Mushrooms, the elusive harvest...

For a lot of us the harvesting of mushrooms is a scary mystery and one where caution is needed.  Most types of mushrooms have poisonous twins whose differences are hard to find without a broad knowledge of fungi.  There are some mushrooms though that are easily identified and prolific.  My knowledge is somewhat limited to my reading of books, especially the ones written by Paul Stamets.  Through reading these types of books and some cautious harvesting I have successfully identified and eaten oyster and coral mushrooms found on the farm.  This coral mushroom shown on the right grows summer and fall under pine trees.   

Oyster mushrooms are supposed to be just as easy but you must know things like what kind of wood they grow on, the time of year to look, and even what tempurature and humidity they require to grow. They are in the Tricholomataceae family grouped in the Pleurotus genus.  Of this genus most are edible and so by following keys in David Arora's book Mushrooms Demystified, that contains all of the information you need, i was able to find and collect these oysters growing in my woods.  They were yummy made into a mushroom gravy, alongside a big fat steak.  These are considered easy to identify but with all the books and reading i did I still agonized over the first bite and waited for some kind of symptom of mushroom poisoning.  So I encourage you to find a group of people that know what they are doing before running out and stuffing your face with fungi.  Also, as a side note, a couple of days after harvesting the first of these I went back for more.  While prepping them for dinner I noticed tiny white worms in the caps,  so when you find these harvest them before the worms do.....