Let's try this new thread and see if it overcomes the corruption of the time-line and post numbering duplication in the 2019 - Ohio Summer & Fall thread. Those issues have made it difficult for us to find new posts and find replies in that thread.
(this is a repost of an earlier itemt that appeared in the wrong time space) Pedro - thanks for posting of your west central OH Lions Mane finds. (even though you posted it on the Indiana Forum, not OH) It inspired me to go check some of my regular Lions Mane spots. Central OH - Franklin County Saturday, Sept 28, I harvested 2 magnificent Lions Mane. This little guy below in just starting on this log and is the 4th year in a row I've found Lions Mane on this very log and on the same end!!! Ha! So . . . recheck your prior year Lions Mane spots . . . for sure. I'll go back in a week and get this little guy if it's grown enough. I found the Lions Mane one day and went back the next to harvest them. In that time, the size of the little one had doubled!! I take that to be the effect of the high temperatures. I dried all of yesterdays Herecium. The two shrooms filled the 5 trays on my dehydrator.
I went back yesterday, Oct 4th and rechecked the little Lions Mane above. It had grown to be cauliflower sized (below pic) and I harvested it. If you look to the left side of this pic above, you'll see another new little one starting, pictured below. In another week I'll go back and get this one as a cauliflower sized Lions Mane.
Jack - In response to you post on the corrupted thread: SB, How do these (Lions Mane) turn out after drying them? Will they reconstitute well later? I think I only tried reconstituting the dried Lions Mane and cooking it just once 4-5-6 years ago and I don't recall anything specific about it. Perhaps others have have experience and can add to this exchange . . . I dry because I then later take the dried Lions Mane and put it into a Coffee Bean Grinder (whirling blade variety) and powder it and use it in cooked cereal, pancakes, health smoothies, etc. For many years, before I started harvesting it myself, I bought Lions Mane (Herecium) capsules through the internet. I could take this powder and fill capsules . . . but too much work . . . I consume it for the medicinal benefits, mostly.
Good idea, sb! I went out the other day after the cold front, which unfortunately was pretty much a dry front, passed through. What little rain we got was so light I could walk around shirtless and not be uncomfortable! I was on a mission and went to every place that I knew of that held hens, and some that I didn't know anything about except that they had big, old oak trees! I found zip, zero, zilch, and nada! It is so dry here. The creek that runs through the one spot I know is as low as I've ever seen it. And it wasn't just hens, I didn't see a single thing shroomy out there. Last year, when I was finding them, we got rain every 2-3 days. We have more rain forecast for tomorrow, and hopefully we'll actually get some. Maybe that, with the more seasonable temps, can get things going. Hope so.
Last week my sweetie and I stayed in a cabin in the woods in Hocking County, OH. for 3 nights. I walked the woods around the cabin, downhill to a creek which was dried up. Cracked earth everywhere and no mushrooms anywhere. Where to find Lions Mane when it is dry like the past several months in Central OH (as well as elsewhere). 1. The Lions Mane above came from a tree trunk cut down along a central OH river. The bank on both sides of the river are about 20-25 feet high and wooded. At night, the air volume within the river channel and banks becomes a river of humid air and deposits dew on the surrounding vegetation. This nightly dose of moisture helps keep the downed trees from drying out as fast as in other locations. So, I can find Lions Mane growing nicely there when I can't find them in other spots that I find them during more normal moisture levels. 2. The other spot I can find them despite dry weather is a mature woods that has some 2nd and occasionaly 3 canopies keeping the earth and downed trees from drying out. No sun and very little wind gets to the fallen trees in these thickets. I just have to be willing to wade in and look.
Thank goodness for the order. I've been out looking in NE Ohio and haven't found much of anything for 2 weeks.
I went this morning and found about 8 pounds of chickens that came on from the rain before this one. All rotten. I didn't go when we had that rain because it seems too little but I guess it was just enough. They were all compact ones.
I saw honeys come up in droves, but no shrimps. I'll have to get on my rocket skates this weekend and cover some ground.
I went out this morning for 1 1/2 hours after over sleeping. Found 12 pounds of very fresh chickens and one fresh lion's mane about the size of my fist.
I haven't seen anything shroomy in a while. Haven't seen a shaggy mane around here for 2 years now! 3 years back it seemed like they were in every other front yard. I don't know what shrimp are. No chickens or hens. I have a spot where I know meadows and horse grow, and nothing is happening there yet. Hope it does before we get a freeze.
The leaves are barely turning up here, I'm thinking we have a solid month+ of terrestrial shroomin. I remember getting chickens well into November in the past. Come on rain!
Franklin County Central OH - The Rest of the Story After harvesting Lions Mane twice from the same logs as shared in post 2 & 3 above, on Sept 28 and Oct 4, I went back on Oct 10 and got this cauliflower sized Lions Mane, below. I waited 6 days after I found it as pin cushion size,
Out of curiosity I juxtaposed the images of 6 days Lions Mane growth so the knife sizes are the same. You can therefore see how much the Lions Mane grew by my waiting to harvest it for 6 days.
I'm up to only 32 pounds of chicken mushrooms this year. Supposed to rain Wednesday so maybe I'll get some more. No hens yet. I've checked every hen tree I know of. Doubt if I find 197 pounds of hens like last year.
