wine caps ~

A few more Wine Cap mushrooms popped out of the wood chips over night ...

I found that the mushrooms that were still in the button stage I was able to keep some of the stem on them when cleaning and preparing for the freezer.  On the larger mushrooms the stems seemed a bit woody and tougher, so I just kept the caps on those.

Supposedly, they are a good mushroom for freezing.  As I had mentioned earlier, this is our first year raising them ... so like so many other things in life ... with these too ... time will tell :)








Four bags full of slice Wine Cap mushrooms, cleaned up and ready for the freezer:

While out checking on the mushrooms I also checked by the base of one of the trees in the yard where an oddity of a mushroom grows every year.  They are  called Deadman's Fingers ... as the photo will attest ... they look spooky like a dead man's fingers.

They are listed as Non Edibles - really now .. who would want to even try them??  I remember the first time I saw them I thought it was dog poo.  They come back every year in that same spot for the last five or so years.  I've never seen them anywhere else around the yard.

There were also these pretty little orange ones growing in the moss ~

... and some kind of puffball.  

There are so many species of mushrooms in our neck of the woods; but the only ones that we eat are the ones that we are 110% positive are edibles.  

We love mushrooms and that is why we finally decided this year to take the plunge and grown our own.  All our spawn was purchased through Field and Forest Products

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel