is this mushroom edible?

[wymansmind]

It's not hard like the artist conk, also a shelf mushroom, more of a leathery consistency , It has no psychotropic effects. The benefits are for boosting immunity, and certain types of cancer.

[tedln]

I've always been aware that mushrooms contain many different chemical compounds. Some are insignificant yielding no benefit and no harm to humans. Others are psychotropic and others are highly toxic. I'm not familiar with the medicinally beneficial properties of mushrooms. I assume most of those beneficial properties are identified as "antioxidants" which destroy free ions. Some plants like the Pacific Yew contain compounds like Taxol which have been scientifically proven to be beneficial in the treatment of breast cancer. Taxol has now been synthesized by the pharmaceutical industry and is widely used. What are the claims made for the compounds found in the Wild Turkey Tail mushroom and how have they been proven. Is it only a homeopathic remedy or has it been synthesized and used as a specific treatment?

Ted

[applestar]

I've been eye'ing what appears to be Wild Turkey mushrooms that occasionally grows in my backyard, but in my research I came across a mention of False Turkey Mushrooms. So I haven't been brave enough to try them.

HOWEVER, it's a coicidence that this thread has been revived. This very afternoon, I came across a mushroom that looked every bit like a puffball mushroom in my front yard. It was about the size of a good sized grapefruit -- I don't know if that would put it in the right size range for the Giant Puffball mushroom. It was growing where the weeping Cherry tree has grown a very long root reaching almost to the house, probably to take advantage of where the rainspout drains out. Last year, I found a large salad plate sized mound of brown powder in the grass that I had guessed had been a Puffball mushroom that had gone to spore, and it had been located above another long exploratory root of the same Cherry tree.

Now, I have read many, many descriptions of (Giant) Puffball mushrooms, and that they are nearly the safest wild-picked mushroom to try as a neophyte. I cut it open top to bottom as recommended and it looked like I'd cut a bread/pizza dough ball in half. All within safe ID parameters. So I decided to go ahead and take the culinary plunge.

I sliced, EVOO/butter sauteed and ate a piece. Yum! Over about two hour period, I ended up eating almost 1/4 of the entire mushroom (probably more than I should, if there was any doubt at all but it was really good... ). I've sauteed the other 1/4 with some greens and am now cooking it with brown rice and green shelled California #5 black-eyed peas for dinner. I've sliced up the other 1/2 and put them in the dehydrator since DH is refusing to trust my ID and I don't want to eat the whole thing by myself right away. (Well, it's probably better that at least ONE of us remains cautious ).

If I you don't see me come back to the forum tomorrow. You'll know what happened.

[wymansmind]

Her is a link for some information on this mushroom. https://wildbranchmushrooms.com/turkey-tail
I hope this is helpful.

I have not found any of the giant puffballs up here in New Hampshire, But I have read that they are really good.

We had a really good rain last night, and I found an abundance of mushrooms on my hunt today.

[tedln]

I rarely search for mushrooms anymore. Don't know why, just seems like there is always something else that needs to be done. If I lived in the cooler climes of the North Eastern United States, my favorite to search for would be the Morel. There is a false Morel that many people mistakenly eat. It isn't toxic, but it also doesn't taste very good. Probably the most common highly desirable mushroom in the North East is the Oyster mushroom. Many people call it the Elephant Ear mushroom. It is prepared by dipping it in egg wash and then dusting with flour, salt, and pepper. It is then deep fried until crisp. They are absolutely delicious. You need to find them before they are more than a couple of days old. They quickly become infested with tiny black flies or beetles which can be washed off, but it is hard to get all of them out of the gills of the mushrooms. Most people simply submerge the mushrooms in a large bucket of water and let the bugs float out of the mushrooms. The nice thing about the oyster mushroom is the fact that when you find one, you will probably need a five gallon bucket to haul all of it home. If you harvest it and go back in a week, it will have been replaced.

Most of the giant puffball mushrooms I find are in dry, arid areas. Often they are found when it hasn't rained in weeks and no other signs of life exist on top of the dirt. Suddenly you look up and see what looks like a soccer ball without the polygon lines on it. So long as they have the white mozzarella texture on the inside, they are good to eat.

Ted

[applestar]

Hey, I'm still here!

Ted, that basically describes the weather conditions around here. Drought all summer, then the excessive fall rains including northward passage of TS Nicole that initiated 3 flood alerts.

[applestar]

Here are some photos of the mushroom that I ate.
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8174.jpg[/img] [img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8175.jpg[/img] [img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8173.jpg[/img]