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"Adventures of the Boomer 'Shroomers!"
- Thread starter tjcrebs
- Start date
Ah, Terry & Julie, we appreciate your sweet comments. Yeah, Nederland is an old tungsten mining town, and we sometimes find chanterelles growing at the bottom of nearby old prospect pits; and yup, the surrounding Jeep roads can be a bit daunting in our Rabbit. BTW the next time you're back here (with either Winnie or Eugene) enjoying Colorado, look us up and we'll buy the BEERS!
Nah, Mike and Denita--old T's ugly mug has neither graced a book cover nor a wanted poster (yet). Glad you liked our shroom shots. BTW, "Odd Duck Inn" is extra sweet.
Yup Diane, V-U-G is a great word for the game of Scrabble--as V's and G's are sometimes so hard to get rid of. Yeah, the Colorado Crebs Clan love their board games. Sadly, we saw no hummers at Pawnee Campground last week--too rainy & cold? Hopefully they haven't migrated to lower elevations just yet.
Happy Camping, T & Joy
Nah, Mike and Denita--old T's ugly mug has neither graced a book cover nor a wanted poster (yet). Glad you liked our shroom shots. BTW, "Odd Duck Inn" is extra sweet.
Yup Diane, V-U-G is a great word for the game of Scrabble--as V's and G's are sometimes so hard to get rid of. Yeah, the Colorado Crebs Clan love their board games. Sadly, we saw no hummers at Pawnee Campground last week--too rainy & cold? Hopefully they haven't migrated to lower elevations just yet.
Happy Camping, T & Joy
MATSUTAKE TIME above 8500-feet!!! It's Joy's favorite 'shroom, and she gets so excited when looking for "humps" in the duff at the base of Ponderosa Pines--White Matsu's (Tricholoma magnivelare, aka Mutsutake) in Colorado are like truffles in that they often do NOT break the ground surface. Therefore, they're a little harder to find.
Because it's now bow-hunting elk, black-powder deer, and soon-to-be bear hunting season season up here, 'shroomers need to be as conspicuous at possible. Here's what Joy is wearing this Matsutake hunting season:
Note all the red; the bells hanging from her belt, two types of red trowels (long and short), and the whistle hanging from her hat. Yup, Joy is always safety conscious when it comes to dressing up for matsutakes.
The next picture shows Joy about to dig up a Matsu:
She's scrapped the duff (all those pine needles) away and is ready to dig up and SMELL the mushroom. Colorado Matsu's smell like "Red Hots Candy" to us; some less-educated noses claim they have a bouquet like "dirty tennis shoes!"
Here's her beauty up close:
Note the off-white color of the gills, the ring on the stem. This is one CHOICE tasting mushroom. It is prized by the Japanese (e.g., matsu-take means pine-mushroom) and the Chinese (they call it Song rong) for it's spicy-aromatic odor. Early season Japanese Matsutakes can cost up to $2000 per kilogram in Tokyo!
Here's Joy holding another Matsutake:
Note the veil hasn't torn yet, so there is no ring on the stem.
And here's Joy goofing with two Matsutakes she found yesterday:
Now for something completely different:
We think "Vuggie" looks pretty sexy with her new personalized plates.
Happy Camping and 'Shroomin'. T & Joy
Because it's now bow-hunting elk, black-powder deer, and soon-to-be bear hunting season season up here, 'shroomers need to be as conspicuous at possible. Here's what Joy is wearing this Matsutake hunting season:
Note all the red; the bells hanging from her belt, two types of red trowels (long and short), and the whistle hanging from her hat. Yup, Joy is always safety conscious when it comes to dressing up for matsutakes.
The next picture shows Joy about to dig up a Matsu:
She's scrapped the duff (all those pine needles) away and is ready to dig up and SMELL the mushroom. Colorado Matsu's smell like "Red Hots Candy" to us; some less-educated noses claim they have a bouquet like "dirty tennis shoes!"
Here's her beauty up close:
Note the off-white color of the gills, the ring on the stem. This is one CHOICE tasting mushroom. It is prized by the Japanese (e.g., matsu-take means pine-mushroom) and the Chinese (they call it Song rong) for it's spicy-aromatic odor. Early season Japanese Matsutakes can cost up to $2000 per kilogram in Tokyo!
Here's Joy holding another Matsutake:
Note the veil hasn't torn yet, so there is no ring on the stem.
And here's Joy goofing with two Matsutakes she found yesterday:
Now for something completely different:
We think "Vuggie" looks pretty sexy with her new personalized plates.
Happy Camping and 'Shroomin'. T & Joy
T and Joy
Ever think of running a mushroom hunting exposition for the Tear drop crowd?
How long have you been doing this? What do you use as a reference guide? Any truth to telling if a mushroom is poisonous that if you use a silver spoon to cook them, the silver will tarnish if you shouldn't eat it? My mom always says this to me when we go looking for morels in the spring.
Gina
Ever think of running a mushroom hunting exposition for the Tear drop crowd?
How long have you been doing this? What do you use as a reference guide? Any truth to telling if a mushroom is poisonous that if you use a silver spoon to cook them, the silver will tarnish if you shouldn't eat it? My mom always says this to me when we go looking for morels in the spring.
Gina
GinaNBob said:
1) Nah, Gina, we're amateurs and are most familiar with the local shrooms. If interested, tag along with a local & knowledgable shroomer or even better check out the local mycological society--there's at least one in almost every state and province/territory. Myco-societies are often full of fun and eccentric types like us who "squawk" in Greek or Latin while walking the forests.
2) T's Greek grandmother used to take him shrooming for Meadow Mushrooms (genus Agaricus) way back in the 1950's. She liked to collect at the local Utah cemeteries--she would say "dead people grow delicious mushrooms!" Joy's Japanese-American parents taught her about Oyster mushrooms (genus Pleurotus) growing on the quakies/aspen-stumps in Utah forests also in the '50's. Yup, we're really "Boomers."
3) T's been carrying David Arora's (Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms) All that the Rain Promises and More... since 1992. It fits in our pocket
(4x7x0.75 inches), has good identification "Keys", very good color photos, and great/interesting writing. Joy uses it to "scale" our shroom photos too. Here's our book with probably the most poisonous shroom in Colorado:
The Fly Agaric (aka Amanita muscaria). In Asia and Europe this Amanita is hallucinogenic -- apparently not so in North America, eat too much of this one and you'll need a liver transplant! Here's another picture after we dug it up:
Note the white gills under the cap, and the yellow cup (volva) at the base of the stem. Reported they taste pretty good, and they DO NOT turn a silver spoon black.
Arora's book focuses on Western North American shrooms, but we've given copies to Easterner-friends in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Labrador and they like it too. We also have a bunch of Shroom identification Apps for our iPad and iPod/iPhone, we may review them here if anyone is interested.
4) Lots of "folk tales and myths" about mushrooms. The silver spoon myth has apparently been around for hundreds if not thousands of years, but it's NOT TRUE. No known mushroom toxin tarnishes silver, the most poisonous shrooms on the planet when cooked won't tarnish a silver coin. IMHO, it seems to work for your Mom's Morels, because morels are some of the easiest shrooms to identify--no other genus looks like a morel. The False Morel (aka genus Gyrometra species) really doesn't look much like morels, especially if you cut them in cross-section. Tell Mom to be extra careful when picking anything other than a morel.
Happy Camping & Best Regards, T & Joy
Thanks T & Joy
I would definitely be interested in you iPhone iPad apps. You can PM to me if no one else is interested. I find your adventures in mushrooming fascinating. I look forward to your pictures and education about the various mushrooms you find. My husband and I love mushrooms and cook them often. Didn't ever taste a morel until we moved to central illinois from the Chicago area. My dad was from Lithuania and he always talked about mushrooming as a boy in his country. He even smuggled a few dried ones back many years ago. What a treat!
Keep the pictures and info coming. I always enjoy them!
Gina
I would definitely be interested in you iPhone iPad apps. You can PM to me if no one else is interested. I find your adventures in mushrooming fascinating. I look forward to your pictures and education about the various mushrooms you find. My husband and I love mushrooms and cook them often. Didn't ever taste a morel until we moved to central illinois from the Chicago area. My dad was from Lithuania and he always talked about mushrooming as a boy in his country. He even smuggled a few dried ones back many years ago. What a treat!
Keep the pictures and info coming. I always enjoy them!
Gina
