Tag Archives: edible mushrooms

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September 28, 2023 Mushrooms, trail blazing and hanging signs to keep hunters away

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We started at the south side of the property along the road and hung signs, cut small and dying trees and laid them along the path perpendicular to the water flow and trailblazed a new path. We wound around along the edge of Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm property line along the power lines. We also followed the waterway at bottom of property to property markers at southwest corner. We found interesting mushrooms, plants and finally found paw paw trees.

We did not see the young male black bear. We saw a small lizard in the clearing up top. We saw and heard many birds in the forest. Hunting season starts tomorrow. We’ve got our signs up and hope the animals hide out from those hunters. Especially the young black bear. We heard his range might be 5-10 miles for a young bear. For an adult bear, 10 to 20 miles.

Gentiana alba, a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the Gentian family Gentianaceae, producing yellowish-white colored flowers from thick white taproots. It is native to North America from Manitoba through Ontario in the north, south to Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Carolina, and it is listed as rare, endangered, threatened or extirpated in parts of this range.[2] Found near the south waterway.

Calostoma ravenelii. Found along the South Trail. This is a comparatively small species of Calostoma with a dry, yellowish spore case that sits on a braided stem structure. It can be separated from other Calostoma species by the fact that the spore case is not red and initially covered with gelatin, its lack of a torn and felty “collar” under the spore case and its “beak” (the scar-like perforation that develops at the top of the spore case), which is red overall.

Coprinopsis picacea, commonly known as the magpie mushroom, magpie fungus, or magpie inkcap fungus, is a species of fungus in the family Psathyrellaceae. It was first described in 1785 by French mycologist Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard in 1785 as Agaricus picaceus. Found at bottom of clearing. The cap is initially egg-shaped, reaching a width of 7 cm. Later it opens up and takes on a bell shape that is up to 8 cm wide. The cap is serrated and colored white on very young mushrooms. It breaks open with increasing age, so that the beige to dark brown background emerges. Remnants of the white, grayish to cream-colored velum remain on the cap as flakes, giving the impression of woodpecker or magpie plumage. With age, the brim of the cap rolls up and dissolves. The lamellae are very close and are initially greyish-white, then pink to gray in color. Eventually they melt, dripping and black, giving it the name inkcap.
An older magpie ink cap mushroom. Poisonous.
Scleroderma polyrhizum. Identifying features include the baseball-like stature and shape; the tough, thick skin; the hard, black interior that turns to dust in old age; the way the mushroom splits open and peels back (a little like the rays of a star); the smooth to pocked or pitted (but not prominently scaly) surface; and the habitat in grass and disturbed-ground settings. Probably saprobic, but possibly mycorrhizal; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously in grass and in disturbed-ground settings; often appearing in urban settings; summer, fall, and early winter; widely distributed in North America.
Fruiting Body: 8-13 cm across before splitting and spreading; round or nearly round; very tough; partially submerged in the ground; surface when young fairly smooth, often covered with whitish down; with age becoming pocked, pitted, or minutely scaly in places, and usually covered with adhering soil and debris; often bruising reddish or yellowish when rubbed; with maturity splitting near the top and peeling back in irregular rays to expose the spore mass; skin to 5 mm thick or more, whitish but blushing pink when sliced; sometimes with white rhizomorphs attached to the base; odor not distinctive.
Cranefly orchid leafs emerging for winter.
This club-shaped Xylaria species is common on hardwood sticks and logs in the northeastern and midwestern United States. It often has a longer stem structure than other species in the genus, but this feature cannot be relied on to identify it with certainty. Xylaria longipes is somewhat variable in its appearance, but defining features include its medium size, its club-shaped head, and its spores, which feature spiraling germ slits. Ecology: Saprobic on decaying hardwood logs and sticks (especially the debris of beech and maples), growing directly from the wood; growing alone or gregariously; causing a soft rot; spring through fall; common in northeastern North America and in the Midwest, but occasionally reported elsewhere on the continent (though it may be absent in tropical areas). The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.
Fruiting Body: 2.5–6.5 cm tall; 0.5–1.5 cm thick; shaped more or less like a club, with a rounded tip; grayish to brownish when young, becoming dark brown to black with maturity; surface often becoming cracked and scaly with maturity; stem often proportionally long, but also frequently short or nearly absent, black, covered with black to rusty brown or reddish fuzz near the base; interior flesh white and tough; perithecia in mature fruiting bodies up to about 1 mm across, spherical, just below the surface. Found along the waterway.
Asimina triloba, the American papaw, pawpaw, paw paw, or paw-paw, among many regional names, is a small deciduous tree native to the eastern United States and Canada, producing a large, yellowish-green to brown fruit.[3][4][5] Asimina is the only temperate genus in the tropical and subtropical flowering plant family Annonaceae, and Asimina triloba has the most northern range of all. We were delighted to find this by the south side near the waterway. The leaves were so interesting and smooth. No jaggedy edges.
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September 24, 2023 A Mushroom Walk and a Young Bear

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The woods are changing and moving into fall. Leaves are colorful and the forest is brighter. This is the North Trail where we startled a young bear. We think he was the 3 year old male bear our neighbor told us about. He looked healthy as he ran away. This was at the top of North Trail. No sign of his mother.

Tropical storm Ophelia moved through Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm with gusting winds and rain just the day before. As we drove over from Staunton, we saw several large trees blown over and wondered what impact the storm had on the trees at SAFF. As we pulled in, we did not see any downed trees only a few limbs on the ground.

A tree stump covered in Mycena haematopus, or common name, bleeding Mycena.
Saprobic mushrooms found on well decayed wood. They were lovely. Note the bleeding from the stem in the photo below.
Unknown polypore
Down by the waterway. It was cooler out and also muggy for our walk around.
A Russula
A new mushroom we spotted at the bottom of the clearing. It’s a yellow reishi, Ganoderma curtisii. It was as hard as wood and shiny. A magnificent find. These are a noted medicinal mushroom.
We saw multiple specimen of strawberry euonymus with these lovely berries.
We know birds eat these and wondered what the bear is eating. He looked well fed, about 150 pounds or more. A young black bear.

We hope we didn’t scare the young bear off. We want him to stay safe on our property from all of the hunters in the area. Next time we go out to SAFF, we will hang up more signs to alert hunters to stay off of our farm. We would like the wildlife to have a sanctuary.

Young loblolly pines

It is wonderful to have the cool weather to explore and get jobs done. We were able to mow and dig another footing for the shower and compost toilet structure.

Marasmius capillaris, growing on fallen oak leaves on the forest floor.

We also saw more of the Cranefly orchid’s leaves emerging along the trails all through the woods. We were able to clear hundreds more small stick trees using loppers.

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Friday September 22, 2023 Mushrooms and Cranefly Orchid fall leaf sighting

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We got the truck running again about midweek by replacing both the alternator and the battery. We also cleared many many hundreds of stick trees, mostly light starved, undeveloped and unwell tulip poplars and black cherries.

Tiny trees needing to be thinned.
Crane fly orchid leaves emerging from the ground where we saw the flowers earlier this summer.

We were so excited to see these leaves (in photo above) emerging from the ground. These delicate flowers grow from edible corms.

Crane fly orchid flower photo taken earlier this summer. It emerges without leaves. The leaf comes in September. We were watching for them and still surprised by their beauty.
We found multiple clusters of these beautiful honey mushrooms by the creek bed. Armillaria, the longest lived and largest fungi in the world. The mycelium underground is what’s large with one being measured at 3.5 square miles and estimated to be 2,400 years old. These mushrooms also glow in the dark. They are decomposers. Honey mushrooms are rich in antioxidants and taste slightly sweet. Honey Mushrooms are extremely rich in polysaccharides. Polysaccharides from natural sources have attracted increased attention due to their potential biological functions, especially antioxidant and immunomodulation activities such as scavenging free radicals and inhibiting lipid oxidation.
Coral fungus
Sarcodon scrabrosus, with teeth, is mycorrhizal with beech and oak trees. Found along bottom creek bed from June to October.

It felt very much like fall yesterday with coolness in the air and leaves on the ground. Ophelia moved in to North Carolina and Virginia bringing rain and wind. We can’t wait to see what the new season brings to Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm.

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August 31, 2023- St Andrew’s Forest Farm Visit and mushroom walk

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Honey fungus found 8/31/23 at bottom of slope near creek on southern end.
Cinnabar Chanterelles on southern end of creek
A red Russula
Molly got a picture of us.
Polypore
Russula cyanoxantha or charcoal burner. Found numerous specimen by southern end at bottom of property near creek.

We mowed and planned our swales in the clearing. We walked down the north trail to creek and followed it to the south trail and up. We went down chanterelle trail.

The cooler weather is wonderful. We heard a hawk. We saw toads in the water.

Molly took all of the photos. It was wonderful to walk around the woods with her today. There’s a crispness in the air and moving into the new season at Saint Andrews Forest Farm is exciting with so much to look forward to!

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August 8, 2023 More animal sightings & A tornado watch & some native plants

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Young eastern box turtle on north trail after rains.

We went out to SAFF yesterday for mowing and checking on those cinnabar chanterelle pins. We harvested a few and followed the waterway from bottom left of property and moved past the midway point. We found cinnabar and golden chanterelles all along the way. Also, other types of mushrooms and we saw a toad and a box turtle right along the north trail. No sighting of our pileated woodpecker friend. Most of the mature cinnabar chanterelles were along the deep sides of the waterway with moss and ferns. Many that we could reach still hadn’t matured. There were so many down in the creek bed along the sides we couldn’t reach! We’ll need a plan to harvest these next year. We brainstormed a few ideas that all seemed to be ridiculous. We will find a way down there!

We have made it a little more than halfway to our south trail via the waterway. We were on the other side of creek. Next time we work on paths at bottom of property, we want to trail blaze along the slope side and continue to take out over abundant trees that have only inches to grow instead of the 10 feet necessary for them to flourish.

Chanterelles harvested yesterday along waterway.

Unknown fungi

A young toad found hopping along the North Trail.

We got the mowing finished just in time for an alert for a tornado watch in Dillwyn. We drove home. Staunton had a tornado warning with hail. We hope to go back out in the next few days. Our plan is to go on Friday after the thunderstorm Thursday.

We are planning our initial structures and crops. We hope to use the resources we can find to help shape the farm to become more of a food forest than it already is. Currently, we have blueberries, deer tongue (flowers young leaves and stems) and wild yams (great eyes, Judy) edible mushrooms, cranefly orchids edible corms, several edible fiddlehead ferns, and black cherries. We also hope to find pawpaws.

Scarlet elf cups

Unknown Amanita. Possibly amanita gemmata. Not a beginner mushroom. So far, anything that looks as though it’s an Amanita, we don’t even touch usually. There are 600 species of agarics (Gilled mushrooms) which includes some of the most deadly. This species is responsible for 95% of mushroom deaths. (If we are in doubt, we throw it out: Or better yet, don’t even pick it. )

The waterway floor with rocks and sticks and roots. Mosses and plants along the banks.
Mountain laurel along the waterway.
Potentially Hypomyces chrysospermus or Tylopilus or H. Melanocarpus. More information is needed. Finally! We thought we found a bolete that could potentially be a king bolete, bolete edulis, porcini. Found along driveway up on top of farm near pines. We have been searching all summer. However, it appears as though it could be a bolete with a fungus. Hypomyces chrysospermus, the bolete eater! A parasite turned the bolete white. Not at all a king bolete. Narrowing down identification still. We continue our search for porcinis and are glad for our chanterelles. We will not eat these!
Tipularia discolor, the corm is potato-like and edible. Cranefly orchid is found all along the banks of the waterway and in the forest at SAFF.
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St Andrews Forest Farm

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Chris and I excited to be at our newly christened Saint Andrews Forest Farm late spring 2023

On April 13th 2023, Chris wanted to go to Buckingham County to look at a property with forest covering most of the 13 + acres. We drove to Afton, over Route 29 and into Buckingham County going deeper and further into beautiful and old woods. Magical seeming forests with giant trees arching over the roadways creating a canopy of green. Little moss covered hamlets of yesteryear with giant boulders covered in greenness and ferns sitting in a creek bed. Gorgeous vineyards and farms. We also saw forests recently violently cleared by loggers. Jagged and torn and pillaged. The roadways beaten and abused by giant trucks full of timber. We saw what looked as though the forests had regrown a year or two after being cut, and also stands that appeared to be five to 10 years on. We began to see ages and stages of development. It was an incredible journey for us because of its unique beauty as well as other circumstances. We both really needed to be in the woods again. We had been away too long. When we arrived and saw the pines and poplars, we both immediately fell in love with our forest.

Chris walking down the driveway in the shade of the black cherry tree.

Our guess was that it had been cleared about 20 years ago. Water had made paths through the woods. Right away, we began to find interesting mushrooms with our exploration mostly limited to the top of the hillside and the edges of the clearing.

Orange waxy cap: The first mushroom we found at St Andrews Forest Farm on May 19. We narrowed this down to a hygrocybe species maybe conica group. (Thank you Reddit mycologists. ) We found it in the clearing near a tulip poplar and black cherry tree. We became hooked on determining the types of fungus we had growing on the farm. We could not wait to get into the woods and down by the waterways to explore the interesting features down there.

As summer came, we began to realize we had a sizable tick population to deal with and thought we would be kept from our explorations of the woods until winter. Glad that was not the case. As it stands, there are still several areas that are infested with nymph ticks as evidenced by when we walk into that area we immediately see between two and twelve on our shoes and socks.

Right now, we are aware that the ticks appear to like moisture. The drier it is, the safer we are. We always wear our permethrin coated shoes and socks. We wear light colors so we can see them more easily. We watch out for each other’s backs. We want to stay safe. Chris has had several bites this summer. He has removed the ticks immediately and cleaned the area well. So far, no symptoms or side effects. When we camp, we will coat our tent and appropriate supplies with permethrin.

The other note I have about ticks is that it is tall grasses and weeds that they are able to attach to our socks and shoes and then climb up to find skin. Stay out of tall weeds and grasses. If you must walk in, look at the tippy tops and you will see the ticks with their legs out. I’d only do this with a mower or weed whacker in front of me. Anyway, they do not fall from trees. They do not fly. They are opportunistic. (However, they can fling themselves out onto you using static electricity. Look it up. Here https://www.science.org/content/article/watch-ticks-fly-through-air-power-static-electricity or on YouTube). This was all helpful for me to learn in order to determine best practices to avoid them.

Keeping our clearings mowed and weed whacking our paths has been extraordinarily effective. It has become easier now that we have the truck and tractor. Lastly, I’ll add that ticks dislike hot and dry. The clothes dryer kills them after 10-15 minutes. This was also helpful for us to know.

Honda Ridgeline and ancient Husqvarna with a v-twin engine – they don’t make these like this anymore. Lots of steel!
Our gate to keep out the neighborhood dogs (and any other riff raff or unwanted mushroom bandits. )
Unknown Russula species

One of the best things so far has been looking forward to rain out in Buckingham County. We get very excited and wait as long as we can afterwards to go and see what new mushrooms we can find. We have been surprised and delighted every time with new finds. Mushrooms love moisture. So far SAFF has been moist! We’ve been astonished by the diversity of life and can’t wait to see more.

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August 5, 2023 Continued path development and forest management at Saint Andrews Forest Farm

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Cyathus striatum, splash cups, commonly called the fluted bird’s nest mushroom, found along the water way in back left corner of farm. It is saprobic, a decomposer growing on dead branches. The inside of cup appears white. Notice the cup with dark eggs which get hit with water and release spores. Ridges along the cup. Light brown or cream colored.

We went back and explored the bottom left corner of the farm and found another property marker. The earth is exposed and red back there, and has recently been washed through by a cleansing rain. In some parts it is easy to see the water moved with force and power. 48 hours after the last rain, we saw pools of water in places as well as found a deep pool with water dripping into it from an underground source.

The pool with water dripping into it from underground.

We found mushrooms and plants growing all along the edges of the waterway. In this area, mountain laurel grows. Ferns and mosses were also present. Tiny mushroom pins that need another rain to grow and mature were everywhere when we stopped and looked around carefully, we saw multiple fruiting bodies.

Numerous cinnabar red chanterelle pins awaiting more moisture to mature.
Blue ground cedar and unidentified moss along waterway
Multiple unknown brown polypore mushrooms at base of tree along waterway’s edge.

We made our way towards the midline of property along the waterway and stopped when it deepened significantly. We didn’t notice any animal tracks or scat along our way. Yesterday, we saw a rabbit along what we are calling Chanterelle Trail. It was gray and hopped away from us quickly as we were making noise culling numerous tulip poplar and other small, undeveloped trees. We heard the woodpecker off in the distance today but it didn’t come and interact with us directly like yesterday.

Then, we culled more trees as well as trail blazed midway down the hill and made about a third of the way to the north trail. It was dense with sunlight starved trees. We began laying the trees along the outer edges of the trail to build up a berm to help with water flow and soil retention on the slope.

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Central Virginia mushroom foraging at St Andrews Forest farm

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We will add to this list as we find more mushrooms. Always assume they aren’t edible. We have more data to collect to determine many identities. If we ever do! We are beginner mushroom foragers, we’re not planning on eating anything we’re not 100% sure about.

Red capped, blue staining boletes found near the road under the realtor’s sign growing directly from the red clay. These slowly turned blue when bruised, sliced and cut. We composted them as their identity was indeterminable to us at this time. They were suspiciously untouched by insects and animals which leans us toward either bitter taste or poisonous.
Another red capped, blue staining bolete. It turned blue quickly. Found along driveway. It was also in great condition for a bolete lending us to be dubious of its edibility.

Entoloma murrayi inedible. We found multiple large patches of these in spring and early summer. Our hat has a little flop in it for every single mushroom fruit. The pics for entoloma murrayi did not show this flop. Could be a different species?
Lactarius indigo – the indigo or blue milk cap mushroom, an edible member of the Russula family. Goes great with the big flavors of a whole wheat veggie pizza. Because there is nothing else that looks like it, it’s considered a great beginner’s mushroom.
Indigo milk cap from the ground level. All foraged mushrooms need to be thoroughly cooked.
These grow on the ground in mycorrhizal relationships with trees. When sliced, the gills ooze blue latex.
Another red capped bolete. Red pores and did not stain when bruised.
Old Man of the Woods, strobilomyces strobilaceous, found on multiple sites of Saint Andrews Food Forest, singularly and in groups. It is also a bolete and is edible. We’ve not tried it yet. It is mycorrhizal in both deciduous and coniferous forests. We have heard it tastes similar to a button mushroom and will turn other foods cooked along with it gray. Since nothing else looks like it, it a good beginning mushroom foraging find.
Golden Chanterelles are a choice edible. They were the most delicious mushrooms we’ve ever had. Full of nutrients. We cooked them in a dry skillet on med high for 20 minutes then added olive oil and garlic with salt and pepper and sautéed about 6 more minutes while deglazing the pan with a little wine. They had a silky mouth feel. They are a great beginner mushroom as they have no poisonous lookalikes.
Cinnabar chanterelles found pinning all along the sides of the creek bed growing near mosses. The red color stands out. Another choice edible and a great beginner’s mushroom.
Presumed Amanita Vaginata considered inedible to beginners as there are multiple poisonous lookalikes.

Phylloporus rodoxanthus, the gilled bolete, top above and bottom below. Considered edible but we’ve not tried it. We are only eating what we are confident is safe and accurately identified. Bolete identification is complicated although there are no deadly boletes, some can make your gastrointestinal system feel terrible. We will take our time to get to know these mushrooms.

Bright yellow gills. Found alongside the creek bed.
Splash cups, cyathus striatus, or fluted bird’s nest. The white inside of most of the cups are spores. Note the black eggs inside the one. Water droplets will hit the egg and the the spores will drop when wet. Growing along the back left bottom of property on a dead stick next to road in back bottom of property.
Hypomyces chrysospermus, bolete eater fungus turns bolete white, tan or golden yellow. Poisonous.
Sarcoscypha dudleyi scarlet elf cup, found along the back bottom waterway on a fallen limb.