Oyster Mushroom Bounty

There are still no chanterelles, but the land blessed us with an amazing mushroom gift today. Right across the creek from the kitchen we found a dead standing Alder tree covered with fresh oyster mushrooms. The only problem is that they're 20-30 feet in the air.

[This is the section we harvested today]

Not to be deterred, we hauled the extension ladder into the creek to harvest some. When I got close enough to touch them I realized just how big they are and just how many we have. It's hard to judge scale from far away.

[Waaay up the tree]

We had grabbed a big cardboard box to carry our catch to the kitchen. After a few minutes of harvesting Jared wanted to rest his arms. No wonder! In 10 minutes I had picked about 15 pounds of mushrooms. That box was heavy!

[Jared and the Oysters]

We looked back at the tree and realized that there is easily another 30 pounds left to pick from the FIRST FLUSH! Oysters can be picked every few days and they just keep on fruiting.

[One mushroom, for scale]

I think this will be the first big gathering where we will serve a major meal featuring our own wildcrafted mushrooms. I'll write a whole post about the amazing mushroom cream sauce that Jared made tonight. It's enough to feed 80 people if we pour it over pasta or use it in a casserole, and it is crazy delicious.

I'm also researching to see if Oyster Mushrooms can be dried, frozen or otherwise stored. We could easily have a year's worth of mushrooms just by picking a few flushes from this one log.

Related Post:

Mushroom Cream Sauce Recipe