Nor Cal Shrooms ID please

i most definately aint dumb enough to eat an unidentified fungi, ive decided against eating any of them but stuff am deciding to take a couple of the more pristine samples and dry them out and call it the beginning of a collection, after i slept on it i decided i should spend quite some time picking and identifying mushrooms before i dream of sticking any in my mouth

canndo said:

I have been dreaming of coming across a boletus, ANY boletus for 30 years, oh yes, I have been in the right place at the wrong time and found them wormy and rotten. The point is that unless you know someone or you are the kind of person who hits the lotto, you aren't going to find what you seek in places not already known for them..... all by yourself.


There is a reason foragers keep their patches so secret, ask a maitaki forager where he goes and he will look at you as though you were from another planet. Follow him and you may simply follow him to a dennys somewhere. And the morel folk can be downright mean.

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A boletus like this?


I'm super protective of good spots, but never mean. Most people don't know it's faux pas to ask.

As for the friscos. Yes they have a less purple print than cyans or azures and no I'm not certain that they aren't friscos based on the pic. Just better to be safe that sorry.

Rhizogenic said:

A boletus like this?
View attachment 2597959

I'm super protective of good spots, but never mean. Most people don't know it's faux pas to ask.

As for the friscos. Yes they have a less purple print than cyans or azures and no I'm not certain that they aren't friscos based on the pic. Just better to be safe that sorry.

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Damn you damn you damn you - how about gps cords

to the newbies - there ARE some mushrooms in North America that are unmistakeable, start with those - shaggies are easy to identify and tasty tasty. Just don't take them from too close to well traveled roadsides or from near toxic or oil dumps - they tend to pick up heavy metals.

canndo said:

Damn you damn you damn you - how about gps cords

to the newbies - there ARE some mushrooms in North America that are unmistakeable, start with those - shaggies are easy to identify and tasty tasty. Just don't take them from too close to well traveled roadsides or from near toxic or oil dumps - they tend to pick up heavy metals.

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How near is near?

canndo said:

Damn you damn you damn you - how about gps cords

to the newbies - there ARE some mushrooms in North America that are unmistakeable, start with those - shaggies are easy to identify and tasty tasty. Just don't take them from too close to well traveled roadsides or from near toxic or oil dumps - they tend to pick up heavy metals.

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What part of the country are you in canndo? I could prob point you in a direction that may turn out to be right.

MrEDuck said:

How near is near?

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I don't know, maybe 20 feet away or so, you have to use your best judgement on those. I've seen them break through the asphault in parking lots - I wouldn't eat those.

Well this thread has me all geared up to go hunting as soon as it rains here again. The temps might still be a bit low, but I figure if we get one good warm rain it might be perfect for a hunt. I just found this http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/17157489/page/1/fpart/1/vc/1 which I thought was pretty cool. My wifes grandparents live right accross the street from a cow pasture which I think could be perfect it has alot of small stands of little trees and high grass scattered through out the pasture.

canndo said:

I don't know, maybe 20 feet away or so, you have to use your best judgement on those. I've seen them break through the asphault in parking lots - I wouldn't eat those.

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Damn!
I was wondering about distance because what is near in some places is quite different from others.

Happy hunting! Id go also,but I'm cooking for the kiddos in the mornings usually...I wouldn't mind a basket of morels tho..or to grill a huge slab of lions main..mmmmmmm

hehe, as I told the wife unless I found something I felt 99% I had identified correctly and then asked you guys about theres no way I would eat any. It sure is fun to find them tucked away in secret spots though. I've never been lucky enough to even see a natural morel but would love to. When I lived in OH I was told there were locals that knew were to find tons of them, but was never so lucky in my adventures.

No bodys gonna give up a fishing spot,let alone a spot that gives up a crapload of the fungus amongus...but while you look,look for other fungus..it can be delicious if you know what to pick..mouse ear fungus is yummy!..and hopefully you find the shroom you want,but if ya find another jem,that's great also!

Last year I had a friend come into the restaurant I work at with a basket of fresh morels,black and a few white,and he wouldn't sell me any!! I don't blame him tho,especially the locality involved...

I was out on a 2 mile walk with my daughter threw some nieghborhoods and a local park scoping out some possible wood chip beds to watch after the next rain. There is a local lake with alot of horse riding trails around it I'm gonna take a hike on too.

My fathers an arborist,we have woodchip PILES...

Man I was at my brothers house a few years ago and he had a huge pile of wood chips that grew a ton of mushrooms one time. I never printed them as they did not bruise so i didn't go farther trying to analyze them. I really should have just for the experience. There was easily a garbage bag full on the one pile of wood chips. I'm not sure why but I never went mushroom hunting in the fields across from his house. They would have been good for it, and had had cows on the land a few years earlier.

I believe thos're are a type of paneolus (spelling) Ive heard there are panes thatre psycho active but not sure which type and Id just dump those...As it happens, Ive picked and eaten many many many shrooms from Seattle to Sanfrancisco, Baos, Cyans, blue ringers and various smaller shrooms that I was able to id as psylicibes without being able to id the exact species...in the northwest, you generally wanna be looking in areas thatve been woodchipped, or under roses, a few different evergreen varieties, and on rotten logs, the exceptions being blue ringers, which grow in grass, liberty caps, which grow in cow fields, and are the only variety I knew up there that grew in cow fields, and there is also a field growing version of cyanescens...now, that's just what I know but using that knowledge, I was able to to keep myself and plenty of others in shrooms constantly while they were in season

PurpleLorax said:

I believe thos're are a type of paneolus (spelling) Ive heard there are panes thatre psycho active but not sure which type and Id just dump those...As it happens, Ive picked and eaten many many many shrooms from Seattle to Sanfrancisco, Baos, Cyans, blue ringers and various smaller shrooms that I was able to id as psylicibes without being able to id the exact species...in the northwest, you generally wanna be looking in areas thatve been woodchipped, or under roses, a few different evergreen varieties, and on rotten logs, the exceptions being blue ringers, which grow in grass, liberty caps, which grow in cow fields, and are the only variety I knew up there that grew in cow fields, and there is also a field growing version of cyanescens...now, that's just what I know but using that knowledge, I was able to to keep myself and plenty of others in shrooms constantly while they were in season

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One could, if so inclined, wrap a few cyanescens in soaked coregated cardboard and incubate it in temperatures in the 70's. When the card board is fully colonized place it in a shallow pit and cover it with newly chipped hard wood, alder being among the best. Then cover the chip bed with a tarp and keep it moist. Be sure that there is a bit of sawdust in your chip mix but not too much. You might just have a permanent cyan patch at your disposal after the first year, all you need to do is feed it more chips once a season.



Just a thought.

I'd love to get my hands on some cyans at all let alone be able to set up a patch!

Thundercat said:

I'd love to get my hands on some cyans at all let alone be able to set up a patch!

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If you live in the right place (or can afford a refrigerated room) you can get the spores and grow them yourself.

Currently in the midwest. From what I found that these may be found near me Gymnopilus sp., Panaeolus cinctulus, Pluteus salicinus It would seem that the pacific northwest is a mushroom hunters dream land from all the maps I've found of whats located where. I live near the edge of 2 states that share similar geography so I would think it very possible that some of the mushrooms from the other areas could also be present in my area.

I've thought about growing the cyans myself but temps I think would be a challenge. I live in a area that gets the cooler temps so outdooors could be fesable someday. I've wanted to establish an outdoors mushroom garden for the last several years. Have several locations around the yard with different substrates for them, and proper amounts of light. Maybe go so far as using misters to increase moisture and humidity. Prolly be a bunch of work but would be beautiful when they started fruiting.