Chasing the wild mushroom: Part Two - Through the woods

by Jonathan M. Forester, Posted Sep 2nd 2008 @ 10:01AM

The other day I spoke about my interest in wild mushrooms. I showed you photos of the patch of 'shrooms at my local post office, and how it made me want to find out more about the various fungi that have been popping up all over the area this summer. I pulled out my wild mushrooms guides and tried to identify which were which, and learned that mushrooming is a lot more difficult to do safely than I realized. Also my guide books all seem to be a bit on the old side, with the newest two published in 1980 and 1981. So I ordered several brand new ones including the Audubon guide, Petersons guide, and others. But I didn't want to wait for them to arrive, so I contacted the Maine Mycological Association (MMA) and got a calender of events so I could forage for wild mushrooms with a group of experienced hunters.

I arrived early at the meeting spot in a park a half hour drive away on the Sunday of the MMA foray, and chatted with the 4-5 people who were there. Soon more people arrived, and more, and more. In all there were around fifty avid mushroomers gathered to gather. I immediately attached myself to the the assistant of the expert organizing the foray, and along with two others we headed into the trails through the woods.

I am going to let the photo galleries tell the story. The abundance of mushrooms, with their colors, shapes, and sizes, was amazing. We only walked through the woods for around 30-40 minutes and saw so many different types. I didn't have the time or inclination to identify all of them at the time, as I was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information. I was focused on hearing what the experts had to say, and taking photos. I will try to identify as many as possible from their photos and list them in the galleries, but many times the only way to get a strong identification is to actually have the mushroom in front of you. Let these photos be an introduction to the myriad of mushrooms hiding out in the woods and fields all around us.

Wild Mushroom Photo Gallery A- The first 15 minutes of our foray.

Chasing the wild mushroom: Part Two - Through the woods-A(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Here are some more photos of wild mushrooms. There were just too many in too short a time to try and take notes. I just listened until my eyes glazed over, and tried to take photos of just a few of the mushrooms we encountered. As I said earlier, as I identify any I will list their names in the photo galleries. I promise to make the focus of the last part of this series on the best edible mushrooms I found during this excursion to Fungi-Land.

Wild Mushroom Photo Gallery B- The second 15 minutes of our foray.

Chasing the wild mushroom: Part Two - Through the woods-B(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Filed Under: Wild Edibles
Tags: Maine Mycological Association, MaineMycologicalAssociation, wild edibles, Wild Mushrooms, WildMushrooms

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-02-2008 @5:02PM christopher said... Nice pictures. I could only take a stab at a couple of those mushrooms and wouldn't put much stock in my guess. Any idea of those porous (non-gilled) ones are boletes? That blue/purple one might be a blewit? If you keep going out for forays I'd love to see what you find. Its been raining like crazy in NC too and the mushrooms are everywhere.
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