Take your time and trim away any tough or bug eaten pieces. ![]() Now that you’ve found some chicken of the woods, here’s how to clean it! If it has a strong or unpleasant odor, discard instead of eating. Before cooking give the mushroom a smell – it should smell faintly earthy, or may have no discernable smell. ![]() Store your fresh mushrooms in a brown paper bag for about 2 to 4 days. Just like you’d do with any other new-to-you wild food, if you’ve never eaten this mushroom before, eat a small portion and wait 24 to 48 hours to see if you have a reaction.īecause it’s so delicious, it’s easy to eat too much in one sitting, and that might cause some upset stomach. It’s best (and more easy to digest) to eat chicken of the woods when they’re young and juicy. Preparation & Preserving Chicken of the Woods On the right – A basket of freshly harvested Laetiporus cincinnatus. On the left – Harvesting Laetiporus sulphureus off of a large oak stump. At this stage, usually the only area worth eating will be on the outer 1 to 2 inches. As they age, they dry and lighten in color, becoming tough and riddled with bugs and worms. When collecting, make sure the mushrooms appear fresh and firm. Once located, this mushroom will tend to return year after year, until it has used up its food source. It often produces in quantities enough so you can eat some fresh, and also preserve for later, by freezing or drying. The large size and bright color make the Laetiporus sulphureus (sulfur shelf) easy to spot in the woods. Even if we have a very dry summer, we’re still sure to find some nice specimens to harvest. White Pored Sulfur Shelf – Laetiporus cincinnatus – growing at the base of an oak tree.įinding and Harvesting Chicken of the WoodsĬhicken of the Woods is most likely to be found from August through October, but it can be found as early as May and up to December depending on where you live.Ī nice thing about this mushroom is that it’s not particularly rain dependent. White pored sulfur shelf is somewhat harder to find than the yellow sulfur variety, and is considered a choice edible. It too has overlapping, individual fan-shaped caps that are about 2 to 10 inches (5 to 25 cm) wide that form a rosette of sorts. ![]() Laetiporus cincinnatus (white-pored sulfur shelf) is somewhat similar in appearance but has a pale pinkish to pale peachy or salmon colored upper surface, a white pore-bearing surface underneath, and only occurs at the base of a tree (primarily oaks). Identification Tips White Pored Sulfur Shelf The spore color is white, but it can be difficult to get a spore print since it sometimes ejects the spores right after cutting. ![]() This part can be tough, so you don’t usually cook it.įlip a piece over and you’ll see the bottom, or pore-bearing surface, is a bright, sulfurous yellow, with very small pores. When it comes to a stem, there isn’t one, or there’s a pseudo (“false”) stem, which is actually a part of the caps. The caps are about 2 to 12 inches (5 to 30 cm) across, semi-circular to fan shaped, and occur in overlapping clusters, which can lead to extremely large fruiting bodies. The edges are usually bright yellow and wavy. Laetiporus sulphureus (sulfur shelf) has an orange-red to orange-yellow upper surface that’s smooth or slightly wrinkled. Laetiporus sulphureus (sulfur shelf) fruiting on an oak stump.
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