[lgb]

I finally got to beat someone out to my trees!
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[lgb]

I went to Pere Marquette State Park. Its a great place to find hens. So if you live in the area go out and look. There are alot of hens not yet ready to pick. I left several behind including the big white pair you see next to each other in my pictures.

 

[jmerx]

Can anyone tell me if this is a lion's mane or if its even

 

[jmerx]

This is what I found today hens chickens chants oysters and maybe lion's mane

 

[jmerx]

 

[lgb]

Yes it is a lions mane. Hericium Erinaceus in my opinion is what you have. I like to slice them about 3/8" thick and bread them with 50:50 Andy's red and flour. I fried mine up a long with the hens, chickens and white bass...mmmm!!! Very nice haul jmerx!!!

 

[jmerx]

thanks LGB not too bad yourself .the reason why I question the lion's mane is because the little hairs are shorter than I'm used to seeing.

 

[lgb]

I know from what I have read at mushroomexpert.com that the young specimens will have short spines when still immature. One thing I do know for sure is they are delicious! Lol

 

[lgb]

I will down by Ironton Mo. This weekend. I sure hope my trees I marked year before last produce this year. Last year not a single tree produced anything. I was extremely puzzled. I checked all the way up to the freeze.

 

[clwstl]

Went out to Saturday 10/4/14 to an area where I've found fairly large dried-out last year's hens in the past. Large,old oaks. I found one good sized hen and white-pored chicken mushroom--it didnt form leaves or shelves, was very "knobby". It was coming right out of the ground, must be a big root.

Please post if you find hens in St. Louis, I have some trees to check/recheck if people think they're still coming up.

Thanks,

CLW

 

[jmerx]

hens just started in this area found some the last two weeks.

 

[lgb]

I found at least 5 that I left behind in Pere Marquette state park that were not mature enough to harvest on Sat. I hope its not too late down by Ironton/Farmington area.

 

[lgb]

@jmerx are you hunting in Stl area? I live on outskirts of Granite City IL and have never found any lobster mushrooms. I was looking at your pics in your album and looks like you have a mess of lobsters. I don't have any private land I just hunt parks and....shhhhh preserves in this area. I do have land on Lake Hanna property I hunt. I can also hunt land in Pochahantas I'll which is private property but seldom do.

 

[jmerx]

LGB I actually live in DeSoto and only hunt Parks myself mostly but I travel to find parks with moisture.South Missouri wear I found them past me about a half hour

 

[turick]

Found my first hen in St. Charles county! I'm guessing it's about 20 lbs.

 

[lgb]

That's a biggie!!! 8-O nice one!

 

[clwstl]

That's quite a large one, good job!

 

[jmerx]

This is all i found one dried up softball size

 

[jmerx]

not sure what happened keeps putting up wrong

 

[turick]

Hey guys... quick discussion on preserving these things. I grew up with my dad picking 100+ pounds of hens per year and giving them away to friends an family. We would soak them in water to kill all the bugs and loosen all of the dirt, then clean them, then put them in freezer zip lock baggies filled with water. They would freeze into huge blocks of ice in the baggies. I've pulled them out years later, ran hot water over them to thaw the ice as quickly as possible (thawing the ice slowly would ruin them) and they were as good as new.

I have searched everywhere, and I have never, ever heard anybody say this. The big thing seems to be dehydration and to avoid moisture.

Has anybody else done this or heard of this? My dad has severe dementia so it's impossible for me to ask him how he came up with this, but as of right now, I'm about to freeze all of my hen in ziplock baggies.