Posted by Sinclair Philip on Oct 6, 2010 in Mushroom Blog |

George Butcher found the Prince mushroom, Agaricus augustus in his yard this weekend and shared some with me. They were at the button stage. This is one of the very best edible mushrooms there is.  This mushroom is meaty, on the sweetish side and is almondy at this stage in development.  This is one of the easier agaricus to identify because of its big permanent ring, large size, shaggy stem and almond scent. It usually grows in the open and, in this case, grew near...

Posted by Sinclair Philip on Oct 6, 2010 in Mushroom Blog |

I found about 6 of these mushrooms last week and Oluna Ceska was kind enough to identify them for me. They were growing in a mixed conifer, west facing, sloping forest which was made up largely of western hemlock near the beaches north of Jordan River. There was a lot of rotting wood on the ground. Although Trudell and Ammirati (pg 219) identify the flavour as mild, several of us found this mushroom to be an excellent edible! As you can see from these photographs, my...

Posted by Sinclair Philip on Oct 1, 2010 in Mushroom Blog |

Today, Friday , October 1st,  I went out and found quite a few mushrooms in the Sooke area including these, Armillaria ostoyae. These are a type of Honey mushroom and they are best when young and should be well cooked to bring out the flavour. There are occasional reports of allergic reactions to these mushrooms and sometimes this includes honey mushrooms growing on hemlock trees. Some suggest disgarding the stems although I think they are palateble. They are tough. Michael...

Posted by Sinclair Philip on Sep 29, 2010 in Mushroom Blog |

I found this Boletus coniferarum, Conifer Boletus, on Tuesday, September 28th. It is an edible bolete but it’s flavour is bitter and it is definitely considered to be inferior to  many other  boletes. I found this mushroom in a predominantly western hemlock forest by the ocean near Sooke. We found four types of boletus including lots of King Boletus...

Posted by Sinclair Philip on Sep 21, 2010 in Mushroom Blog |

Blue Chanterelle, Polyozellus multiplex Michel Jansen-Reynaud, former Sooke Harbour House waiter and active mushroom forager, found this very rare mushroom north of Sooke.  Although this is a good edible mushroom, it should be picked with restraint. I found this text book cep or porcini, Boletus edulis, on September 9th. Michel Jansen-Reynaud is delivering the King Bolete or porcini and is probably the forager with the greatest knowledge of mushrooms and good sites between...