Over the past year or so I've become increasingly fascinated with (read: obsessed) with finding, identifying, and harvesting mushrooms---especially edibles! Last week I officially joined the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, of which several good friends who are way more advanced in their mushroom nerdiness are already members.
One of the first mushrooms I've been able to identify are oysters. They are pretty abundant in Spring and Fall in and around Pittsburgh, and tend to favor stumps; dead wood. This morning I was driving down Fifth Avenue on my way to Frick Park, when I spied a tree thoroughly TEEMING with mushroom
s! I turned off and parked as soon as I could and power-walked back to that tree. Check it out!So strong they are breaking the bark!
I wasn't really prepared to harvest anything, but I had emptied out my Big Red Bag and so filled it. I still left about 2/3 of the mushrooms on the tree, for the next observant passerby.
What do you do with 2 cubic feet of mushrooms? Well, I remembered reading in a cookbook recently about slicing up mushrooms, tossing them in olive oil and salt, and baking them in the oven, like fries. So that's what I did. They are FANTASTIC, I am looking forward t
o sharing them with my Mending Jam tonight.
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