An Edible Mushroom that is Straightforward to Determine and Forage

The primary time I noticed a rooster of the woods, the huge mushroom was frilling the bottom of a dying oak tree. It was a sizzling summer season day in Cape City. I had by no means seen one and was nervous about diving in. I emailed footage to a foraging buddy in the US. She referred to as her buddy Sam Thayer, the wild meals creator. Identification confirmed. Again we went and picked up some orange-and-white followers. That evening, as my husband, my father, and I feasted, my mom abstained, with a glance on her face that stated plainly: Anyone has to drive you to hospital.

Rooster of the woods is a massively rewarding mushroom to seek out and eat. Right here’s learn how to establish this simple mushroom for rookies and what to make with it after you have carried your treasure house.

Images by Marie Viljoen.

13 years and plenty of “chickens” later, the anxiousness I felt then appears foolish. What else might it have been? Rooster of the woods has no poisonous lookalikes. This electric-hued mushroom is unmistakeable. However a self-preserving seam of concern runs via all of us when confronted with a potential (final?) supper of untamed mushrooms.

Chickens are ubiquitous throughout North America and different temperate components of the world. Saprobic and parasitic tree pathogens, they fruit from mycelium in dying or useless hardwoods. They’re polypores, with tiny, sponge-like pores beneath their caps, not gills.

The Laetiporus genus to which chickens belong remains to be being parsed at a genetic degree by researchers, which has resulted in title adjustments, reclassifications, and the differentiation of subspecies. Collectively, they’re edible.

Laetiporus sulphureus has vivid yellow pores beneath its cap, so it’s generally referred to as sulfur shelf (though I consider it as yellow rooster). The mushroom’s fan-like layers develop on upright or fallen tree trunks or massive branches, however not on the bottom. They trigger coronary heart rot in a tree.

L. cincinnatus (white rooster) has white pores, and causes butt or root rot on oaks. In contrast to its shelving yellow cousin, it will possibly appear to develop on the bottom away from a tree, however is definitely fruiting from the roots.

Whereas they’re typically related to late summer season and early fall, chickens additionally fruit in late spring and early summer season, in a heat spell after rain.