There?s shrooms in them woods

I used to pick maitake (Grifola frondosa) routinely when I lived south of Ludington in central Michigan. We have abundant red oaks up here, but I have never seen them. Chicken of the woods. Laetiporous sp. reminds me more of scrambled eggs than chicken, when cooked. We see it most frequently on hemlock with heart-rot. Are the "guys" in the bag Armellaria mellea? Ours peaked about two weeks ago after a four inch rainy period over Labor Day weekend. Do you can or bag freeze these?
 
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I always am interested the mushroom posts. It's not something I know much about and it's always fun to see. Very cool!
 
The brown ones are Grifola frondosa aka hen of the woods. Which is about the best mushroom around my parts that I can find in massive quantities.

The ones in the bags are Armillaria mellea aka honeys. They taste good I use them like other button mushrooms but I really like them in soups or duxelles. There are ringless honeys A. Tabescens every where as well but the window to find prime condition specimens is very small. So I usually don?t bother with them.

The yellow/orange ones are Laetiporus sulphureus (most likely) and the single orange/white one is L. cincinnatus. They were both prime young ones and at that stage rival any shroom I have eaten.

I always saut? with salt, pepper, oil, butter and freeze. I will eventually get into drying but I haven?t had the time. This week should be the mother load with the rain coming.

Then it?s oyster season and then I?ll be finding yellowfoots out west throughout the winter hopefully.
 
Our fall oyster pulse has morphed to nearly non-existent the last three years due to the warm falls.
 
If you ever opt to dry those cinnabar chantrelles, keeping the heat setting low. I toasted four tiers of them, thinking that that much volume would benefit from more heat. the higher heat gave them an "off" taste when reconstituted.

Here's something you don't have to contend with, Chris, I was just reading a mushroom thread on a local website here. A guy was watching five clusters of hen of the woods to maximize size before harvest in the northern lower peninsula. He got beat-out by a bear; who left a pile of scat to let him know who ate them. He said it looked like somebody hacked away at them with a 9 iron!
 
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My buddy and I tried making it to the honey hole but we didn?t even make it there. We each have a good number of small ones we are watching too.

Just got done cooking them ended up with 15 pounds cooked shrooms. We got anywhere from 5-9? of rain yesterday so the woods will be full.

Not many bears here but Pete has had one poking around his house.
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That is a fabulous find! Leaving for duck camp, maybe I will find something unusual on the other side of the peninsula growing! Actually, I shouldn't employ this wording, since this area used to be a major back forty grow operation site twenty years ago...
 
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I saut? in oil and butter with salt and pepper until the liquid is gone then freeze. Lasts a while. If I?m making soup I?ll save the liquid for a base too.
 
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