I know morels get a lot of attention, but do any of you hunt other mushrooms like chanterelles or hen of the woods? I have never seen such a year as this for chanterelles. It must be due to all of the rain in July and August here. Our first foray into the woods yielded 10 lbs in just 20 minutes. They're about done now, but we still picked a couple pounds this weekend pretty quickly. I like them because they're easy to spot, being bright orange. Actually, I hunt them from my 4 wheeler. I prefer the flavor of morels, but the wife likes the chanterelles better. We dry and freeze them. I'm thinking it should be a banner year for hen of the woods as well.

Brook, Chanterelles, hawkwings, and king boletes are three of the common 'shrooms we pick and eat here in Colorado. Hawkwings are abundant this year. We haven't seen the chanterelles yet, but the time is ripe for them.
We are getting monsoonal rains followed by warm sunny breaks in the weather. They'll be up any day. Last weekend was the famous Telluride Mushroom Festival with all its rowdy good times.
I like your comment about hunting them from your ATV. We actually spotted our most productive chanterelle patch a couple of years ago as we passed by on the Forest Service road. "Road hunting" for mushrooms-now that's got to be unusual.

My long time position on mushrooms is if I want to eat fungus, I'll just pull my foot up and lick between my toes.

That's classic

A few years ago, I was walking back from a deer bow hunt and was walking through a wildlife food plot of Elbon Rye. A neighbors cow had escaped and was feasting on the rye a few days before and had left it's calling card in this food plot. Anyway, there it was, a magic mushroom, it made me think of my younger days. Oh, the thoughts that ran through my mind. After giving it much thought while standing over this magic mushroom, I left it to grow. A couple of days later I was in that food plot again, and with that little devil that sets on my shoulder sometimes, I decided to give more consideration to what might happen if I made some tea. I was disappointed to find the mushroom had been eaten by one of the deer that frequent those food plots. That little devil that sets on my shoulder sometimes gets me in a little trouble every once in a while.

Tracy

Too early in the morning to read that.... did a little dry heave.

Brook, I have no idea where to look location wise, or what to look for to find Chanterelles.

Hen-of-the-woods? I have a few spots. This is a 72" wide tractor bucket....

I have no idea what these are or if they are safe to eat but I have a lot of yellow shrooms growing out of my woodchip areas this year that didn't happen in the past.

Holy cow, Scott. That's an impressive haul. That's the good thing about hen of the woods. They're about the size of a basketball. When I find one, it's usually large enough to satisfy me for the year. I've never found chanterelles in the quantity and quality as those this year. I find them in open woods, not growing against trees or logs, and usually in a pretty substantial group of 12-25.

CanyonCreek, those are not chanterelles. Chanterelles do not have a toadstool appearance. There is no cap. Chanterelles look more like lobed flowers with 3-4 fleshy, upright petals that are bright to dull orange. My neighbor keeps his woods bush hogged, and we just drive around until we find a patch. One drawback to them is they're quite dirty and can be difficult to clean. Clean them by brushing them before giving them a good water rinse right before cooking them. Still, they can be slightly gritty. They keep very well too.

Brook you are right about hen-of-the-woods. I have one that grows behind the house here, and 2 years ago I let it grow instead of picking it when it was basketball sized. When I decided I couldn't wait any longer, I picked it. I had to cut it in pieces to actually pick it, and total weight was between 50 and 60 pounds.

I guy that I knew when I was a kid used to pick Fall button mushrooms. I tagged along one year and we literally picked enough to fill plastic trash bags full.

That's the same year I learned NOT to put mushrooms in plastic bags as he cooked some and we both got sick.