Did find some Reishi mushrooms?
I was walking the other day after some wet weather and found a nice patch of what I believe to be Reishi mushrooms or more precisely a N American species of them, but I am no mycologist, please don't eat any mushrooms you find without having a real expert identify them. These do have all the characteristics as far as I can tell though, can anyone affirm my identification?
These ones look like they are still growing, the white outer lip will get smaller and they will turn a from brown to a ruddy red
This big one looks like a big tasty pancake
these are polypore mushrooms, note the white underbelly and tiny holes instead of gills
There used to be a lot of old maple trees in my neighborhood before the government came and cut them all down so there are underground roots decaying all over and that is the right type of wood for reishi mushrooms. Even if I get a positive ID on these I probably won't eat them, they are growing near a road and that is not optimal for mushroom foraging, and this mushroom is already a component in the green drink I drink in the morning. These mushrooms are supposed to have all manner of health benefits, immortality, cure for cancer that sort of thing but can also have some side effects.
So far I only really know how to identify two mushrooms for sure, giant puffballs and chicken-of-the-woods and I have only actually eaten the latter but mushroom hunting ads a fun new dimension to outdoor exploration, I found a huge chicken-of-the-woods in the park near my house and another next to my supermarket last year. They are incredibly and indescribably tasty, it's like my favorite food now, would you eat a crazy mushroom I found?
These low resolution cell phone photos and dull commentary are @funbobby51 original content, all rights reserved, please upvote generously and resteem, I'm contemplating eating strange mushrooms.
Blog-ship has it limits. That's be one of them. No.
No you wouldn't eat a mushroom I found near the grocery store or "no" you don't think that is a reishi?
I just plain wouldn't eat a mushroom anybody found anywhere. My parents were big on mushroom hunting when I was a kid, I think that whole experience of being scared to death of picking one similar and dying is what held me back from a love of mushrooms I developed later in life...but I still couldn't eat a mushroom that wasn't store bought or ordered in a restaurant.
there was a study a while back that found that a large percentage of mushrooms in stores were mislabeled or not what they were supposed to be. I pick the chicken of the woods because it is one of 4 mushrooms that are easy to identify and don't have any toxic lookalikes. As long as you can tell the difference between pores and gills and look on the right trees you should be alright.
Most mushrooms I buy are round white mushrooms, I stuff them with Italian sausage, a teaspoon of hot pepper and cream cheese mixture then bake, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Sometimes I use Bella mushrooms in dishes and I usually keep a few jarred or canned mushrooms handy in case I want to throw some in a dish and I don't have any fresh ones at hand. I like fresh round white in salad more so then bella, the label says they are locally organic grown. There's other mushrooms that are rather large than I have never tried, their expensive for one thing and I haven't seen any recipes where they are used. Most of my cooking experience comes from the food network, my mom wasn't a Susie bake queen type so I never learned to cook, I don't know how my kids ever survived me. It took me forever to perfect banana bread, the NFL could have used a few loaves I baked as a pretty solid football. My kids were teenagers by the time Emeril appeared on the scene via the food network, I used to be glued to the food network in awe of what would have been deemed a simple endeavor to most housewives and I was just getting it, "Oh, that's how they do that" type thing...lol. After living in a dysfunctional family and four years spent in a relationship that took me four years to realize I didn't want to be in I was busy being a freedom loving party girl, baking was the furthest thing away from my mind.
usually I just eat the regular grocery store white mushrooms myself, I got a kit to grow oyster mushrooms a while ago and those were pretty good, the chicken of the woods is amazing though, tastes like lemony chicken/lobster.