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RE: Found an epic chicken in the park! Would you eat it?
That doesn't look much like the Chicken of the Woods we have hereabouts, which are bright orange with a yellow underside and margin. I have found them weighing over 50 lbs., and harvest only the margin (which isn't woody and bitter, while older material tends to be on larger individuals) for personal use.
Is the color simply not well reproduced in the picture, or is there another reason for the dissimilarity from the variety I am familiar with?
Thanks!
It is a pretty crappy picture but it is also a pretty crappy mushroom.
I think it is still immature, maybe I will go out today and see if it dried up or got kicked by a child or got bigger. They start off like yellow Styrofoam and then they develop out into ledges and then they turn more reddish and have pores on the bottom. Also this one has a lot of dirt and perhaps mold on it, the gray part is not normal, probably been peed on by a lot of dogs, did you see the ones in my last post?
I picked those before they turned red or developed pores on the bottom side, they have a higher water content and are a little less flavorful than ones that are more developed I have eaten. Seems like older ones often have bugs in them or are all dried out.
Do the ones in your area taste like lemony chicken/lobster?
They are well named, including the name Sulphur Shelf (from the bright yellow color) and resemble poultry in texture in the various dishes I eat them in. The older they get the more bitter and woody they get, and I have never tried to sell them.
these are a little nicer
Those look very young, hardly look like a shelf at all. I see but a tinge of the bright orange color that marks them hereabouts, and I've never found them at that stage: before they flatten out.
It's been super dry, we had one rainy day and that is what got them going but it has not rained again. At this stage they look just like spray foam insulation.
The rains begin here, and so does the mushroom season. I hope soon my little shiitake farm will start producing.
It's raining today after being cloudy and cold and dry all week so maybe there will be some interesting things popping up. I think I am going to try a giant puffball this year in addition to more chicken of the woods.