Eating Chanterelles and Indigo Milk Caps: Wild Florida Mushrooms!
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NOTE: Don’t eat any wild mushroom unless you know for sure what you have. And don’t follow my example, then get sick, then sue me. Not everyone has my iron constitution or taxonomic giftings.
I’m cautiously learning my edible and poisonous mushrooms at the moment.
The first mushrooms I ever picked and ate from the wild were puffballs. Those are really hard to miss and with a few precautions (cut every one in half to make sure they aren’t baby Amanitas or something horrid – also make sure they’re white inside) they’re a safe, if sometimes rather bland, wild edible.
It also helps that this is mushroom season and there are wild Florida mushrooms ripe for the foraging. The cooling weather and the rain have made our fungal friends appear everywhere.
The other day I decided to take a stroll around the block. On the way home I wandered through an empty 3-acre lot with a few trees and a lot of weeds… and I found these:
Indigo milk caps are strikingly beautiful and edible.
I whipped out my mushroom guide books and discovered they were Lactarius indigo – an edible mushroom with no poisonous look-alikes.
Not only that, I discovered more chanterelles:
Chanterelle mushrooms, freshly harvested!
Take a look at the two species together:
Beautiful, aren’t they?
Unfortunately, I made a beginner’s mistake and plucked the mushrooms and put them in my basket without cleaning the dirt off them first. Cleaning them at home when they had dirt in the gills was really a pain – don’t do what I did.
The night I picked the Lactarius indigo, I ate them for dinner. They were like big portobellos!
Unfortunately I had to sautee them in Olive oil since I was out of butter (#firstworldproblems) but they still came out nicely… especially with scrambled eggs. Look at how weirdly green they turned my eggs:
Lactarius indigo makes some weird scrambled eggs.
The little bit of dirt left on the mushrooms was unpleasant but overall it was edible. Not great, but edible. Free food. Hehheh.
As for the chanterelles… Rachel and I ate them for breakfast the next morning with bacon, sauteed in bacon grease and served alongside eggs and that wonderful persimmon I posted on a couple of days back.
Wild mushrooms aren’t for everyone; however, once you nail down a few good edibles, you’ll be saving money on groceries, plus wild food is really, really healthy.
We have had them twice before. Once last fall and once a week ago. Hopefully there will be more after the rain today. There were a few tiny pinheads yesterday, so we will see!
Kristy Lee
Hey David! Had no idea you were into mushrooms too. I had a fantastic forage today finding lots of chants and trumpets as well as a few nice puffballs. I actually found a massive network of indigos in a wooded area of my yard last year. Can’t wait to see them popping again. Cheers!
David The Good
That is a great find.
We are in the midst of buying a new homestead right now. I was on the new property a couple of days ago and was quite pleased to see a big selection of chanterelles growing under some trees in the lawn. All ready for us!
NOTE: Don’t eat any wild mushroom unless you know for sure what you have. And don’t follow my example, then get sick, then sue me. Not everyone has my iron constitution or taxonomic giftings.
5 responses to “Eating Chanterelles and Indigo Milk Caps: Wild Florida Mushrooms!”
My 6 year old granddaughter and I found a handful of chanterelles today. Now we will have to be on the lookout for Lactarius indigo!
How wonderful! Have you eaten them before?
I went back again this afternoon and found some more. The next couple of days are supposed to be rainy… I'm hoping for a bumper crop next week.
We have had them twice before. Once last fall and once a week ago. Hopefully there will be more after the rain today. There were a few tiny pinheads yesterday, so we will see!
Hey David! Had no idea you were into mushrooms too. I had a fantastic forage today finding lots of chants and trumpets as well as a few nice puffballs. I actually found a massive network of indigos in a wooded area of my yard last year. Can’t wait to see them popping again. Cheers!
That is a great find.
We are in the midst of buying a new homestead right now. I was on the new property a couple of days ago and was quite pleased to see a big selection of chanterelles growing under some trees in the lawn. All ready for us!