Shhhh...Be Very, Very Quiet...We're Hunting Mushrooms

No, not the psychedelic kind....well, we've found them....but we've only ingested the boring, edible, non-psychedelic 'shrooms, PROMISE!

Since we have moved up to Alaska we have taken a larger interest in foraging.  This is something that has always sparked curiosity in me and now I am finally starting to educate myself on it.  While we've done a few types of foraging, mushroom hunting is our big interest at the moment.

Alaska has TONS of different types of mushrooms.  It is insane how many types exist!  We went and bought some books (any hobby that lets me buy a book is a hobby that I like!) on mushroom identifying and have been researching the internet extensively.

We found at least ten different types in the woods around our yard alone!

These are the mushrooms we found in about 30 minutes around our house!

After we collected our mushrooms we looked through our books and attempted to identify them.  The next step was to make a spore print of the types we wanted to identify further.  Call me paranoid, but I want to make sure that we are accurately identifying the mushrooms we intend to eat.  No reason to make an ER trip for an accidental poisoning

After about 12 hours, this is what shows up on paper.

We have now increased our confidence in identifying certain mushroom types.  We have tried a couple of different mushrooms to eat.  The puffball variety is fantastic!  We have also tried the birch bolete and the trembling aspen bolete.  I have enjoyed the flavor of all of them.  Of course we are being very careful and only eating a small amount of only one type at a time just in case!  They are exceptionally good sauteed in butter with some garlic added.  And for all of you texture nuts out there (I'm one of them, not judging!) the texture didn't bother me in the slightest!

Example of a puffball mushroom.  We didn't eat this one because we had handled so many mushrooms that day and were worried about cross-contamination.

Birch boletes that we found.

We definitely will always retain a healthy respect for those 'shrooms that can kill you.  However, now that we have some knowledge, wild mushrooms don't seem near as scary!  In fact, some are quite tasty!!!