Edible Mushrooms · South-Western Ontario

May 24, 2017

This time around I did find giant Dryad’s Saddle. They were on the big log, looking quite amazing. I left my knife in one of the pictures just for proper sizing. The mushrooming knife is around 11 cm long

There is a lot of contradictory information on the web concerning edibility and quality of this mushroom. Personally I only tried them once, baked and it was nothing spectacular. I still did not give up on this mushroom and do plan to try some more ways to cook. My favorite chef  has quite high opinion of this species and has some pointers how to prepare it, including several recipes. The good feature is pleasant smell, very similar to water melon rind. Of course, the specimens in pictures above are well beyond any usage in the kitchen. All Polypores  tend to get very tough and woody in later stages of growth. For the consumption you are looking for something like this:

I did not mentioned before, but from the very early in the season you can find Mica Cap (Coprinellus micaceus) on or near rotten hardwood logs. This species is usually quite abundant and will be around through the whole season.  According to literature mushroom is edible, but must be brought to kitchen and cooked fast. As almost all Coprinus species, it will start autodigestion within couple of hours after picking and dissolve into inky mass. I never tried this one yet.

It is much easier to pick some nice oysters for the next meal.

 

 

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