Askbud Home Animals Lakes & Rivers Island Shores Plants Tourism
Honey Mushrooms
Last Next Return To Edible Mushrooms
The honey like color of this mushroom inspired its common name. You can find it on all parts of the Island.
This mushroom is very abundant. Variable in appearance, returning each year in many shapes and colors, what we call Honey Mushroom may represent more than one species of mushroom. The caps can be brown to tan, smooth or scaled, with tan or pale brown fibrils. They may be small, rounded, and bell like or flat and fully expanded. They appear as individuals or in troops of hundreds.
The honey mushroom grows both on dead wood and on living plants. It is capable of attacking and killing many kinds of trees. I have seen hundreds of caps erupting in clumps from the trunk and roots of a single tree.
The mycelia of this organism may be compressed into a network of shiny black root like filaments called rhizomorphs. These strands extend along tree trunks, under rocks, and follow roots underground searching for new food sources.
Logs in moist forest environments may glow at night with a cool, blue green emanation called fox fire. This phenomenon is caused by a chemical produced by the mycelia of the honey mushroom. This is a awesome site to see.
Those who collect the honey mushroom for food prefer solid, young, unopened buttons. When cooked, it is firm and granular. To some it is moderately sweet in flavor, but its edibility is marred for others by a mild bitter aftertaste.
Brush debris from the caps and gills under running water. Only the caps are used, for the stems are to fibrous and quite tough.
This mushroom is admired in many countries of the world for its firm meaty texture. Most recipes call for combining it with other ingredients, rather than preparing it alone. It can be substituted in any basic recipe. Because of its dense consistency, it tolerates long cooking without losing its shape. For those people who experience a slightly bitter aftertaste, it is advised to parboil the caps for 5 minutes and to discard the water.
When dried and reconstituted, or pickled, the honey mushroom becomes quite agreeable in soups, stews, and mushroom loaves. Many people pickle the buttons in their favorite spices to use in their favorite recipes later.
Last Next Return To Edible Mushrooms
