A Prized Lions Mane Mushroom

Go Time: Late Summer Mushrooming

Carry a knife and a bag on a late summer walk thru the woods.

Whether actively foraging or just going for a walk edible mushrooms just may be on your dinner menu. Finding edible mushrooms is hit and sort of miss. Rarely is there a complete whiff when hunting mushrooms in late August. Reason being there are many, many edible mushroom varieties available for foragers to find and harvest in late August into early September. Foraging mushrooms requires only a few skills. Number one being know what you are harvesting. Number two all you need is perserverence, a knife (always cut them at the base this will leave behind the spores for the next batch), a bag, and a hunk of woods. For me that hunk of woods is in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I’ve had great success in Colorado when we simply stumbled upon King Boletes.

I’ll break this down. In Minnesota I’ve been fortunate to find many Hen of the Woods, known to many as Maitake, Chicken of the Woods, Lions Mane, Lobster, Black Trumpets, Yellowfoot, Puffballs and Hedgehogs. Of these the Chickens are the easiest to find and typically the most plentiful. Chickens like dead wood and can be found growing on dead deciduous trees. Chickens are colorful. Look for orange and yellow blobs growing on dead trees. Hens are also out in late summer and they typically grow at the base of oak trees. Chickens and hens can very large, pounds large. Lions Mane also prefer dead trees. Lions Mane taste like seafood and they are prized. I’ve found them in numerous areas from Anoka county on north. It seems to me that I stumble on hedgehogs and lobsters growing on the ground in deep dark forested areas. 

In Wisconsin for some reason there are still Chanterelles around in late August and in Michigan I’ve found plenty of them into September. Chanterelles are found in leaf litter and other shady areas and seem to prefer darker soils. Both hens and chickens are available in Wisconsin as well as the UP.

Now in Michigan I find this to be like fishing in the sense that you catch a lot or not much. Also in the same vein as fishing when you find the motherload it’ll keep you going back for years to try and duplicate that bite. For instance on one venture into the woods we immediately, as in the parking lot, found harvestable trumpets, hedgehogs, chickens and hens within visible distance. On this adventure we pounded the mushrooms harvesting 7 different target species, the edible ones we like to eat. Among this batch were hedgehogs about as big as a dessert plate!

On to Colorado. Wow did we stumble onto a harvest. Right at our camping area there were king boletes. And a hike up a mountainous area we found more than we could eat or transport. King Boletes often referred to as Porchini can be big, as in some as big as your head. One tip: King Boletes need to be eaten right way. They need to be refrigerated or dehydrated quickly if you want them to last.

So in conclusion you can end up with some wild mushrooms whether you go hiking to find them or you just happen to stumble upon them while on a hike. If you’re interested in harvesting wild mushrooms on a hike bring a knife and bag. Dinner will be better.

Upper Midwest Mushrooms