Mushroom Madness

I joined the Minnesota Mycological Society.  I am now an official foraging nerd.  I went to one of their meetings, where I learned about easy-to-identify fungi like "Chicken of the Woods" and "Hen of the Woods.  There were a mix of people there; mostly older but a few young.  It was a fun, educational and random activity.

http://www.minnesotamushrooms.org/

Then a few weeks later, Tim and I joined them for a Foray at a park.  BUT NO MUSHROOMS!!  I think it was because there has been so little rain all summer and fall (until now).

I, however, found a number of too-old Chicken of the Woods.  We should go back earlier next year.

Specimen #1

Specimens #2-12

It was disappointing not to find anything, but it was a nice walk in the woods.

Tim likes hunting for mushrooms because he's Polish.  Half of the people on the foray were from Slavic countries.

A few weeks later, we found this specimen at a park right by our house!  It's an oyster mushroom.  I also found my finger in the picture.

Here I am cutting it off the log....like a maniac!

I made it into a soup, but I didn't get a picture of the soup.  It was delicious.  Although Tim was a little nervous (despite my careful research to I.D. it) we became neither sick nor poisoned.

I keep seeing those flying monkeys, though...