What mushrooms can be collected in winter
Not everyone knows about it, but mushrooms can be picked not only in summer or autumn, but at any time of the year. Naturally, for each season there is a range of varieties. In fact, seasonality is another basis for classifying mushrooms.
Winter mushrooms are the least known. There are few of them, many people do not even suspect the possibility of picking mushrooms even in the cold months (from mid-November to mid-March).
The brightest representatives of the winter group are oyster mushrooms and winter honey agarics. And besides them, they are found in snowy forests: garlic and liverworts and tinder fungi (winter, scaly, birch sponge and others), hymnopiles and crepidots, strobiluruses and mycenae (gray-pink and ordinary), slit-leaves and tremors, as well as some others, quite edible species.
Polypore sulfur-yellow in the snow:
So do not be surprised: the winter forest can please mushroom pickers with delicious mushrooms. Unfortunately, there are only a few types of such mushrooms, but they are widespread, and their collection does not cause any particular difficulties. You can combine business with pleasure – skiing through the winter forest and searching for forest delicacies.
Picking mushrooms in winter is even more convenient than in summer. In a leafless snow-covered forest, they can be seen from afar, especially since they usually grow high on trunks or fallen trees.
In addition, winter is the most convenient time for collecting birch chaga. This inedible mushroom has excellent healing properties, so it is widely used for medicinal purposes. And lovers of original crafts will be pleased with a variety of tinder mushrooms, from which various compositions, figurines, flower pots, etc. are made.
At the beginning of winter, especially if frosty days come early, you can find ordinary autumn mushrooms in the forest – several types of rows, autumn mushrooms, sulfur-yellow and scaly tinder fungi. But they can only be collected before the first thaws, since after thawing and subsequent frosts they will lose their qualities. Winter mushrooms, on the contrary, are not afraid of thawing, but use this time to continue growing.
The easiest way is to collect late oyster mushrooms in the winter forest. Outwardly, they practically do not differ from those grown in greenhouses and sold in markets or stores. It is difficult to confuse oyster mushroom with other mushrooms, its leg is on the side, smoothly turning into a hat, which sometimes reaches 12 centimeters. Young mushrooms look like shells, which is why oyster mushrooms are sometimes called oyster mushrooms.
The oyster mushroom cap is usually light gray in color, but there are brownish, yellowish and bluish colors. Oyster mushrooms always settle in groups on dead or fallen aspens and birches, less often on other deciduous trees. Inexperienced mushroom pickers sometimes mistake young gray or whitish tinder fungi for oyster mushrooms, but they are always tough and tinder fungi do not have such a leg as oyster mushrooms.
Oyster mushrooms are well suited for cooking various dishes. Before cooking, it is advisable to boil the mushrooms, and drain the broth.
Winter mushrooms have been collected since ancient times. The fact that the mushroom is widespread is evidenced by a large number of its popular names: winter mushroom, winter mushroom, snow mushroom, winter moth. The mushroom has a bright orange-yellow color, under the hat there are rare light yellow plates. The stem of adult mushrooms is long and stiff, noticeably darkening towards the bottom, covered with fluff. Mushrooms look shiny, as the hat is covered with protective mucus.
Winter mushrooms settle in groups on old or dead deciduous trees. Most often they can be found on elm, aspen, willow, poplar, sometimes grow on old apple and pear trees. The mushroom is delicious and is used in many dishes. In adult mushrooms, only caps are edible, and young mushrooms can be used with legs.
It is curious that in the countries of the Far East, winter mushrooms are bred, and they are used not only for food, but also for the preparation of various extracts and medicinal preparations. In the literature, I met references that the fungus has pronounced antiviral properties and even inhibits the growth of cancer cells.
Much less often in the forest you can find the gray-lamellar false honey agaric, which prefers to settle on stumps and deadwood of coniferous trees. Despite the name, the mushroom is edible and tasty. It differs from winter honey agaric in a more faded color, which can vary from yellowish-gray to brown. The plates of the fungus darken noticeably with age, turning from a whitish-yellow color to a grayish-blue color. If you rub a piece of the cap in your fingers, a characteristic pleasant mushroom smell appears.
Therefore, if you wish and skill, you can diversify the winter menu with delicious, fragrant mushrooms collected with your own hands. Agree, a good way to surprise and delight guests!