Jump to content

Pennsylvania Fall Mushrooms


ladyflyfsh

Recommended Posts

I just returned from a quick but fun trip to South Central Pennsylvania, picking and photographing mushrooms and visiting friends. I didn't have much time so it was a speedy trip to say the least. First off I spent a day outside Uniontown with a new acquaintence mostly searching for Grifola frondosa. It was not an easy task as there had just been heaps of rain prior to my arrival and everything we did find was waterlogged and past it's prime except for one nice small one. The day was spent walking in the rain which is not very conducive to getting good photos or to walking around with an expensive camera and tripod. Needless to say there were not too many photos taken that day. The next day I mosey'd over to spend time with Zora at her place on the mountain. This is a great place to visit as it is so quiet and away from noises, cars...heck, pretty much everything! Maggie the Wonder dog had a great time there keeping an eye on the critters.

Some of my pictures were taken on my iphone and some with camera so here are a few to show the variety of what was out there:

_D7K4251.jpg_D7K4468.jpg

_D7K4476.jpg_D7K4472.jpg

_D7K4314.jpg_D7K4483.jpg

_D7K4393.jpg_D7K4385.jpg

_D7K4255.jpg

_D7K4461.jpg

On Sunday we went to Paw Paw, West Virginia to the Paw Paw Festival which I'd been told was happening that weekend. I also had found a small blurb with the dates online so off we went. When we got there, we were told they hadn't had a paw paw festival for two years and didn't do it anymore! Well, I was really bummed so we drove around town looking for paw paws and did manage to find some on a tree at the post office of all places:

On Saturday we went to a place I really liked that had a ton of diversity and super range of mushrooms. There is a loop bicycle trail (I'm not sure how long it is, but it's quite a long walk all the way around). I was dressed for a snow storm since my blood has thinned so much living in FL and anything below 70 is freezing to me now! So, me dressed in my fleece (it was cold in the mornings!!) and my waterproof pants and heavy socks, hiking boots etc. and Zora in her short sleeves and light pants and of course Maggie the Wonder Dog went on our way starting to the left trail. We wandered all over the woods not really paying a lot of attention to where we were so once we got back on the trail, I wanted to go left, which I believed to be back the way we came. Miss Zora wanted to go the other way which she insisted was the shortest way back to the car. So, we went that way...we walked, and we walked, the trees changed completely from hardwoods to pines and we walked, and we walked. We came to a big tree with an odd hole in the base of the tree and miss Zora took a look at it and said, I wonder what this is? She proceeded to stick her walking stick into the hole and stir it around and out popped an army of totally pissed off yellow jackets. She, being ahead of me ran and guess who got attacked by the killer bees? Yup...that would be yours truly. I couldn't get them off my fleece top and ended up ripping my shirt off out on the trail to try and rid clothing of the bees. I got stung twice on the same arm but Z and Maggie managed to get away unscathed. Those lucky girls. So, we continued to walk, and walk and pick chanterelles along the way. Meanwhile my arm is swelling like a ham on the end of my shoulder and hurting like a SOB!!! But we walked, and we walked....next thing you know, we have somehow left the trail and are lost. Huh? How did that happen? Luckily we came upon some people who had done something similar to us and they were looking for the loop trail so we eventually turned around and started walking the other way. First Zora took a climb up a steep hill to see if she could see anything remotely civilized looking that would take us back. I sat on a log and watched my arm swell bigger and bigger....she came back down the hill unsuccessful in her journey so we continued back the way we'd come until low and behold, we find our mistake where the trail goes at a right angle and up some steps that finally took us back to the bike trail and not soon after, our beloved car! Yay...we are saved! I won't die in the woods from heat exhaustion and bee stings! Now we can go home and have a good strong drink to erase the bad part of this day. The good news is, if we hadn't taken the route from ###### that Zora proposed, we wouldn't have found a nice hen on a tree right on the path! All in all, you always know when you go mushrooming with Zora somewhere in there you are bound to get lost and have to do a collosal hike to find your way out...but the good news is, somehow it's always still fun to go visit her even if she does keep trying to kill us both.

To her defence, she did walk across a creek to harvest a hunk of chaga for me! Thanks for another memorable visit, Zora!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beautiful pictures Mary, and a great story ! Sounds like you Girls had a blast!! Those Wild Grapes are huge and that Iphone takes some darn good pictures too. The rains like we've been getting too, makes me glad I bought that Pentax W90 It's also an under water camera, good to 20' down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks MJ...we did have fun! Yes, those wild grapes (Zora found them) were huge! They really tasted good too...reminded me of a Concord grape. The variety out there is astounding but there is such a thing as too much rain. I hope you're finding lots of stuff out there. Why not post some pics for us to see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the beautiful pictures and for sharing the "fun"! Those grapes look like Muscadine grapes. They taste like Concords, but can grow even larger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's interesting Tamara. I had no idea what those grapes were but they were so big and full of flavor. I think I'm a paw paw fan now so I'm not sure how to get my fix every year now! creepycrawly.gif We have been getting a good bit of rain down here and I've seen exactly no mushrooms! I just can't figure this place out. We had mushrooms galore in July and that was about it. Except for the occasional Leucocoprinus birnbaumii that keeps popping up next to my mango tree, I'm virtually mushroomless here right now. Time to go fishing I guess! Here are my pretty little mushrooms that keep coming back in this same spot from time to time.

post-1-0-04084500-1317128659_thumb.jpg post-1-0-05765300-1317128671_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some areas in PA have actually had too much rain these past few weeks. Last night, I measured 3.3" in my rain gauge. I think the torrential rainfall may stress the trees, which may have an effect upon mycorrhizal mushroom species. Saprophytes like Blewits are doing pretty well. I've picked 7-8 pounds during the past week or so. Honey Mushrooms should have another flush. Tough to say if there will be any more Hens, as the wet conditions brought on very large early fruitings. I also hope to gather at least one more big batch of Boletus edulis. The past few times I've checked my spots, I have found only a few strays.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, Dave, there is definitely such a thing as too much rain. I've certainly witnessed that in Oregon. The northeast seems to have had a good mix of rain and dry in places like RI, MA, CT and ME but parts of PA are getting pounded. It looks like MO is finally getting some much needed rain so I guess things will start progressing that way. I'm still not certain why I am not finding anything down here except that it is still quite hot and that just doesn't seem conducive to anything but sweating! It's fishing season so I will focus more on that now. I went out and caught some nice false albacore tuna the other day so it's on down here! I hope you can still find some hens up there. I would think Oct. should be good and well into November don't you think if the rains give you a break?

What are you finding Zora? Pics please!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm ready for the rain to be over. We found our first hens last weekend and one of them was completely rotten already, not to mention the trouble it's been causing in the vineyard at work. We have tons of downy mildew that's so bad it's actually starting to defoliate the vines. As is always the case, I have been too busy to really get out and hunt. We found our hens while driving and also saw a few giant puffballs. Today is my only day off this week, but I don't think I'll have time to get to the woods with everything I need to do at home. Glad to see that you guys are finding some nice stuff out there.

Those grapes do look like muscadine, but I didn't think they grew this far north. Nice suprise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We went out today and drove around our hen spot. I didn't count them yet, but I think we got about 25 or so. They filled half of the trunk of the Jeep. We took a pic with Beth's camera. I'll try to post it here. We took some of them to my friend at his restaurant. I got a beer out of the deal, so I was happy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

During the past three weeks my wife and I have collected over 20 pounds of perfect blewits from needle duff and leaf litter underneath some very large Norway Spruce trees. Each time either of us has been to the spot, she/he has left as much as was picked. I've got close to 4 gallons dried, about 8 packs of frozen blewit duxelles, and 6 packs of frozen sliced blewits. We have also had Cream of Blewit Soup, blewits with grilled steak, blewits on pizza, and last night, blewits atop grilled burgers. There's probably another 5 pounds waiting at the spot.

Waiting for the late-occurring Honeys (Popinkees). Last weekend I did get 1.5 pound in an area where I would not expect... small deciduous trees like birch, cherry, maple scattered in a piney area.

Also wondering if another flush of Boletus edulis will show up. I'll see if there's time to check some spots this Friday.

Got some beautiful Horse Mushrooms (Agaricus arvensis) the other day. Hope to post some pics tonight.

I saw lots of Hericium americanum on birch trees last weekend. But they were all too old to harvest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dave, here in Ontario pine is not at all an unusual habitat for honey mushrooms and they are very common in pine plantations, especially ones which have been thinned in the past 5 years. I think the honeys get a foothold on the dead stumps and spread to the live trees. I have seen astounding fruitings in red pine plantations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I just usually concentrate on hardwood areas for Honeys, because that's where the biggest fruitings seem to occur around here. But this fall, the late-occurring ones seem to not be occurring in the oak, beech, and other hardwood areas. Going to a pine/hemlock area today to hopefully bring home some Armillaria.

Got another 3 pounds Blewits yesterday. They'll keep coming in this spot until we get either a very heavy frost or a freeze. Here's a link to one of our recent threads where one may find a few of my Blewit photos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dave, here in Ontario pine is not at all an unusual habitat for honey mushrooms and they are very common in pine plantations, especially ones which have been thinned in the past 5 years. I think the honeys get a foothold on the dead stumps and spread to the live trees. I have seen astounding fruitings in red pine plantations.

Yeah, tons of honey mushrooms in pine forests here in Southern Ontario.

post-58-0-11405700-1319127834_thumb.jpg

post-58-0-87457300-1319127848_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ontario, are those pine trees Red Pine? They sure look just like the ones I wandered through yesterday... except that mine didn't have any clusters of Honey Mushrooms!

Not much in the way of edibles collected over the weekend... well except for Friday I got another 3 pounds of Blewits in the same spot. Oh, and a friend came along and took another 4 pounds. Time to check the spot again tomorrow.

Still some nice mushrooms appearing here and there. Not much real good hunting time left around here.

Golden Pholiota. Pholiota aurilvella. I don't eat these. Tried them once a long time ago and wasn't much impressed. But they look nice.

post-20-0-71934800-1319504550_thumb.jpg

post-20-0-08307300-1319504561_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ontario, are those pine trees Red Pine? They sure look just like the ones I wandered through yesterday... except that mine didn't have any clusters of Honey Mushrooms!

Not much in the way of edibles collected over the weekend... well except for Friday I got another 3 pounds of Blewits in the same spot. Oh, and a friend came along and took another 4 pounds. Time to check the spot again tomorrow.

Still some nice mushrooms appearing here and there. Not much real good hunting time left around here.

Golden Pholiota. Pholiota aurilvella. I don't eat these. Tried them once a long time ago and wasn't much impressed. But they look nice.

post-20-0-71934800-1319504550_thumb.jpg

post-20-0-08307300-1319504561_thumb.jpg

Nice pics Dave. Yes, I think those are red pines. This fall was pretty dry here in Southern Ontario and the honeys were gone pretty fast. Last year we had motherloads of them in the red pine forests in October.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Pic is some Blewits that I got last Friday, 12/16. This is one of the latest and longest-lasting patches I've ever found. Picked between 1.5 and 2 Lb. Wondering if it's over now. Last couple of days have been pretty cold.

post-20-0-41656400-1324344023_thumb.jpg

Made some Tilapia baked in Bechmel Sauce with Chnaterelles and Blewits. Distributed about a dozen or so Blewits to attendees at our Friday evening mushroom club meeting. And brought about a half pound or so (and some frozen morels, chants, and black trumpets) to my friends' homemade pizza party on Sunday.

I suppose I'm still gonna havta check that spot one more time this week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.