October can be a good foraging month in New York. Field mushrooms: the dark brown ones top left as well as the pink ones beside the berries and the medium brown ones, bottom right - all Agaricus campestris (campestre means field), at different stages of maturity. These are very closely related to the button mushrooms you buy in shops. And not the most simple mushroom to identify, as I discovered some years ago, but there are good and obvious ways to to tell it apart from mushrooms that could make you sick. The baked potatoes in the middle? Edible puffballs, Calvatia cyathiformis. They are similar to silky tofu or bone marrow, depending on your dietary preferences. Below them a species of Lycoperdon, not identified, yet. Top right, immature Meripilus sumstinei - black-staining polypore. The two little yellow ones - a bolete, but waiting on ID.
I had some puffball slices on toast for lunch. Chives from the garden. Delicious.
Come and learn about such fungal critters and edible plants on forage walks this Saturday in Central Park, or next weekend in Prospect Park. Yes, there will be mushroom soup (hen of the woods). No, it won't kill you.
I would love to learn about which mushrooms in my area are edible and which are not. I'm going to check with the extension service to see if they offer classes. :)
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