summer mushrooms..... who picks and what

It’s no big deal guys. I’d like to eat them if I knew they were safe, but it’s not worth dying from it. 

Ah yes, this is why we always include an underside and a cross section photo. This is also why we don't eat things we can't positively identify.

Honeys are in season; however, honeys have a convex (rounded) cap, which flattens out more or less as they get older/bigger. These are more funnel shape. 

Not honeys 

Jimmer,  those are honey mushrooms.  Honey can be brown, tan, yellow or any color there in between.  Those are not jack o lanters.

Honey are in season now and that's most of what you'll find,  but go through this list and you can confirm.

- white meat (spilt it right down the middle)

- veil (or fuzz as many refer to it)  and the veil will be on the stem once it matures.  when young it covers the WHITE gills.  There are also ringless (talking about the veil or fuzz) honey's also,  but those are typically later and they USUALLY grow in grass where there used to be tree roots.

Brown center area of cap that will have little hairs and the stem will have hairs as well.

White spores.  You can do a spore print as well if it makes you feel better.  

The gills will be white on all honey's but get brownish as they are past prime.

There is only one mushroom that looks similar that will kill you.  they call them a look-a-like but once you know a honey mushroom you'd never pick anything else. 

Real laymen's terms they are Honey Mushrooms

Yes, they are delicious.  Pick them now or they will be bad.  Mushroom hunting is a timing thing,  they can be be tiny to 6 inches tall in 4 days and bad the 5th.

From you pics i'm almost certain they are Honey mushrooms.  I'm basing off look,  brown color on top of cap,  yellow look (jack o lanter are orange and look more like chanterlls than a honey).  you can also see white dust typically around them when they are as big as the ones in the pic.  that's the spores and if they are white,  that's a honey.  Do a spore print when you get home.  Lay them on a black or dark table or paper,  within and hour or so you'll see the print.  Cut off the stem,  lay the mushroom gills down on the table. 

I "think" jacks have orange meat too,  ALL honey's have WHITE meat.

@ the Jimmer

I'd like to say you're looking at golden oysters, but I have concerns for a couple of reasons.

1. Pictures sometimes distort color

2. Oysters grow out of trees, whereas a possible look-a-like is the jack-o-lanterns, which grows near trees but out of the ground. A fun way to test is to come back at night and see if they're glowing. That's how the jacks get their name. 

If they aren't glowing, and you can positively identify that they're growing out of the actual tree and not the ground, you've just found one of my favorites. Check the tree next year as well. They should come back for a few years.

questions for all the experts, in order of importance;

1-Are these edible?

2-what are they? 

Thanks in advance.

very good taste like the little white ones you buy in the store. Just make sure they are nice and fluffy white not yellowish. you can kind of tell right when you pick them if they feel heavy they might have too much moisture and are past prime

Are puffballs any good to eat?  I found about five or six of them the other day not far from a road I was on in SE Wisconsin, but did not pick them because they were on private property, but it got me thinking if they were any good or not.

Anyone else hoping this little bit of rain will help get the shrooms going? Seems like every storm we get either misses us north or south! Hoping that timing is still ok. 

Marquette county today. 

Found 3 hens in Manitowoc today, a little dry and lots of sow bugs.  After trimming and freezing maybe a few pounds.  

Been a non year for puffballs. I saw one or two and they were bad. Finally got two yesterday about baseball size.

Found a nice hen today about 20" across

Fishon909

White Elm oysters.

I recently discovered them near me thay are good. And the bugs, will be there before you,the last ones I found weren't to bad, we ate a few bugs.

The photos are not of them. Found these up north last week. I'm not sure what kind is it I can't find any oyster photos with the rough lumpy top we didn't eat them just got the photo to try to identify.

Can anyone help me identify them.

Dang it! They looked different than the ones growing on my mushroom logs out back. I will have to see if I can get another hike in today to see if there to see if they are still good.

fishon909 - Looks like you past up my favorites...oyster mushrooms!