iN PHOTOS: These edible mushrooms in Okanagan, Kamloops dissolve into ink
While shaggy mane mushrooms are a common find for foragers in the Okanagan and Kamloops, the fungus does something unusual at this time of year, they start to dissolve into an inky mess.
Charles Ruechel, an owner at Elements Adventure Company based out of Vernon, is also a wild mushroom expert and runs mushroom tours in the Okanagan.
“Why they liquify has always been the mystery,” he said. “A mushroom is just the fruit of a fungal organism that lives in the earth or dead logs and once in awhile when conditions are right, the organism produces fruit. Some fruits like the shaggy mane liquify very quickly while some can last for weeks and weeks.”
Anywhere between four and ten inches tall, shaggy manes are conical in shape and found in forests, lawns and along roadsides in North America and are named for the shaggy scales on their bodies. Foraged in late summer and fall, the fungus favours cool, wet weather.
Area foragers pick them to use for cooking, but it’s important to eat them immediately after harvesting before the mushrooms get inky.
“The shaggy mane is one of the most delicate of the choice edible mushrooms, you have to pick it and cook it within a couple of hours,” Ruechel said. “As soon as it gets any discolouration you don’t want to eat it anymore. It might make you sick and tastes gross.
“It’s a very unique flavour, there’s still a mushroom taste like a button mushroom from the store, but it’s a much more complex taste, it’s hard to explain.”
The scientific name for shaggy mane mushrooms is coprinus comatus.
“There are a few different species of the same genus that liquify into black ink, one is called the ink cap mushroom, it also grows here," Ruechel said. "You can put both species in a jar with alcohol in it and it’ll turn into ink with no straining required. You can dip a fountain pen in it and write.”
Ruechel recently took his daughter’s grade six class out mushroom hunting and the students made ink out of them to make art with.
He said this fall was a big year for mushrooms in the Okanagan due to cooler nighttime temperatures and adequate moisture that stimulates most fungus to create mushrooms.
Go here for shaggy mane recipes.
WARNING: Some wild mushroom varieties can cause serious adverse health effects and even death. Go here for more details.
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