I've noticed quite a few of these intriguing looking mushrooms on my way to work these past few weeks. Hen of the Woods mushrooms will grow often on dead or dying oak trees...usually at the base of the tree like the one in the picture, though there is one that I see that is about twenty feet up, growing off of a sawed-off limb. They can get pretty big - forty to fifty pounds!
Years ago we had one growing out in front of the old farm house, but didn't know of it's tasty goodness until a friend stopped by and told us what a find we had in our yard. He suggested we wait until the weekend because it was going to rain and the moisture would plump it up nicely. Unfortunately, some other mushroom lover had his eye on the big fungus and cut it right to the ground while we were sleeping early that Sunday morning. That's when we learned how these were not just tasty woodland offerings free for the picking. All the up-scale restaurants in Boston pay a pretty high price for them and there are people who scout these things out as soon as the season begins. Apparently, once the spore is embedded in one of these trees they'll regrow there year after year. Some people have developed a regular lucrative route they go on every Sept./Oct. to harvest these big, fleshy mushrooms and then drive them in to have the chefs hand-select the menu's "Woodland Delicacy - Fungus of the Night." We learned that our oak tree/Hen of the Woods had been on someone's route for more than a few years!
We hiked around with our friend and found another Hen of the Woods on the property, not quite as large, but big enough to fill a few frying pans! We washed it gently, it wasn't very dirty at all...then sliced it up into some firm, ivory colored chunks. Tossed around with a little bit of olive oil in the pan... they were so tasty. I want to say like nothing I've ever eaten before, certainly nothing like the commercial mushrooms that we buy in a store. Earthy, yet not heavy or musty...just a wonderful food from the earth that comes around this time of year. You've gotta try it some time!
I've got lots of large old oaks in my back yard now. In another month I'll be cursing all the leaves and acorns that they shed as I take on the never-ending task of raking them up by the carloads. Maybe I'll find some of that Hen of the Woods spore to "inoculate" them with and see if in another year or so I can harvest my own Hen of the Woods. Maybe even start my own route and venture into those up-scale restaurants with mushroom bounty to sell! And, in the fall when I have to get the rake out every weekend, maybe it'll help make me appreciate those big old oaks a little more!
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