However, before I go on: always confirm you have correctly identified the fungus and check more than one field guide. There really is nothing else like it, so you can be pretty certain of what it is. In fact, another name for it is the sulphur polypore (the polypore part is because it doesn’t have gills on its underside like a typical fungus, but many tiny pores). However, I did not expect to find a splendid chicken-of-the woods growing on a dead tree trunk just off the path to the children’s play area! Goodness knows how many had walked past it unaware of the delicious treat.Īlthough I am by no means an expert, I recognised it straight away – a large bracket fungus with multiple brackets with a beautiful and almost garish orange and sulphur-yellow coloration. Lyme Park is great for oyster mushrooms because of the large number of beech trees in the forests there. Spawn can be purchased separately or as a kit (kits include sawdust spawn, autoclavable bags, collars, and foam plugs.I have written a few posts on foraging and natural history in Britain, here’s a little post about a lovely edible mushroom:Īs I was walking in Lyme Park at the weekend I kept an eye out for edible goodies. bags and will inoculate 6 or 12 logs respectively. Chicken of the Woods sawdust spawn is available in 2.5 lb. Fruiting may first occur as early as August of the planting year or as late as several years post inoculation. Inoculation time is best done in March-April, and moved outdoors in June, though fall inoculation can be done with outdoor burial commencing as soon as the ground thaws in the spring. Clusters are smaller than what is collected in the wild. Fruiting occurs the first or second summer after planting, and for several seasons thereafter. Logs are spawned after pressure cooking, steaming, or boiling, and then inoculated and incubated at room temperature for several months, then partially buried outdoors. Our success in growing this mushroom on logs has been limited to 'pre-treating' the logs just as we recommend for Maitake. Older specimens fade to apricot yellow and have a chicken breast taste and texture. Bright orange and yellow bands catch the eye when young and the mushroom itself is tender- soft with an 'al dente' bite. High Speed Drill Tools (for plug spawn use)Ĭhicken of the Woods is a wild edible mushroom that grows primarily on both living and dead oak trees.High Speed Drill Tools (for sawdust spawn use).Shiitake Ready-To-Fruit Table Top Farms & Blocks.Oyster Ready-To-Fruit Table Top Farms & Blocks.

Chicken of the woods indiana