A week ago we went foraging for mushrooms. Before I get into more details of our annual mushroom forage, I wanted to show you a photo of our bounty from it.

Hen of the Woods: eaten
Chicken Mushroom: eaten (still a few bits left for maybe an omelette?)
Honey Mushrooms: pickled in a jar

Every year Allison of Two Pond Farm graciously allows people to join her on a mushroom hunt on her property. We did this last year, but only came home with honey mushrooms. Before we set out she showed us the prize we might all find: the coveted Hen of the Woods. Here is a photo of hers that she had found that morning (on the left).

After admiring her huge, organically grown pumpkins and being greeted by the geese, we were off.

Unfortunately our walk started off through the pasture where the lambs were. (We ordered a half of organically raised lamb from Allison back in the Spring, and frankly I could hardly stand to look at them. It’s better if I don’t think about it.)

We all started finding little honey mushrooms almost immediately. When one of the other people with us stopped to cut a nice sized clump of honey mushrooms, I happened to turn around and look down in the other direction. Hen of the Woods!,  I yelled for all to hear. I had found the prized mushroom! Mine, mine—all mine! Here it is before I cut it off the tree:

We found other mushrooms that were not edible, put pretty to look at.

This one is a coral mushroom. You can see why it was given its name since it looks like a piece of coral in the sea.

And some that we just left alone. We couldn’t identify these ugly stone-like ones growing in between the turkey tails.

We also found this disturbing plant growing in the woods. Known as “Doll’s Eyes” they are extremely poisonous and if the berries are ingested they can cause cardiac arrest and death.

Toward the end of our forage and on the way home, someone spied this Chicken Mushroom. It was extremely fresh and ripe for picking! Which of course we did. Everyone helped themselves to several “shelves” of this tasty mushroom.

Here is a peek into someone else’s basket. She gathered more honey mushrooms than we did.

With the Hen of the Woods we braised a rabbit in red wine, sautéed the mushrooms and served them on top of parmesan polenta.

The Chicken Mushroom we decided to use in a recipe from our wild mushroom recipe book: Mock “Chicken” Paprikash. First we cut and cleaned the mushrooms.

Next we sautéed them in a pan with green bell pepper and onion.

Then we added chicken broth, a cut up ripe tomato, sweet paprika, and finally the sour cream mixed with a little flour to thicken it up. And ate it. So yummy! Truly a seasonal treat!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Just because we eat wild mushrooms doesn’t mean that you should. Please use extreme caution! Even the Chicken Mushroom, which cannot be mistaken for any other mushroom, can cause gastric problems in some people. Rick and I have quite a bit of experience in identifying edible mushrooms. You should never eat anything that you are not certain of. Never. When trying a mushroom for the first time, eat sparingly until you know that it’s going to agree with you.