Tag Archives: wild mushrooms Mendocino County

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On a recent mushroom forage with Rozann Grunig, Karen Tracy and Rick, we discovered Black Trumpets just emerging.

They are hard to spot, aren't they? They look like black holes on the forest floor. This delicious edible mushroom is also called Horn of Plenty, Black Chanterelle and Trumpet of Death. Their Latin name makes me laugh, as it sounds like a spell Harry Potter might use - Craterellus cornucopioides.

We left these mushrooms to grow more. We did find many Candy Caps and Hedgehog mushrooms and one beautiful Matsutke to fill our baskets. Thanks to Rozann for allowing me to share her photo with you here.

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Jane Jarlsberg found these Oyster Mushrooms the day before Thanksgiving. She brought them to a friend's home to add to the celebratory feast. They are exceptionally frilly for Oysters but no less delicious.

Yesterday Rick and I found two beautiful King Boletes, Boletus edulis. You can see the sponge underneath the cap is still white, indicating it fruited recently. With age the sponge turns yellow.

And this morning, under threatening skies, we found a small Queen Boletus, Boletus aereus. The very dark top was nearly munched off, perhaps by a Deer. But the stem was sturdy and pristine. Fresh mushroom for the Jackson household tonight!

Thanks to Jane for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

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On a recent mushroom forage with my husband, Rick, we found Black Trumpets, Chanterelles and Hedgehogs. There is a veritable feast in the forest if you know what to look for!

Rick spotted this golden Chanterelle hiding under Huckleberry bushes.

 And I had luck spotting the hard-to-see Black Trumpets, which are also more properly called Horn of Plenty.

And this is what we did with the Hedgehogs we found - a wonderful omelet this morning.

That's homemade huckleberry jam on the english muffins. Life is good!

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Robert Scarola photographed the first sunset of 2012 and a lovely one it was. Yesterday the Mendonoma Coast basked in warm sunshine. The temperature climbed to 70 degrees at our house in Anchor Bay, very unusual for wintertime. Today the warmth and sun has disappeared and light rain is falling. But our memories of the glorious first day of the year remain.

Thanks to Robert for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

Wild mushrooms continue to fruit. There has been a second bloom of Matsutakes, nearly a month after the first one.

 Bellybutton Hedgehogs continue to fruit in abundance.

 And they make for some mighty fine eating!

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This is a new mushroom for me. Zeller's Boletes, Boleuts zelleri, have been appearing on our property in Anchor Bay for the past three or so weeks. Is this just a good year for them or have I not noticed them before? Only time will answer that question.

Zeller's Boletes are edible and they are only found in Western North America, from British Columbia, down the Pacific Northwest and south to Mexico. It is a colorful mushroom with its yellow and red stem. Like all Boletes it has a sponge underneath the cap. The ones on our property have a grayish top when young, browner with age and the sponge is yellow.

Do you see the bite mark on the largest mushroom? That was Huckleberry, our golden retriever. Rick and I try to stop him from eating wild mushrooms.

Here's is the dog in question, posing by a bloom of tiny mushrooms on the forest floor. At least he didn't try to eat these. Who knows if they are the hallucinogenic kind!

If you'd like to learn about our recent mushroom forage with David Arora, here's the link: http://www.mendonomasightings.com/2011/11/17/a-mushroom-forage-with-author-david-arora/