People have been sending me photos of this beautiful Amanita. I am calling it Amanita aprica because Jan Lindgren assured me that our locally common spring Amanita is this species, not Amanita gemmata, as I once called it. It is known to be toxic, so protect your animals and remove the mushrooms from your property. They seem to grow in pines in this area and often just push up the duff if the weather has been dry.
I am wondering how well people did this last weekend. We hunted a little on Sat. and found enough morels on Green Ridge for a nice breakfast with eggs but we found them quite low, like 4,000 ft. Some of them were a bit dried out at that elevation, but the upper areas of the ridge were not ready.
I stopped into the OMS foray at Suttle Lake on Sat. afternoon just as few of the field trip groups returned to give a quick “hi” and see what they found. They said that they will have to limit the foray more next time because 85 participants stretched the foray organizers to find field trip leaders It’s great that so many people made that long trek from Portland just to learn about mushrooms.
The three groups who had returned from the field trips found a pound or two, but no one was bragging big. Maybe the later groups did better, but I had to leave. I did hear that the commercial folks are not happy about the morel season so far, but have been very busy picking King Bolete buttons for more than a week. That sounds way too early. This is from a good source who knows commercial pickers. Strange season! The id. tables at the foray had many of the typical spring species and lots of yellow coral, so you won’t be disappointed if you like to deal with coral.
Dr. Michael Beug was the mycologist and presenter for the weekend. He let me see a draft of his new book which will be published soon on the Ascomycetes [morels and many more] of the Pacific Northwest with something like 600 species, large paperback size, and tons of pictures. The picture key sounds really useful for those of us who struggle with dichotomous keys. More on this when it comes out.
Please post your finds so you can inspire others. Pictures are also good. Don’t forget about next week’s COMC meeting on Weds. May 23 at 6:30. Bring mushrooms for us to handle.
This weekend, May 11-13 is the Portland club’s foray to the Suttle Lake area. They know that morels start coming this week in force.
Don’t forget your mushroom permits! You can’t get them on the weekend.
Here is a wonderful link to a great photo easy on morel species, and much more.
http://www.danielwinkler.com/id140.htm#_morel_images_kuo_et_al_2012
Also, Central Oregon Mushroom Club is having their May meeting on Weds. May 23, 6:30 pm, at the Rosie Bareis Campus, 1010 NW 14th. I plan to do a slide show on spring mushrooms, but I hope you will bring in some of the REAL thing so we can pass them around and learn to identify them. See you there.
Julie Hamilton has taken on the job of getting us together to pursue our passion for mushrooms. She has signed a contract with the folks who run Rosie Baries campus to rent the main hall every 4th Weds. of the month for our club’s mushroom meeting! Thanks, Julie.
Our first meeting at the site will be on April 25, Weds., at 6:30 pm. Morel hunting will be discusssed and those who want to attend field trips will be given the opportunity to sign up. If you are interested in becoming a member of COMC (Central Oregon Mushroom Club), email Julie at COMC541@yahoo.com. She will email you back with an application and get you on our private website.
Morels just waiting to be picked
Seems like the winter will not leave us, but our eyes are seeing signs of spring and that means Morel season! I hope that all of you will post whatever you know about the current fruitings of our favorite spring mushroom. Erin already posted about finding them in Grants Pass, so please keep the postings coming as you travel through morel country. We usually don’ t hear from locals near Bend until the first week of May, but every year is different!
From Erin’s post on April 9.2012
I was just in the valley (grants pass) and found 7 small light brown morels! Getting excited for Central Oregon to get into morel season. Think it will be early this year- mid May maybe b/c of our mild winter?
Ron and I are heading to Eugene tomorrow for the mushroom show. Such a great event and plenty to do. Check out Cascade Mycological Society’s website for the schedule of fun activities – hay rides, cider press, music, etc.
We were out collecting mushrooms for the show today and found interesting specimens to look at, but not many edibles. Just a few chanterelles. This has been a strange fruitng season. I think the coast is more consistent, but too far to drive in one afternoon.
We will be attending the Yachats Mushroom Festival at the coast this weekend. David Arora will be presenting his very entertaining and informative talk on Friday evening at 7:30 PM. His talk is $13 per person and well worth it if you haven’t seen him before. Saturday is filled with workshops and talks from highly respected and fascinating mycologists and mushroom specialists along with hourly mushroom walks during the day. I haven’t mentioned that all the local restaurants get involved and offer unique wild mushroom entres and appetizers that you can’t find anywhere else. The mycologists’ talks (except Arora’s) and walks (except Arora’s) are free after buying a $5 wristband for transportation that will shuttle you to any of the walks and talks. This is a great deal. Try not to miss this! Be sure to look at the schedule and plan before you go because there is too much to do it all. Here is link for the full schedule:
http://www.yachats.org/MFest2011.html
Hope to see you there!
Julie H. of the Central Oregon Mushroom Club has offered to lead a mushroom outing tomorrow, Weds., Oct. 19, if you get this message in time. Here is her post from the club’s yahoo site:
“Planning an outing for Wednesday the 19th. I know, short notice, we can always do it again soon. Jim and are thinking about going down to the Crane Prairie area. There are lots of places to check out close by. Come along if you can. Plan on the whole day. We’ll leave early, come back in the afternoon. Bring a lunch and water. We’ll meet at the 14th St. Safeway parking lot at 9:00. Let me know if you’re thinking of coming. ”
If you were a member of the club, you would have gotten this notice right to your email box. To join, contact Julie at julabells@yahoo.com. She will send you a membership form and put you on the yahoo email list.
Meanwhile, post here to tell all of us what is up with this lousy mushroom season?
Join Central Oregon Mushroom Club and get timely notices of meetings, mushroom finds and forays from their yahoo group postings! Contact Julie Hamiliton at julabells@yahoo.com
From Julie Hamilton of the Central Oregon Mushroom Club:
MUSHROOM CLUB MEETING AND POTLUCK
Mushroom Club meeting coming up on October 15th. Meeting is from 2:00 to 5:00 in the Brooks Room at the downtown library. Professor of mycology Dr. Jeffery Stone from OSU in Corvallis is coming to speak on basic mycology, local species habitat and ecology and much more. Please bring a finger food item to share and as always any interesting mushrooms you’ve found out in the woods lately. Good or bad we want to see it. Hoping for a fantastic turnout. It’s high time we got to know each other better. Did I mention food?
Julie
Posted via email from Clair K.
“This is a response to your “Rain Dance” post on the COM site (re: “How are the rest of you doing in finding edibles or anything, for that matter?”). I wasn’t sure how to post photos, so I’m sending you an email instead.
I’ve only found a handful of chanterelles (white) in three days of hunting last week, in the Santiam and McKenzie areas. You’re right, we need some rain! Generally seeing very few mushrooms of any kind.
I did however find a nice clump of blue chanterelle (see photos attached) near Santiam Jct. last Monday. At first glance I thought they were dark pig’s ears (because of the brownish/grey cap) however the internal flesh was dark purple/grey, and spore print white, cinching them as Polyozellus multiplex. We tried them in a frittata, a Thai soup, and cream of mushroom soup (this was a large clump) and found them delicious.
It may be meager picking this fall unless we get some decent rain soon. I was fortunate to put up a substantial supply of dried spring kings and frozen morels which are tiding us over. Also have a few bags of frozen matsutake left over from last year.
I was hoping to take your class this fall, but we ended up in Germany, Italy, and France for most of Sept. (my son is stationed at Ramstein AFB in Germany). Interestingly, we had a fantastic dinner in a Rothenburg restaurant: fresh “pfifferling” (chanterelles) with venison. These were absolutely beautiful chanterelles, perfectly cooked, large portions, and delicious. We went back to the same restaurant the next day for a repeat!”
