river long enough and the bodies of your enemies will float by"...Sun Tsu
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Allison Feckless Swooner
Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Posts: 12287 | TRs | Pics Location: putting on my Nikes before the comet comes |
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Allison
Feckless Swooner
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Fri Mar 07, 2003 12:03 am
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I got one of those puffball jackets. It doesn't taste all that good, but man oh man, it keeps me warm even when it's a little wet. I wore it skiing one day last week when it was 31 degrees and snowing, and even then I didn't get wet. I still sort of like down better though. They have morels at the Ballard Market, and if I ever win the Lottery maybe I will buy some.
www.allisonoutside.com
follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
www.allisonoutside.com
follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
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catwoman Member
Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 888 | TRs | Pics Location: somewhere near Tacoma |
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catwoman
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Fri Mar 07, 2003 9:38 am
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MalCon - Mushrooming is not a pasttime to take lightly. I don't pick/eat anything until I've done plenty of research on them and feel comfortable with my identification. I'm sure that goes the same for the others here that go shrooming. As for the puffballs, there are certain identifying traits that if you know them, you cannot misidentify them. Which is why I do a lot of research on whatever I pick. I don't know that many yet because I don't want to be careless in my identification.
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