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   Various types of mushrooms grow from early spring to late fall if the weather is favorable and a person knows what to hunt. Morel mushrooms pop up in early spring when the ground starts to warm and is by far the most well-known foraged mushroom. After the spring flush of morels, a wide variety of delicious fungi usually becomes available when the temperature and moisture are ideal. This year, with the entire summer being unusually dry, finding wild mushrooms was very difficult. With a couple of rains, the sought-after mushrooms are making up for lost time.

   Last week, we finally had over an inch of rain. The next day, my wife and I went out to check some of our favorite mushroom spots. There were mushrooms everywhere. We picked a bunch of white oysters, golden oysters, and a chicken of the woods. We left wood ear and turkey tail for another day.

   When we got back to the house, I fried up the chicken of the woods with a little garlic and butter. It really does have the taste and texture of chicken. I put most of the oyster mushrooms in the dehydrator, leaving out enough for one meal. The next day, we prepared the oyster mushrooms much like a person cooks morels. The oyster mushrooms have a mild flavor much like a morel. I used some of the dried mushrooms in a saffron rice dish that turned out very well. Oyster mushrooms are also called for in recipes for steak Diane and risotto. I think I will use the rest of my dehydrated mushrooms in a risotto dish to spotlight the flavor of the golden oysters.

   I thought we had a large supply of mushrooms from our one foraging trip but soon found out, we were using them all up. A couple of days after that one rain, I went out to stock up on some more. Two days after a rain was too late. All the oysters were too mature to use. It does not take long for them to wilt and start to become infested with bugs. Apparently, bugs enjoy them as much as we do. I was quite disappointed and since we have had only that one rain in the last three months, I was afraid mushroom season was over. To my surprise, a few days later, it rained again. It was not much, but enough to turn the mushroom growth on again. My wife and I decided to stock up this time. We picked a bunch of white oysters to fill the dehydrator. There were fresh turkey tail, but we again left them. The only thing I know to do with a turkey tail mushroom is to make miso soup. Since my wife does not care for seaweed or tofu, we do not make much miso soup.

   On the way back to the house, my wife spotted some small puffball mushrooms. We left them to grow bigger. Giant puffballs are easy to spot, some as large as basketballs, standing out against the green of open pastures. Hopefully some of these will get that large. They make a good mushroom soup and can be used to replace the crust on a pizza. I am anxious to try that.

   There are many types of mushrooms that grow in our area. Most of them are edible but some are not. It is important to know for sure what you are harvesting before you eat it. Some will make a person sick for a day or two but some will kill you. It does not take much education to find out what is good and safe. The effort put into this gaining this knowledge is well worth the effort in being able to enjoy really good food growing all around us.

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