Foraging for Slippery Jacks by Guest Blogger-Alice Kulyk
This has been a great summer for collecting chanterelles, but yet frustrating when it comes to searching other varieties. A mushroom picking friend and I decided to take a drive out towards Woodridge in southern Manitoba, to look for the honey fungus mushroom or ”peedpenky” in Ukrainian. We have checked several times in Belair but nothing growing yet. I guess just not the right conditions happening.
Again, no peedpenky growing in the Woodridge forest yet. However, we did find loads of slippery jacks (suíillus lúteus) and some really good puff balls that were still white and edible. We picked for about an hour because we didn’t want to go home with empty baskets.
For several years I walked past the slippery jacks even though it was the favorite mushroom of Shorty, my mushroom mentor and mother of a very good friend. We would go to the Belair Forest with Shorty looking for a variety of boletes. She taught me almost everything I know today about good or bad mushrooms. The slippery jack tends to be very sticky so it may have a lot of grass or pine needles stuck to it. As the cap is sticky and slightly bitter it is best to peel off the sticky layer. You will find these in late summer to late fall in association with conifers. The best way to store this mushroom is to thinly slice and dry it for future dishes. If cooking fresh, it is best to sweat out the juices first on its own. Then strain well and save resulting liquid to be used in a sauce. Then you can add the mushrooms to other dishes. They have a very nice taste when fried or stewed.
Find out more: http://www.cooksinfo.com/slippery-jack-mushrooms
Kath’s quote: “If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools”. -Katherine Mansfield
Love never fails.