Chicken-of-the-woods or Sulphur Shelf (Laetiporus sulphureous) is described in Collins Wild Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools as inedible - something of a surprise to all those who have eaten this fantastic fungus! The secret - as is usually the case with edible mushrooms - is to eat it fresh and young. And it can be very big - especially in North America (typical bloody yanks!) with up to 50lb being harvested from just one tree!
If you want a little curiosity for your garden and have a big hardwood stump or a large log the lovely folk at Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms will sell you some plugs so you can grow your own woodland poultry - with all the instructions! You'll have to wait a year or two for a harvest but think of that wonderful fake chicken casserole at the end! If you're heading out into the woods for your sulphur polypore two little warnings - only harvest the fresh fungus and don't collect fungus from yew trees as they will make you ill! Enjoy!
2 comments:
OK brilliant, so now I can comment! Well it's a bit of an anti-climax now I think but I just wanted to say - what a spectacular fungus that is! I wouldn't think you could eat such a brightly coloured fungus but clearly you know better. A recipe from you perhaps? :)
Let see if I can comment too as for some reason google was having none of it the other day. Great Chicken in the woods! Helen, when I had mine earlier in the year I tended to have it for brunch http://grethic.blogspot.com/search/label/Chicken%20in%20the%20woods
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