Show me your fungus. (Mushroom Photos)

M.K. Dorje Sr. wrote:

M.J. Wayne wrote:I have no clue what these are. Several cedar trees, and only cedar trees, had these on their branches. Pictures were taken in spring of 2024.

M.J., that looks like Cedar-Apple Rust, a common disease that affects  both cedar and apple trees:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosporangium_juniperi-virginianae

Thank you!!

That wikpedia link didn't work for me.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/gymnosporangium_juniperi-virginianae.shtml


Now I understand why that fungi grew only on the cedars. I haven't seen any since then, and the trees are doing fine.

Here are some mushrooms I found on the Oregon Coast last month:

Old rotten maple tree trunk produced these.

The late warm weather has meant that we have finally gotten clean oyster mushrooms from the inoculating I did in '24.
(We have a beetle problem most of the time but the soft freezes we've had seem to gave knocked them out)
I've taken a bunch today and will be back out through the weekend.

Another late season warm weather mushroom story here. I inoculated about 1000 shiitake logs after a catastrophic ice storm we had in spring 2025. In my area of Northern Lower Michigan I find shiitake logs generally take 2 full years to really start hitting their production stride, so I wasn't really expecting to see much until this coming spring. We have had an exceptionally mild fall, with only a couple light frosts so far, and the shiitakes have been popping like crazy! I only regret I didn't really have a marketing plan in place yet, so we have just been dehydrating them for the most part.

The highest quality shiitake seem to be produced in conditions where they barely survive, where it is almost too cold and dry. They grow slow and thick, with deep cracks on the cap, sometimes called 'donko shiitake'. The taste, texture, and shelf life of this type of shiitake is exceptional!

I have too many mushroom photos to post but we have a few favorites from foraging with our kids over the years.  Here are some of our hauls of chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sp.) and some pics of how I've cooked it up.  I also saute it and freeze it to use later (flash freeze on a pan and then bag up for the freezer). We're in SW Minnesota and it's pretty easy to find here. Some of our family members are vegetarians and it makes a really great chicken substitute in things like casseroles, stir fries and even on pizza.

Morels are big  hits with our family in May. Our kids get very competitive trying to find the most or the biggest.  :)  Here are a few pics from over the years of their hauls.  They always come up here in MN at the same time as the wild asparagus, so sauteed morels and asparagus over rice is a simple but well loved dish every May in our family. Our kids like them best battered and fried (ugly pic below but they taste great, lol), but I also sometimes just saute them in butter and if the family doesn't find enough for making a main dish of them for everybody I use them in casseroles.