Little early but I consider the fall season after labor day. The nights will start to get cooler and we'll start finding those fall mushrooms. Will be interesting to see how late the summer mushrooms run into fall. As always it will depend on the weather!! Happy Hunting!!
My #1 mushroom for fall hunting are hens. Live in an area with the right weather hens can be had by the hundreds of pounds. Lions mane would be #2, but don't find a lot of those. Blewits, kings, honey's, hedgehogs, chickens, beef tongue's....a lot. Will be interesting to see how long the summer mushrooms stick around. Happy Hunting!!!
The last ones are Laccaria ochropurpurea, not Blewets. Blewets have a pinkish color spores. If I'm seeing the last picture correctly, these have white spores, if the center of the paper plate is a spore print.
great pics! Beat is that a fishing creel your using? I'm trying to figure out a better way to collect than mesh bags. I find my picks get to beat up in the bags.
Yea, it's a wicker creel I came across a couple years ago. It works really well for smaller mushrooms and harvests. I usually have a backpack with a mesh laundry bag and one or two smaller canvas bags for large amounts or large sizes.
That was a good day for Blacks. I had the compartment basket made for me by an old friend when I lived Downstate Michigan. Find some gal that does basket weaving.
Some buggy oysters? Spent a lot of time looking for Hens. I've never found one. I love finding things for the first time. Found some trumpets today in the rain. Couldn't pick them though bc I was hiking out this heavy ass chunk of birch burl on my back. Heavy rains today 80's tomorrow then 3 more days of rain should kick start some new stuff. I'm really eager to find my first porcini. We have tons of hemlock around here and white pine. I've heard to look in spruce forests but I don't know of any near me.
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Crappy picture bc I was balancing that log on my shoulder but could thes be ginseng. There was no fruit but the stem structures had me thinking???
Not a Hen. I see a blueish color so I believe it to be Tyromyces caesius / Polyporus caesius. Might be able to use it as a dye for clothing like tee shirts.
If you rearrange Cassius it 1 letter off of my last name. Today's starting out great I parked my car to go for a quick hunt and as I was grabbing my gear I turned around and saw my first ever chickens! 5 feet from the car! Very tender and clean, I love first finds! I did see a chicken a few years ago but had no idea what is was and thought it was something to avoid.
Thanks Jack. Anyone know if these are hens? I must have checked 100 trees before finding them. Super buggy and obviously past prime. Not sure what the purple ones are yet either but they were under oak.
Barnacle they look like hens to me.. Looks like the rain might have did them in. Remember that spot they will show up in years to come. Happy Hunting!!
I wasn't out hunting yet. A friend of mine stopped by the house today to show me some pictures of some hens he picked. Picked 12 around two different trees, what really surprised me was the size of some of them this early 4 of them where about 3ft around. Finished taking honey off hives and plugging shitake logs today....it's time to hunt!! Happy Hunting!!
Barnacle a tip for you when hunting hens. Look for black oaks (any red oak family tree) first and then white oaks. Hunt the edges of the forest first (field edge, roadside, power lines etc) zig zag 30-40 yards along that edge that's where most of the hens will be found if any are in that area. Once you get a feel for light exposure you got it nailed. Check every mature oak tree even if it's a single one in the middle of a field or a PARK (hint hint). Don't waste your time going on long hikes in the forest some could be found, but the most by far will be found on those edges!! Pick most of my hens on still standing mature stressed red oak family tree's.
I have never found a hen on a live tree, only on stumps. On top of the mountain, where I live, almost every tree is a large red oak. I've never found a hen there. I hunt among some giant old white oaks down the mountain and nothing, ever. Fortunately, the oaks I hunted deer under 35 years ago, are now stumps where I find hens now.
Thanks for all the tips from you guys. the last pic shows hens on a stump (domdart)in a park. Trahn you were dead on about the parks and edges of woodlands. I found a dozen+ hens today almost all out in the open. First 2 were on a front yard of a home the rest were all a local preserve and city park. One tree had 7ish hen sprouts on it. 3 of these hens are on a unfamiliar tree to me. The pics with grass have leaves from the tree in view. Looks kinda like maple leaf?
Trahn, thanks for taking the time to type all that. I really appreciate such detailed advice. Your right I've been playing a numbers game checking every white oak in the forest! I will employ this new strategy and post what I come up with soon. Good luck out there. Thanks about the car also.
I have never found a hen on a live tree, only on stumps. On top of the mountain, where I live, almost every tree is a large red oak. I've never found a hen there. I hunt among some giant old white oaks down the mountain and nothing, ever. Fortunately, the oaks I hunted deer under 35 years ago, are now stumps where I find hens now.
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Morel Mushrooms and Mushroom Hunting
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