| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| bingo |
Chicken of the woods.Found a nice one today walking with Fay..............
........Perfect! Pete is this the one you were on about? It was by a pond. This is where my early Chanterelle patch is.........they're not out yet. |
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| Fee |
Fancy pants 
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| bingo |
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| PeteS |
Snap!
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| sally_in_wales |
I'm jealous, its a fungi I really want to try, never seen it growing though. | ||||
| Stewy |
Found my very first one last week.
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| jamanda |
I wonder if there will be any in the woods near the meet - they will still be about in a couple of weeks won't they fungi boys? | ||||
| cab |
Out that way, yeah, maybe. They've usually got a Spring spurt and then another later in Summer/Autumn, its usually a wee bit cooler out that way, so I should think that you have a fair chance. Willow is most favoured by it here. |
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| Treacodactyl |
Went out for a quick evening forage and the wood was covered in them, well over 12 clumps in 3 different locations where we've found them before.
They ranged from a small single bit on a log, probably oak or ash but too rotten to positively identify: 
To a large outcrop, about 4 foot long and 3 foot high, on an huge old beach tree: 
The large one was still young and I managed to pick some very tender pieces, a bit too tender for me as the texture was like raw flesh even after cooking, a bit like a firm jelly. We found the most on a couple of fallen cherry trees. |
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| bingo |
Very nice | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
Has anyone noticed anyone else collecting CotW? I don't think I've ever seen one that's had pieces removed by anyone other than me, even quite old specimens seem to age untouched round here.
I must try and find some good recipes for it, might try some CotW nuggets tonight if there's time. |
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| cab |
Yep, often see signs that some has been picked. Sometimes I know precisely who, 'cos they've posted here about the same patch 
COTW nuggets work; dip soft stuff in batter, flavoured with garlic, and deep fry. We had Thai green COTW curry the other evening. |
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| PeteS |
I have only once seen evidence that a COTW's had been picked. And that was only a small amount and it was right next to a car park. Any that I have found away from car parks (they can be right next to a road and still be ignored) have not been picked. In general people do not walk very far from their cars.
One other thing. If you pick a young COTW's then, in a week to 10 days, it can completely grow back. Sometimes even bigger that before! They grow fast. Here is one I picked last year. Cut right off the tree stump 
And the same stump 8 days later! 
This COTW fruited again last week. It's the same one that I posted earlier in this thread. |
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| wildfoodie |
has anyone tried freezing a cotw recipe? I know its not a great keeper and def. doesn't dry.... but how about cooking it first then freezing? | ||||
| PeteS |
Slicing it up, cooking it a little in butter and then freezing it in butter works well. Make sure you use good quality butter - it makes all the difference.
You can freeze the whole brackets too, but I have found the butter method works best and you can't tell the difference once used in many recipes. |
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| cab |
I just chop it and freeze it as is. Seems fine. |
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| wildfoodie |
Brilliant cheers for that Pete. Off to go and collect from a tree I found by the edge of a car park absolutely covered in it - all at arm height too. That's if Cab hasn't beaten me to it!
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| cab |
All depends which car park you mean
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| wildfoodie |
Ha! Just back from my pm forage and I got there first!
also got some new growth chickweed, hogweed/cow parsnip flower shoots, some hedge mustard leaves, and for the first time in a couple of years, ash keys young enough to pickle!  its gonna be a busy old afternoon for me then!
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| cab |
Had any cuckoo flower, wildfoodie? Lots about at the moment, lovely stuff too. | ||||
| wildfoodie |
yes a wee bit! so pretty in salads. daisies from the botanic gardens have been very good this year for instant snacking ( when the groundsmen aren't looking of course!)and have been stuffing out on ground elder and last of the nettles. Its getting a bit too fiddly to seek out the smaller stuff now but have a lovely rash of fat hen in veg patch for next week I think. ahh nature is a wonderful thing! | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
Some recipes suggest you blanch it for a few minutes in salted water to remove any bitterness, so when I've frozen it in the past I've just done that. |
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| ros |
Is there anything I could harm myself with that looks like COTW?
Near me on a (high) coppiced willow is what looks like the good stuff, but before I work out how to get over the ditch to it it would be good to know if it could be something else. |
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| cab |
Nothing that isn't rather rare. Any chance of a pic? |
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| Treacodactyl |
I'm not an expert, but I don't think any bracket fungi are very harmful, I could be wrong of course. The only thing I've found in books that looks similar is Pycnoporus cinnabarinus, which is listed as very rare, only 'not edible', and found later in the year. http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6711.asp So I'd say no. I tried it deep fried in batter tonight and it's certainly something to try again. IMHO, the CotW needs to be a little firmer than the very soft, young brackets (i.e. more like the firmer chicken texture older brackets have) and the batter needs plenty of pepper and good pinch of salt, but even Bugs liked it. 
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| ros |
Thanks Cab, I'll try to get a pic in the morning. Do fungi pick up poluutants from the air? this growth is a bit close to the A1. |
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| cab |
Try it with heaps of garlic in the batter. Fantastic. |
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| bingo |
I went back to the same place I found the COTW today and on the other side of the tree was a mushroom weighing 20K.......this wasn't there on monday.  How mad is that?
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| wildfoodie |
Agree with treacodactyl, very young cotw can sort of set your teeth on edge as with spinach... imho you want to pick it just as the rounded lobes are beginning to flatten out.
Have frozen yesterday's batch au nature and have a little bit left over to do in butter before freezing. will taste test in a couple of weeks.
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| Bernie66 |
Ok, so I have a couple of COTW that I pick from, I also have a big old piece of rotting oak in the back garden. Can I "transplant" some from the woods to the rotting oak or is that just silly?
It would be good if I could............. |
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| cab |
Nothign to be lost in trying, but you'll probably not succeed with rotted old wood, better off with fresh wood. I'd be tempted to try drilling out holes, and pusing in some good fresh chicken of the woods. Might work, nothing lost in trying. |
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| Bernie66 |
Consider it done | ||||
| Bogzla |
Found a nice flush of these on my way to work
finally worked up the courage to try one after cycling past them every day (seeing that someone else had been at them helped...) fried up some thin slices with chilli oil and a little garlic and they were delicious! (and so far no ill effects...) I don't personally think they tasted much like chicken but the texture is eerily close so very impressed with my first foraged fungi 
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| cab |
Good find Bogzla! | ||||
| sean |
We got one. WE GOT ONE.
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| cab |
Well done  Young and tender like Jamanda or older and a bit fibrous like you? What do you plan to do with it?
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| sean |
Fry a bit with butter and garlic this evening to try. Prolly freeze the rest for now. | ||||
| cab |
Thats a good starting point.
Seem to be reports of it from all over the place this year. Always get heaps here in Cambridge, its interesting that people all over the place are posting saying that they're seeing it. |
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| sally_in_wales |
pout, I still can't find it anywhere round here in south Wales 
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| bingo |
Is that lasts years chicken as well in the top photo Bogzla posted.
Welcome to downsizer Bogzla. |
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| Treacodactyl |
Good to hear it's growing down there. Sally, I've heard reports of plenty being found in Wales and it does sound like this year is a great one to find it.
I managed to find another one, where I've not found it before. I didn't pick any as I didn't have permission to be on the land and it was about 30 foot up a sweet chestnut tree. |
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| bingo |
Yeah Sally.......
Look harder init! |
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| Cathryn |
I have never found it either Sally and I would have noticed.
Maybe I will now though.
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| Treacodactyl |
You can buy inoculated dowels. Would rubbing pieces of the fruiting body into new timber work or are you expecting it to produce spores? The CotW in first photo I posted up was growing on a log that could be carried so I wondered if CotW would spread from a log into others, like oyster mushrooms seem to. I also wondered if pieces of wood from an infected tree could be used to inoculate a new site. Of course, you'd need permission to collect the wood. |
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| bingo |
They grow all over the place, I've seen one on a really grotty housing estate here in Southampton. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
It does seem to stand out more than most 'shrooms, seems to almost glow round here.
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| bingo |
I know what you mean, looks almost alien. |
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| sally_in_wales |
We're mostly beech, oak and conifer up here and we're 800-1000 ft above sea level, will that make any difference? |
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| Treacodactyl |
It seems to be very common on beech round here, and the woods I've found the most in is about 600 - 700 ft obove sea level. | ||||
| sally_in_wales |
will keep looking then:) | ||||
| judith |
Sally, I have just found and eaten my first ever COTW. I was over the moon as I have been looking for it for years.
We are at the same sort of height as you, so keep looking! |
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| cab |
If you leave young COTW in the fridge for a few days, ideally upside down, you'll find a little bit of fuzziness to it very often. Its still alive you see, still able to grow. The dowels would be made by taking some fruiting body, picking a clean bit out of the middle, growing that on, inoculating the dowels with that. In principle you can do the same thing with good fresh material, work sometimes with oyster mushrooms and might just work with COTW. If I were going to try I'd drill out holes and jam fresh COTW into them.
Give it a go. Worth a try. |
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| Bogzla |
yup. You can also see at the bottom of the pic where someone's been at it before me. Remember seeing these on a couple of other trees down the towpath last year but only recently found out what they are, these ones were on a willow right next to the river.
ta
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| bingo |
Maybe one of these guys from your way had it away? Cab? | ||||
| cab |
I'm glad I've been following the rest of the thread before getting to this post
There are at least four people here on Downsizer who are based in Cambridge and who are picking COTW. I've always seen signs of other people picking them, especially down by the river. COTW loves willow, and Cambridge being basically a big woody fen its jammed full of old willows. So its probably the most foraged fungus in the city; its big, its obvious, many of the big old willows have this fungus on it and its readily identifiable and visible from miles away. Theres another shroom associated with willow we get plenty of too, that being Agrocybe cylindracea. I'll keep my best spots of that secret for the time being, but its not uncommon here. The odd geology we have means that some other shrooms are way common here but rare across much of the country; best example is the yellow stainer, Agaricus xanthoderma, which I'd say is the single most common mushroom across North Cambridge. |
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| sean |
Right, COTW curry for dinner tonight. Just a thought, since it's quite meaty, has anyone tried mincing it to use in a burgery type thing? I realise you'd need other stuff in there too. | ||||
| cab |
You need plenty of something to moisten it, and something to hold it together. But if its young and soft, then yes, mince it up with bread crumbs, plenty of fat, and some egg, and then wonder why you didn't just use meat for a better result.
Better to mix it with some beef for burgers, IMHO. In curry, its oddly filling. |
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| PeteS |
Last autumn I tried Jamie Olivers recipe of COTW venison stroganoff - it was shown on TV, anyone remember it? Now, I am not a fan of COTW or Jamie Oliver but this recipe was very good. | ||||
| mochyn |
Great excitement here as I've just picked my first CotW> Had some at the Skill Sharing weekend, but not before and never seen any around here until yesterday evening while shuttling between here and a neighbour's I spotted some about 50 yards from our gate on an oak by the track.
Do I get the prize for 'closest to the kitchen'? The tree's about 70 yards from it... |
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| skedone |
cab if you want some Agrocybe cylindracea if its slow your end this year i have seen them a few times round my way now i know i will try them but its deff them its that smell that put me off them last time i see them. in fact i will check areas tomorrow and let you know | ||||
| jamanda |
How did you cook it Mochyn? I really liked the way NL did it at the weekend. |
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| slippery Jack |
Found my first one yesterday growing on an old, live Alder tree beside river where I was fishing. Too high to reach but I managed to get afew pieces using my landing net ! | ||||
| 2steps |
I'm pretty sure I saw some in the park last week. Didn't have time to have a better look. Is there anything else that looks similar that would be dangerous? I wouldn't know what to do with it either, is it like 'normal' mushrooms cos I really hate their texture | ||||
| cab |
Naah, nowt like ordinary mushrooms. And little is like it, there is one called the cinnabar polypore you might theoretically find, have a look online for pictures though because it isn't that similar. Try something simple like making a chicken curry, but use COTW instead and cook it a little longer. Oddly meaty stuff, very filling. Take note of what tree it is on; if its yew, eucalyptus or laburnum (okay, won't be eucalyptus ) then leave it alone, it'll be poisonous.
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| 2steps |
Thanks. may go back in the week and give it a try |