Tag: #honeymushrooms

Mushrooms….Friends or Foes?

Mushrooms

This week, a friend and I attended a workshop titled Fungi: Friends or Foes of our Forest System at the MacLaren ART Center.

Here, we learned that the very flavourful Honey Mushroom is a foe!

We have, in the past, harvested these tasty morsels with friends, dried them, and enjoyed them in many a yummy dish.

But, it turns out that they are a foe, not a friend of the forest. The good news is that we now feel free to harvest them to our hearts’ content. No more worries about leaving lots behind.

The Honey Mushroom not only grows on dead and decaying wood, but it also feasts on live trees, thereby harming the forest. Fortunately, a rival fungi has been discovered to combat the destruction caused by our little Honey.

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Another interesting tidbit I learned is that SHOES are now being made from mushrooms!!!!! Yes, SHOES!!!!

Also, BRICKS! Mushrooms, mixed with straw and other like items, are being used to build a more environmentally friendly brick!

Just imagine, for a moment, the third little pig building his house with bricks made of mushrooms. A mushroom brick using the straw from the first little pig’s house as a mix. Then, prehaps having helped himself to sticks from the second little pig’s house to frame the windows and the doors.

Oh my!

How much fun would the big bad wolf have had!

Especially if he loved mushrooms!!!!!

Mushrooming

A beautiful basket of Honey Mushrooms

Carrying my basket, with everyone else brandishing sharp, little knives; knives to clean cut mushrooms from their roots, we traveled down my little forest path, and into the Simcoe County Forests in search of the Honey Mushroom.

Reaping our rewards

Old friends, teaching us new skills, as we ventured out mushrooming for the first time.

Foraging in the forest, we have done in early spring for wild leeks and fiddle heads. This was our first foraging for mushrooms. Other than the morels and puffballs, that magically appear on our lawn every year.

Top. Honey Mushrooms, sautéed with garlic, parsley, and green onion from the garden, and sprinkled with wild leek powder. A delicious, little treat. Bottom. Dried Honey Mushrooms, if prepared properly will last several years.

When researching recipes, and the information that accompanied them, I  came to understand the warnings of concerned friends when we told them we were going mushrooming. So we ventured on the safe side, and boiled the Honey Mushrooms before they were sautéed in oil. Thereby eliminating any health risks.

The end result was a delicious side dish, one that we will enjoy every fall, after a day of foraging in the forest.

This photo was taken a week earlier than our mushrooming expedition. We missed out on a plentiful harvest of oyster mushrooms. Next year we will be accompanied with knowledge, and, a basket.