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Missed 'em


4rum

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Got out a bit yesterday, 2-4-15. Found some oysters frozen solid. They were old but the top cluster in photo #2 might have been edible ... if I could have gotten to them. I'm on a railroad grade, the oysters are on a tree below me ... about 50 feet up in a dead poplar. This tree is not from the 'patch' I harvested from up into January. I'm extremely anxious to see what spring brings ...

#1 oysters on a small, dead tree of paradise.

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#2 Cluster is about 3 feet tall and a good foot wide. Top section appears to be fresher. If I could get to 'em, I think I could soak 'em an' eat 'em!

16449079365_e8afc2fe78_o.jpg

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Hi 4rum, nice finds. I harvested a small cluster of oysters yesterday and saw some I missed by a few days. Generally for me here, once the winter oyster fruitings disappear, I will not see them again until July or August. I understand that the mycelium needs time to store up energy before fruiting can occur again.

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Thanks John,

Good info on the oysters. I was wondering when I should start checking for the summer/fall flushes. This season was really my first with oysters. Will the same logs I harvested this fall likely produce oysters this summer?

@dualsetters, there's been snow, ice, sleet, freezing rain and very cold temps here. On a high note ... only 18 months till spring :(

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Depending on the year temps and rain, I have found many flushes of oysters during W/C Ohio's morchella season and just before. Give me a few more days again in the 50's with lows at or above freezing, and I have trees that will fruit again or for the first time again "this" year. December was crazy, freezer is still full of pre frozen at harvest prime oysters.

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4rum, those are my observations from my local area, as Scott C says his area is different. Usually here I see the same trees that produced in winter plus several more produce in summer. The problem for me during summer is that I'm usually trying to pick as many chanterelles and now also belly button hedgehogs as I can, so the oysters get ignored.

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If the seasons overlap, I'll have the same problem. I need to start now, with my new field guides, to study Shaggy Manes. I think they are usually very early here. There are other parasols that I want to be able to harvest too. If this year's morel season is as pitiful as last, I'll need something to get me to oyster/bolete/chanterelle season. Chanterelles are pretty late here. I haven't found any before July or August, of course, I'm new at EVERYTHING except morels. I have to check, check and re-check everything I plane to eat. I don't know anyone else in the area more advanced than I am at mushroom ID so, the help I get here is invaluable.

I try to take one specimen a year, ie, Chicken of the Woods, Chanterelle, Oyster, King Bolete ... and make myself stick to learning THAT mushroom well enough to harvest and eat it. Last year it was King Boletes but I only found one that I could positively identify. The almost 'second' season with the flush of late oysters was a heck of a bonus. I still need to study the different oysters, the different boletes etc. Hope I never learn by getting sick from a rash decision.

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