General Outdoor Discussion
summer mushrooms..... who picks and what
I admit, the top ones with the ruffles around the cap i've personally never seen. However, they do start to look odd as they get older but I never examine them, they are really big, I don't even look at them closely i just keep moving. I'd feel better if you noticed a veil around the stem as well. The veil covers the gills when they are young and as it grows, the veil is pulled down and sticks around the stem. White gills, veil ring, white meat, the top colors are consistent with and show patterns of a honey. Please verify the stem ring of veil...or many call it fuss ring. If you can verify the fuzz ring, then read below.
Yes, cut them, look for holes in the stem, those are little worms if they have holes. I'll take them if there are 1 or 2 and not totally brown. As they age, there may be more worms. I'd say 40% good yet with no holes at the stage those are. Just because they have worms doesn't mean they are bad. you can cut that stuff out when you clean em up. (the worms actually look like micro wax worms). I'm sure i've eaten several 100's over my life. Once boiled....ahhh, nothing to worry about.
Some you flip over will be good, others not so good, so just use your judgement. It seems like if you find them just off a tree trunk or growing on the root away from the tree, they'll be more clean, meaning less buggy.
When you get home, fill up a bucket with water, throw them in and swish around till all of the apparent dirt is gone. Cut in half or quarters depending on size, boil them for 10 minutes. cool them off and freeze in ziplock or food saver bags.
They will boil down to about 75% of what you have in a bucket. Half a 5 gallon pail will make you about 12 full cups of mushrooms.
the caps of a honey are slimy when wet, it's known as honey slime. now with the rain, the cap is gonna feel slimy, no doubt. When you soak them and wash them, they'll feel slimy. that doesn't mean anything. your most recent pic , some are perfectly fine to eat yet. with in days though they'll be brown mush.
Thanks for clearing it all up Jimmer. Classic Honey...as you can also see, honey's will lighten up a bit when more mature before they start turning brown.
Fairly typical for this site though, lots of talk, not much walk. I was waiting for a person that actually picks honey's to come here and say they agree with me...but they are probably being more productive than arguing with people that just like to flap their lips on subjects they don't know anything about.
No worries, LB, I wouldn’t be offended if you singled me out on it. I’m a lifelong morel hunter and have always been interested in the summer/fall shrooms, unfortunately I just don’t have time at this point in my life to study up. I have to stick to the things I have built my schedule around. Because of that I don’t seek them out. These just happen to be growing on a dead white elm stump in our yard.
Here is an updated pic as they age for anyone interested. The caps are getting more concave as they get bigger. I appreciate the insights and discussion.
Edit: for what it’s worth, I did pick a couple to look at. The gills are white underneath and they appear to be white throughout the body.
It's plain to see that some people won't research and put in the time. Go to the woods, pick them, look at them, go through the checklist. I'm not singling out Jimmer, i'm just saying in general. Google searches are gospel, i know. lol. there are many many good folks out there on youtube if you look. Pics from google doesn't mean anything. I'm not saying to trust me, trust the checklist for honey mushrooms, know the difference between jacks and honeys.
LOFY, you must be color blind cause Jimmers pics aren't like what you googled. Yellow is not orange, just saying.
