Inky Caps
Found, side of a Floyd County country road near home. Photographed. Collected. Consumed.
These are Inky Caps, Coprinus comatus, and are one of the few wild mushrooms I feel confident enough to eat, but have only found a few times in sufficient quantity (and obtainable without trespass) to eat. This past weekend on the way home from the Parkway, this little cluster was growing at the edge of a county road.
This was along a deserted stretch of gravel road and I could easily pull the car off and go back for a closer look. Some of the first to emerge had already started to liquefy (a method of promoting spore release, not an ignominious, disgusting demise) but there were a dozen 4-5" tall specimens that had just pushed up through the soil.
After taking a half dozen images and packing to go, I went back and collected a good pound of the fresh ones. We had them that night, sauteed in butter, with whatever we were having for dinner, and the rest, the next night in spaghetti. They're mostly water, so a pound of 'shrooms made about a half cup of edible fungus.
Comments
Thanks for the post on an edible I didn't know. I've found some choice mushrooms around my yard but not this one and if I did I was not familiar with it. Also thanks for the link to a site of which I wasn't aware
Posted by: Dave | October 13, 2006 6:19 AM
Old Tonight Show joke: Where do you find wild mushrooms? In dead people's stomachs.
Posted by: Reno | October 13, 2006 7:48 AM
So glad you posted this, Fred. I came across some of these recently and was amazed. They seemed so tall and strange. My camera was out of battery power so I missed the shot...and the good meal they could have provided, had I known.
Posted by: colleen | October 13, 2006 9:12 AM
I've eaten a few dandelions and fiddleheads, but haven't been brave(or knowledgeable) enough to feel like I could eat a wild mushroom. Bravo! (Reminds me of the old saying that it took a brave person to eat the first oyster.)
Posted by: Beth Westmark | October 14, 2006 8:24 AM