I got invited to go mushroom foraging. We met up at the Dome Road at 8:15 am. This was with the same friend that brought over a bag of cream of the crop Boletus Edulis mushrooms last weekend. He drove the loop on the Dome Road and Paso del Norte Road. We collected a few but the majority were collected on Peralta Road. This outing was meant to be an overview to teach me to spot Boletus Edulis. We got done just past 11 am.
Since I cornered the market in young boletes last weekend, I gave the cream of the crop boletes bambinos (the beautiful young ones) to my daughter. She seemed excited about them. I asked her to let me know how she fixes them and how she likes them. I forwarded her recipes from my Italian friend. His family has been collecting boletes in New Mexico for a long time.
I stewed the others but only used water. I wanted to taste the mushrooms because last time I drowned them in onions and garlic. I had some with canned black beans tonight and will freeze the rest to add to recipes. They were yummy! I still chickened out on eating the very yellow sponges on the huge boletes but did include the lighter-colored sponges in the stew. I cooked the stems first to make sure they were softened. Any trimmings went back to the soil in my backyard.
I'm thawing out last week's mushrooms and broth to make my rice dish this weekend.
I will try to walk the Peralta Road area next week to hunt for more bambinos.
Doing a quick Google search, I found that the mycella (part that nourishes the mushroom) is in the soil. if you pull the whole mushroom out and leave a hole in the duff, the mycella dries out. Another friend cuts the mushroom off the stem and leaves the stem bottom in the duff to keep it moist. If the mushroom is pulled out, stem and all, re-covering the hole in the duff keep it from drying out or even placing the stem trimmings back in the hole and then covering them would work - lots of options. I read it's advisable to put the mushrooms you don't want back in their hole, stem side down, to help them drop their spores.
Afterward, I walked 4 miles on FR181. I picked one of the mushrooms I wondered about a few weeks ago. It was a boletes but it turned bluish when I pressed on it and it had an orange-brown cap and very stiff, scaly stem. I threw it back in the bushes! I've learned in a short time how to recognize edible boletes! Avoid ones that turn blue when you cut or press them and/or have red or orange tubes (the spongy underside).
The main mushrooms that I'll collect will be Boletus Edulis and Puffballs.