Posted: 11/17/2025 4:00:45 AM EDT
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And can I eat it? Found it growing out of an old willow log. Attached File Attached File Attached File Attached File |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Nice! After doing a little reading, it looks like the only inedible lookalike it could really be is an Angel Wing. And it really doesn't look like one of those. And (according to the internet) angel wing only grows on coniferous wood. So is there a preferred method to harvest? Or time? Or just pluck it off when it looks big enough? Will it grow back? If so, I'll leave that log there. And maybe pile up some more dead willow wood next to it that I was going to burn, instead. |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Originally Posted By 1Andy2: Nice! After doing a little reading, it looks like the only inedible lookalike it could really be is an Angel Wing. And it really doesn't look like one of those. And (according to the internet) angel wing only grows on coniferous wood. So is there a preferred method to harvest? Or time? Or just pluck it off when it looks big enough? Will it grow back? If so, I'll leave that log there. And maybe pile up some more dead willow wood next to it that I was going to burn, instead. It's Pleurotus ostreatus, the Winter Oyster. (I think--not sure what your temps have been. Winter oyster grows in the cold. Other oysters look very much like it though and are also good.) They are good to eat, though not my favorite flavor. Good that yours are up off the ground. The hardest part is when they get dirty. I just take a knife and cut them off the wood near where the base meets the tree. They mycelium (the real fungi and the part you want to save) are in the wood. All you're taking is the reproductive structure. Like picking a flower. One thing you will find is that depending on temperature the gills are full of a tiny little beetle. Tap the mushroom gently on a paper towel and they'll fall out. And they'll keep falling out. It takes a lot of patience to tap until they're all out so you have to decide how much "protein" you want with your oyster mushrooms. I slice them and saute and make a garlic parmesan mushroom sauce with wilted spinach to go over pasta. It's very good but as I said, not as good a flavor as, say, chanterelles. If I had that log and it was producing I would absolutely keep it. Another thing I've learned: A heavy rain or a hard freeze will turn them to mush. Really ruin them. Don't wait long to harvest. The longer you wait, the more bugs are in them and the more chance they will deteriorate. When you find them, change your meal plans and grab them.  ETA: Dirt splash from rain is the worst enemy of these mushrooms cuz often they are near the ground (cuz dead wood, stumps, etc). If you've got one that's covered in grime, leave it to fruit and sporulate and make more. Washing them kinda wrecks them and you wont' get the dirt off. They're really very fragile. ETA2: When you put more willow logs there, try to replicate the "setup" of that one log. I mean mushrooms are very picky about where they grow. The conditions may seem random but they're not. Not too dark, not too bright. Not too cold,not to warm. Not too wet, not too dry, etc etc. See how that log is not in a pile? Do lay some more out near it, where the spores can land (from the ones you leave on this log) and wait. I want to learn to inoculate. There are some folks here who do that. I done some reading but just haven't had time to try it yet. ETA3:  I only started really trying to learn mushrooms last year when a bunch of these appeared on an old ash stump in the yard. I also got a Ganoderma off of that stump ( Reishi) so really good mushrooms are all around us once we learn to notice. It's a whole world though, and time consuming to learn if you're hunting in the "wild". |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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We had a few days of temps in the 40s at night, 60s during the day a couple of weeks ago but the past week or so has been low 70 at night, high 85 in the day. Supposed to get a cold snap next week that will get us back down to the 50s at night, lol. I'm kind of surprised to see any mushrooms anywhere at all, tho. It hasn't rained here in months. Pond in the background is bone dry. |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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I'm still learning what growing conditions they need, and it varies from mushroom to mushroom. I want to not only inoculate some ash logs for food but also figure out how to inoculate wood chips to incorporate into my garden soil so that mycelium spreads throughout my raised beds. It's my understanding that wine caps are very good for this. Very interested in their use for mitgation of aminopyralid in soil contaminated by the residual through mulches. It's getting harder and harder to find anything to use as mulch that hasn't been sprayed with chemicals.  We've gotta find ways to fix that soil.I think the oysters are also good for that but I'm not sure I'd want to eat the mushrooms I'm using for mitigation. There's not enough information about the process to know whether there's anything nasty in the mushrooms or not. The whole thing is still a little mysterious. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Sadly, I waited too long to pick them. I've been sick and just couldn't muster up the energy to do it. Then we got a solid inch or so of rain. Only rain whatsoever in about 3 months, I think. Went out the day after the rain and they were pretty degraded. I DID see alot of those tiny little beetles you were talking about. They were chowing down on those mushrooms. I'm not going to touch that willow log. Will keep an eye on it and see if more oysters grow on it. |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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Watch that log closely. You'll get another flush.
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe