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Maitake season


Turick

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Found two clusters on the same tree during one of my first attempts at foraging last Oct. I've been watching the same tree for the last few weeks. It appears like some mycelium is appearing on the tree just above the dirt. For the more experienced, are there triggers or signs to keep an eye on that may indicate a hen is about ready to form?

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Found my first, tricked by cool weather in W/C Ohio about a week ago and it was already pored out and nasty. This tree did the same last year in August after a cool spell. Fortunately none of my normal trees have fruited, but we have had a complete reset with chants and boletes here the past couple of weeks. We have had a lot of rain recently and just need some cooler temps to kick the Grifola frondosa in gear here.

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I'm in Missouri and it's been very cool all summer... this has been the coolest summer I can remember in my life, however we've had a very hot spell the past couple of weeks. That all ends tonight as the 7 day forecast has lots of rain, highs in the 70s, and lows in the 50s and 60s. I think maybe next week I'll start my first hunts.

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Should do it Turick, I have many friends in MO stomping at the bit for maitake/hen/Grifla frondosa and we are finally expecting cooler temps in W/C Ohip which should trigger them. The plus side has been a fabulous bolete season extension as I have been finding "lilac" boletes, bi color group, and the sweet Tylopilus badiceps in huge numbers far later than normal with the high temps as well as many many lobsters. Take what the weather gives you and follow the rain. :) I for one hope the pink bottom Agaricus season or meadow mushrooms don't get skipped like last year, one of my other favorites that prefer he cool, for many years a few would be tricked out by now if not many, last year was a dud here.

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Very nice! What have the temps been up there? It's been in the 80's here in Missouri this week, but lots of rain yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and starting tomorrow the highs are going to be in the high 60's early 70's for the foreseeable forecast. I'm going out Friday and probably Sunday or Monday. Not sure if it's still too early, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

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Oddly we have had some very hot weather too, preceeded by some coolish days and quite a bit of rain too... much cooler nights are starting tonite after a deluge of rain. Lucky I got to them before all this wet weather. They were mature in 10 days when I found only small nubbins. These were found growing at the base of a very mature maple tree!

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The hens that were part of our first flush of the season are mainly decayed by now. If we get enough rainfall, then there will be more. My brother gets a nice one or two in his yard almost every year. So I was able to harvest a really nice one the other day.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

the poultry is official in IL this year! it's crazy! one heck of a season.

last three pics are separate hauls this week.

needless to say all i've been doing this last week is cleaning and processing hens.

drying, canning sauce/chilli, parboiling/freezing, etc....!

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Great finds! We're waiting here in NC. I've been out several times over the last few weeks and nothing to note was collected. My shiitake logs are filling up the void. The positive... the tree that produced my first lions mane find last Oct has three clusters forming in the same spot. It was that same day the first hen of woods was found, so with the 40 deg nights, I'm hoping my lucky day is soon.

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Cross post from the Facebook page.

I had to re-check the hericium yesterday and look for the grifola frondosa emerging from the oak that produced my first hen last year.

I was in luck. The lions mane has doubled in size from Sunday and 4 clusters of hen-of-the-woods emerged in the last 2 days. Last year I got 2 hen clusters, so excited to see 4 already, maybe more. My main worry is that someone will come along and grab before they reach prime eating size.


Hericium growing on underside of sycamore I think. Need to double check. The big issue is the closeness to ground. I dug it out a bit and replaced the plastic with thick paper bags to keep them out of the dirt. This is one of 4 clusters.
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One of the very young 2 day old hens.

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Oh, we just had our first 40's night 3-4 days ago, so this may be a trigger to consider here in central NC. I suspect all hen oaks in the area are producing. Good time to do some intensive exploration of white oak forests.

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I went to the spot where I thought I found rotting ones last year in a state park here in MO... nothing. I went trapsing around a bit more in areas that seemed like good places to potentialy find one... still nothing. I finally decided to give up and never come back to this area of the park again, cursing the trees and the bugs. On my way back, defeated, I was taking a trail and decided to walk just a little of the trail, just in case. Saw a dead tree still standing and thought I'd check around it... sure enough, I found one! I'd say it's a little past being perfectly fresh, but good enough!

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Hard to see how big it is in that picture. Here it is next to my knife... I'm guessing it weighs ~20lbs.

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And here's the dead tree. Wish I knew what it was.

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How do you guys go about cleaning them? As a kid, my dad and I would break them apart and soak them in water to kill all the bugs. Then we'd break them apart more and hand clean them the best we could. Finally, we would store them by putting them in freezer bags full of water and freezing them in big chunks of ice. To thaw, we would run the bags under hot water to melt the ice as quickly as possible. They would keep for years this way, but it seems like everybody says soaking in water is bad.

Any recommendations?

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Good deal! The one I picked yesterday was sauteed, then laid out on tin foil covered cookie sheet in the freezer. Once frozen, I cut into chunks and put in freezer bag. For breakfast on work mornings I use this steam egg poacher with omelet tray. Just pull out a chunk of mushrooms, mix two eggs and cheese and put in tray and cook.

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