Found a big one

[Al Agnew]

We got a good rain last weekend here in the Ozarks, and 'shrooms began to pop up.  Yesterday morning Mary's brother called, said he and his wife were hiking in a local state park and had found a cluster of chanterelles.  They didn't have anything in which to carry them, so they said we needed to come and get them, since they were right on the trail.  So we put our hiking shoes on and began the two mile hike to the spot he'd described.  It was supposed to be on the back side of a big log to the left of the trail, and he said we couldn't see them until we'd passed the log.  Didn't really sound like chanterelles to me--he's not a mushroom hunter--but I was looking for chants going in, and finally found a single one.  So maybe he was right...

We came to a big log in the right area.  I scanned the ground behind it as we approached...nothing.  Wrong log?  Nope.  We passed the log, and there was big cluster of bright yellow mushroom growing on the side of the log itself.  Not chanterelles, a big chicken of the woods, the golden yellow one that's sometimes called a sulfur shelf.  Still young and fresh, but about 10 pounds of mushroom.

Tonight we had our first meal of it, sauteed with diced onion in butter, with home grown tomatoes and potatoes, and home grown watermelon for dessert.  Yum!  They really do taste like chicken nuggets, only better.  Fried up the rest and vacuum packed enough for four more meals, and put them in the freezer.

[Johnsfolly]

Al - those are some of my favorites to find this time if year. They have the texture to stand all kinds of cooking. Great find!