Hen of the Woods

This past weekend marked our first attempt at mushroom hunting.  We started this new hobby after discovering and identifying a Hen-of-the-Woods growing on a tree stump in our front yard.  I was elated to find out that this huge mushroom was indeed edible and considered to be a delicacy among many foodies.  Of course I was skepticle about potentially poisoning myself and the rest of my family so only after being 100% sure of what I was looking at with help of my friend Google and a few excellent shroom books I sauteed a small portion and ate some.  All of the resources say that there are no poisonous look alikes.  Even so, the rest of the family was "not allowed"  to partake despite Mackenson's persistence.  I figured if anyone would get sick from this it was going to be me.  It tasted like (get ready) sauteed mushroom!  Twenty-four hours later I was alive and well.  The next day as I prepared the rest of the 2lb mushroom and put it in a bowl for use on Pizza or some other culinary concoction I started researching on how to preserve this find.  As I was doing this I later found out that Mackenson was sneaking pieces out of the bowl....no allergic reaction, so another good sign.  We eventually added the hen to Friday's home made pizza with excellent results.  Since then we have added it to home-made mustard green enchilladas, soups and a sprinking in other dishes like scrambled eggs.
   Since I now knew how to positively ID this culinary delight I have found it in two other locations.  The first hen I found apart from the one(s) growing in front of our house was on the grounds of my work location. On the South lawn are several areas of mostly removed and presumably large stumps where the differences in surround lawn vegetation clearly define the area.  On one of these mostly underground stump remains I found my first "wild" hen of the woods not on my own property.  When I got it home it weighed in at 12.4 oz. which though not huge was still a cool find (see pic).  It was a bit mis-shapen probably due to being mowed over in the past, but still easibly identifiable.  The second "wild" hen relates back to our family foray and mushroom hunting expedition this last weekend where I found a 2lb 14oz Hen of the Woods growing at the base of an Oak in a nearby park (pic 2).  It was a little bit mangled undoubtedly from human activity, but in good enough shape to prepare for culinary use.  With this second hen we sauteed and froze some and dried two batches in the food dehydrator.  With the dried hen we kept one pint of mushroom pieces and another pulverived to mushroom powder.  There will be more about culinary use of this as time progresses.
  We still have three more specimens growing on that old stump in front of the house varying in size.  They will inevitably be harvested in the upcoming weeks and will turn into another adventure in culinary preparation.  Pictures to follow.

UPDATE:  17 OCT 2012
We harvested one of our hens off of the stump in the front yard.  It weighed in at 3lbs 2 oz.  We used part of it in a "garbage" stir fry with some leftover chicken, carrot, onion, garlic and misc spices.....it was surprisingly good.  We probably only used about 1/4 of it tonight and will find ways to use it over the next few days.

Written by Joe