Mushroom foraging, like foraging for edible wild plants, is most rewarding, but few try it because of inadequate knowledge and a lack of experience fueled by fear. Here are a dozen mushrooms that are relatively easy to identify and safe to eat. These mushrooms offer variety and are available at different times throughout the year. The list is organized by ease of identification, availability, and season.
Caution: Like wild plants, there are dangerous mushrooms. I recommend you have at least three field guides (I have five) and key out any new or unknown mushroom in all three before eating it—even better, forage with a knowledgeable and experienced expert. Botanical gardens, state parks, and universities offer mycology (study of fungi) field trips.
Gray (yellow when mature) and black morels are often found about halfway down a slope in the woods, where spores have been washed and collected, usually in a tangle of brush. Dead ash, elm, apple, and tulip poplars are good places to look. West of the prairie region to the West Coast, find morels in burnouts, along the sides of trails, and along the edges of campgrounds. Use your food dryer to preserve these mushrooms if you are fortunate enough to get more than you can eat.
Food uses: Morels can be dried and stored, pickled, or simply rinsed and frozen whole. They are delicious in all dishes where mushrooms improve the taste: omelets, frittatas, pizza, pasta, burgers, veggie burgers (sauté with wild stinging nettle, asparagus, and red bell pepper). Sauté the first bunch of the season in a pinch of butter and olive oil. Dust with flour first, then sauté.
These have a brain-like outer appearance, ridged and pitted, with pits arranged in columns, hollow in the middle, and a conical cap that tapers—2"-6" in height.
Habitat: Moist woods, under and around dead elms, hillsides under snags of dead logs, edges of trenches and runoff areas, fencerows of north-facing woods, burnout areas in the West. April and May in Michigan, later in the West.
The yellow variety typically starts out gray and matures to yellow. Larger than black morels and with a full body of pits and ridges of different shapes and sizes, yellows appear a week or two later than blacks. They can exceed 10" in height but are typically in the 3"-6" range.
Habitat: Similar to black morels but will tolerate a little sun. Found on south-facing slopes in forests, campgrounds, streamsides of slow-moving streams, dank and moist places, April and May into June in Mountain West.
False morels are included here as a potentially toxic look-alike. I avoid this mushroom, although I have eaten it without ill effect. Others, however, find the mushroom toxic. False morels look similar to the edible morels but are strangely folded, as if nuked with radiation. They do not express the open hollow body of edible morels.
Habitat: Found in the same places as edible morels at the same time and even earlier.
I turn to this mushroom when morels are unavailable. Dryad's saddle is abundant, easy to identify, and available all year long. The flavor is not great, but it's good enough when thoroughly cooked and immersed in a soup or stew.
Identification: Forming shelves, this mushroom, often found in large clusters, is fan shaped, up to 15" in diameter, and pale tan to creamy yellow in color, with brown scales. This is a pored mushroom, with a tough stipe. Flesh is white, more tender near margins.
Habitat: Prefers wet woods and is best picked after a substantial rain (most tender then). Found in marshes; along streams; on dead timber, stumps, and dying trees of all kinds.
Food uses: Pick fresh young specimens that are wet and soft to the touch. A fresh squamosus releases a watermelon-like odor when torn. The mushroom gets tougher as you move toward the stem; use the outer tender edges. Eat fresh and cooked.
Eastern puffball
Identification: Puffballs range from small to large (1"-12" in diameter), whitish to brown (but not green, red, orange, or pink), oval to round or pear shaped; edible when fresh. Larger ones are easier to identify. They grow flat on top of the ground, without a distinctive stem. Be certain to slice the mushroom in half to check for gills or what may be the development of a gilled mushroom—a possible toxic amanita. Amanita gilled embryos emerge as adults from egg-shaped capsules; these capsules resemble a small puffball, but puffballs when sliced open do not present gills.
Western puffball
Habitat: Found on open ground under trees and shrubs and often in lawns. In Michigan we start seeing Calvatia gigantea in late August and September. Our favorite little brown puffball, found on dead maple and beech, appears at the same time. The small western variety, typically available in July (Montana), is found on open ground under pine trees and shrubs, often in lawns. Lycoperdon perlatum is found along forest roadsides and in driveways under pines from summer through fall.
Notes: Find puffballs of various species from coast to coast. Larger ones are easier to identify. Pick, cut open, and make certain the inside is white and not yellowing—and that there are no gills.
Food uses: I slice large puffballs thinly and dry them in a food dryer. Powder the end product, and add and stir in powder to cooking dishes (1 tablespoon to 1 quart broth) where you want to impart a mushroom flavor. Fresh mushrooms are breaded and sautéed or deep-fried. The flavor is good; the texture mushy.
Oysters were abundant and free for the picking yesterday, Sunday, May 2, the earliest date we have ever found them. I found them on dead beech, poplar, ash, and maple. They will be available through December.
Identification: Oysters typically grow in large colonies and are gilled. Gills (lamellae) are the thin radiating blades beneath the cap of the mushroom, and with the oyster the gills are attached and run down the stem. Stem (stipe) is off to the side, supporting a funnel-like cap. Pleurotus cornucopiae is white to light gray in color, darkening to brown with age. Pleurotus ostreatus starts out white and ages to slate gray, then light brown. White-to pale-lilac-colored spores variable to lilac gray.
Pan-seared buffalo steak with wild chives, onions, and oyster mushrooms
Habitat: Oyster mushrooms can be found on beech, maple, elm, oak, and birch. They grow in dense clusters—I once took a bushel off one downed beech. They will continue producing on the same tree or stump for several years, decomposing it—once the bark is gone, find a new tree.
Food uses: I prefer the taste of oyster mushrooms over morels. Pan-fry them battered in panko (Japanese bread crumbs). They're also great by themselves or with your favorite red or white oyster dip. They also can be used as a pizza topping, as well as in eggs, sauces, and Chinese and Mexican dishes.
Boletes are putrescent and break down into a slimy, mushy, odorous mass after sitting too long unrefrigerated. They carry a good deal of water, so don't wash before cooking—dry-brush but do not bathe.
Identification: 3"-10" in diameter, a bun-shaped mushroom with a moist, smooth, and viscous surface (like a browned hamburger bun). Color variable from biscuit brown, margins paler. Flesh is thick, often infested with worms, insects, and larvae. Tubes instead of gills, with the tube ends appearing to be stuffed with pith, first white in color and turning yellow, olive, to olive yellow as it ages—solitary and scattered and occasionally in groups of 2 or 3.
Warning: Avoid boletes with red or orange pores (tubes) and ones where cap surfaces or pores turn blue when bruised, as these may contain muscarine toxin. Avoid orange-and red-capped bolete look-alikes. Also avoid boletes with yellow pore surfaces that turn blue when bruised. And avoid orange-capped boletes altogether.
Habitat: I find king boletes in and around Yellowstone National Park in late July, typically in recovering burn areas, with 3"-10" spruce and pine new growth, and much dead timber on the ground. Farther west, in Montana, I stumble over them in campgrounds and along the edges of streams around the first and second weeks of August. I found several in one day during a warm year on Glacier Creek Trail in the Swan Valley, near Condon, Montana.
Food uses: The mushroom is watery—slice it thin and sauté. I cook them crisp. Cook into dishes and then freeze. It is too moist to dry. Eat and prepare as soon as possible, as its shelf life is short.
Find one of these large mushrooms and you'll have food for days, if not weeks. Often found in vacant woodlots and near populated areas. No need to hike into the wilderness for this mushroom—it's easily seen from the road and often along roadsides clinging to trees.
Identification: A lemon to orange-yellow (darkening with age) bracket fungus, grows on trees, and typically grows in a semicircle, taking the shape of a convoluted fan; has softly rounded edges, tubes are yellow, and when fresh a slight squeeze will exude yellow juice. Smell is pungent.
Habitat: Grows on trees, typically oaks, but also willow, cherry, and yew—seasonally available from late spring until early fall. In Michigan they are available from June through September.
Food uses: This is a chewy, juicy mushroom that requires cleaning. Pull apart segments (layers), brush, and wash (I use a hose). Blanching removes any bitter taste. Texture and flavor when cooked is like chicken. I sauté the mushroom to cook and remove moisture, then freeze, then thaw later to use in stews, soups, pizza, and omelets. Ideal for vegetarians. Goes well in risotto and with curry and various homemade salsas.
Notes: Jill, my wife, found a 35-pound hen-of-the-woods mushroom in her secret place two years in a row.
Identification: Grows at the base of trees. Central section of branched stems terminates in individual caps. Grayish caps 1"–3" across, with wrinkled edges. Stems gray also; mushroom browns with age. Tubes instead of gills.
Habitat: Grows on trunks of dead and living trees and occasionally on stumps. Typically on oaks but found on other deciduous trees. Found in late August, September, and October in the northern tier of eastern states.
Food uses: Requires diligent cleaning, with many cracks and crevices containing dirt and an occasional creature. I use a hose. This tasty mushroom requires enough cooking to soften its sometimes tough texture (depending on freshness). It goes well in all mushroom dishes. It dries well for storage, but I like to cook it first in a dish and freeze it for later use.
I found these the first time while searching for morels—they were growing on small lengths of rotting wood. Found them throughout the summer; best after a soaking rain.
Identification: Rubbery fruiting body that resembles an ear; 1"-3" across. Has a jellylike texture and snaps in the mouth like rubber bands. It is tan brown with grayish hairs on the velvety inner surface. Stretch the mushroom to make certain it is elastic and rubbery. It produces white spores, and the surface, as mentioned, is rubbery.
Habitat: Woods, fringes of woods; grows on wood (extremely rotted wood)—wood that can be shredded with your fingers. Many sources mention elder trees as a preferred habitat. Although available for several months, I find it rarely, and often in unlikely mushroom habitats.
Food uses: Wash thoroughly, then add to Oriental stir-fries, or simply sautée in butter. Interesting chewy texture and surprisingly good taste that holds up either dried or frozen in cooked dishes. Great in sauces: Cook with wild leeks, thicken with sour cream, and serve over toast.
In late summer and early fall, honey mushrooms appear in large numbers around the base of trees, stumps, and occasionally in the lawn, living off a submerged root. This is a destructive parasitic fungus that destroys many trees before their time.
Identification: Cap size ranges from ¾"to 8"; color varies from honey-like to dark brown, clearly visible yellow cottony ring; stem varies from 2" to 6" and is tough and fibrous (usually not eaten); gills vary from off-white to dark brown. Flesh is white with strong, sweet odor. Stem base is fused, and there is almost always a cluster of tiny scales at the cap's center. Found in large clumps, dispersing pale-cream, smooth elliptical spores—do a spore print to be certain this is the right mushroom. Choose carefully, as there are nasty look-alikes.
Habitat: Found in both deciduous and coniferous forests, on living or dead trees, stumps, and buried roots. Found from early summer to early winter and may reappear at same location in consecutive years, and occasionally in the same year.
Food uses: Boil caps for 2 minutes in slightly salted water, discard water, then use mushroom cap. Sauté, cook in sauces, thicken in cream seasoned with garlic and fresh basil. Cook into recipes and store in freezer. Drying toughens the mushroom, and it does not reconstitute easily.
This mushroom, always a surprise, is found inside a hollow log or hanging from a tree or stump. Various species are found in the western, eastern, and southern states.
Identification: 2"-20" across; a white, spiny mushroom that yellows with age. Dangling white spines give this fungus its common name. Spines may up to 1½" long and give the fungus the appearance of a lion's mane. Spore print is white. Fungoid attached to tree with a thick and solid white base—available in late summer and throughout the fall.
Habitat: Found singly and occasionally in pairs on the same wound from a deciduous tree (hardwood). You may have to climb to harvest. Mature and old-growth woods are productive.
Food uses: A delicious mushroom sautéed and eaten by itself or served hot in a vegetarian sandwich. Store prepared dishes in your freezer. Soften mushroom by cooking, which also eliminates some of the water from these hydrated specimens. Goes well with lemony marinades.