Today's mushroom find - Polyporus umbellatus

Like I said at the start, this blog would end up being about  more than beekeeping.  I also have an interest in foraging and one item I love to forage is mushrooms.

I knew chanterelles were out because I picked a basket full last week in Southern Maine.  I have a few spots here in Southeastern Vermont too so I decided to take a walk and find some more.  I did find them in  my usual spots and also in one new spot so I grabbed them.  Most were a bit too old...they should have been picked several days ago. But they were still good enough to cook up and so that's what I did with them.  Then I froze them.

I've tried to dry chanterelles in the past but they get tough and chewy so I now will cook them in olive oil with a bit of butter until done...then freeze them. They are delicious after thawing and using.

But today's big find was this Polyporus umbellatus that I found on a slope in leaf debris and surrounded by various deciduous trees.  It looked like a Maitke but I knew it wasn't because of some various differences, including timing.  Maitke come in September, not early July.  Each leaflet looks like a little trumpet.  I guess someone else thought they looked like little umbrellas, hence the name.

 

The top mushrooms were perfect.  Towards the stem at the bottom, I could see insect damage.  But the top little "umbrellas" were clean and white and so I chopped them up and sauteed them in olive oil with a bit of butter for flavor.  Another delicious  mushroom...one I'd never found nor eaten. 

A Wiki entry says that these mushrooms have "Polyporus umbellatus may contain bioactive compounds with immunostimulating, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective properties".

No one should ever eat a mushroom based on this blog.  Any mushroom you eat should be researched in depth to make sure that it's not poisonous.  If you haven't learned about mushrooms from experts, you should not ever try to eat them.  BE WARNED and HEED THIS WARNING.