First time actually gathering and eating. Wife's Ukrainian and seems like they get WAY too excited about mushroom picking, like it's an unofficial national sport! LOL
These seem to be a really easy one to identify, and only somewhat resemble chanterelles, which is no problem, or jack-o'-lantern, which while poisonous, quite frankly is so different in how it grows and its appearance I'm not sure how you could confuse it but I guess you could.
Chicken of the woods
Moderator: tkahike
Chicken of the woods
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Re: Chicken of the woods
Check out 1:27 on this vid and tell me what's what...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWvpDhMPTqY
TS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWvpDhMPTqY
TS
Re: Chicken of the woods
What conditions and terrain do they grow?
Re: Chicken of the woods
Yep that's them. From what I read there's actually three subsets but they're all the same mushroom. The important thing is underneath should not have lines or gills. It should be smooth or you should be able to see pores. They also grow in shelves and clusters, not individually so that's another way to tell for sure.toad sticker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:05 pmCheck out 1:27 on this vid and tell me what's what...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWvpDhMPTqY
TS
While I understand they will grow on many types of dead trees, most of the time you will find them on Oak just as you did.
The wife is cooked them up a couple of different ways and they really do have the texture and subtle flavor of chicken. Additionally, much to my surprise, they're actually very high in protein. I would suspect not a complete protein but still a very high for a mushroom.
Where we live there's a lot of oak trees and quite a few down so we should be having a lot more. Additionally when I'm hiking or hunting I'll be keeping my eye out as well.
The one caveat I have read is there are some people, just like anything, that do have allergies to these. So my advice would be to fry up a small piece, try and see how you react. If all is well then go for it!
Re: Chicken of the woods
How we found them, and what I've heard is the most common, is they'll be on dead oak trees. I believe they can be found on other dead trees, including Pine. I believe they are found throughout the U.S, but there's three different types and some lack the sharp orange pink color that these do.