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| Hen of the Woods - Photo: wildmanstevebrill.com |
This morning I made myself breakfast (it's a day off - sunny, cool and breezy) and what a lovely breakfast it was! My co-worker (I'll call her "Miss J") has been adventuring into the woods lately, looking for edible mushrooms and, a couple of days ago, she found and took home a bountiful amount of a 'shroom called "hen of the woods" (Grifola frondosa, also known as Maitake or Sheepshead). Not to be confused with the edible "chicken mushroom," these lovely shelf fungi (a pinkish beige tinged with grayish brown) are thick and soft, sort of rubbery to the touch, but let me tell you this about that: Sliced and sauteed in butter along with onions and scrambled into an egg, they are absolutely delicious! I plan to add them to a yummy vegetable soup I am going to make, perhaps tonight...
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| Hen of the Woods - Photo: Tom Volk's Fungi |
Here's more info about Hen of the Woods:
The clustered, overlapping grayish-brown,
lateral spoon- or fan-shaped caps grow 3/4 to 2-3/4 inches wide, arising
from short white stalks that branch from the base. The surface of the
tiny pores under the caps is whitish. The spores are also white.
The mushroom grows throughout most of the
US at the bases of deciduous trees, living or dead, often over and over
at the same time every year, in the fall. It’s very common, although
easy to overlook due to its camouflage colors.
Hen-of-the-woods (sold in health food stores under its Japanese name, Maitake, to
fight cancer and strengthen the immune system) has a deep, rich flavor
and chewy texture. The only downside is that it can be a pain to clean
unless it’s very fresh. Grit gets ingrained in the dozens of little
caps, and you have to cut it away with a paring knife.
Prepare this flavorful fungus
any way you like—sautéed, simmered in soups, marinated, baked, or even
pickled. It cooks in 15 to 20 minutes. (from Wild Man Steve Brill's web site - see below)
Miss J has been attending mushroom workshops (with, I believe, Wild Man Steve Brill himself), so she knows a thing or two about local mycology (the study of mushrooms). I once gifted her with a very informative coloring book all about mushrooms. So she collected these tasty polypores and carefully sliced and washed each piece, then lovingly dried them all and put equal amounts into three paper bags for me and our two employers. Miss J tells me (and now I have read up on them a little bit) that the mushrooms will grow back even after they have been lifted up out of the ground because there are still many spores that remain in the soil. As always, when dealing with wild edibles, especially mushrooms, double-check the plant's identity to be 100% positive it is not poisonous! Some tasty-looking plants, when touched or ingested, can make a person very unwell...
Also, I visited this web page:
Grifola frondosa is an apt example of a
well-documented traditional Chinese medicine. The first record of its
use comes from Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong's Scripture of Herbal
Medicine [cited in Mizuno and Zhuang 1995]), which was compiled between
200 BC and 200 AD. This scripture states that Keisho (one type of
medicine made with Grifola frondosa) "has been used frequently
for improving spleen and stomach ailments, calming nerves and mind, and
treating hemorrhoids" (Mizuno and Zhuang 1995). There are a variety of
other Chinese medicines containing Grifola frondosa, ranging from
cancer treatment to remedies for palsy, nerve pain, and arthritis.
Other described uses of this mushroom include general treatments for
immune stimulation and regulation of homeostasis. (Thomas J.
Volk, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/
(Spoiler Alert: It even includes a recipe for the very invasive, tastes-like-rhubarb Japanese knotweed!)
Bon apetit!
