The Mushrooms of Autumn (hen of the woods)
OK, mushroom fans, another guest post from Bill Bakaitis, on another of the all time great delicious wild mushrooms, the hen of the woods ( Grifola frondosus), now appearing on an oak tree – or on a shelf at a high end market- somewhere near you.
time to look for hen of the woods
by Bill Bakaitis
September. The days grow shorter. For mycologists, gone are the languid days of summer when we would slowly, patiently, and gently try to identify those interesting mushrooms that grow singly here and there. The photographs, spore prints, the keys, the chemical and microscopic analysis, the process that might take hours or days for us to determine even the genus are luxuries we can no longer afford. The sap that now flows through our veins and that of the world around us cries out for haste. There is so much to do in so little time: the garden, the house and yard, the movement of game in the forests, fall migrations of fishes in the ocean. Each claims its hegemony over our lives and the dwindling hours available. As for mushrooms, we have not time for the tiny, the new, the tantalizing odd; we long instead for the truly substantial. Enter frondosus!
Polyporus (Grifola) frondosus
Frondosus – call it Polyporus frondosus, or Grifola frondosus, Maitake, Sheep’s Head, or Hen of the Woods. Here is the mushroom that answers the question, “Where’s the meat?” It is large in size and fruits reliably in the same locations year after year, allowing us to take a twenty minute detour from our hectic lives to collect a year’s supply. And it is one of the best tasting of all wild mushrooms, appearing on every mycologist’s top ten list. Unlike July’s jumble of difficult-to-identify Boletes, frondosus stands nearly alone in form and structure, although it is at times hard to see. As its name “Hen of the Woods” suggests, it reminds some of a mother hen, feathers all ruffle. To those us not so attuned to barnyard activity however, it looks simply like a pile of leaves.
Frondosus often resembles a pile of leaves
I am often surprised when one suddenly jumps into focus, and then I see another and another and another. Their camouflaged appearance aside, you will recognize them instantly. (more on identifying this mushroom here) There are two mushrooms with which one might confuse frondosus: Polyporus (Grifola) umbellatus and Polyporus (Meripilus) giganteus. Both are edible; umbellatus is choice, but the blackening fronds of Meripilus become tough and somewhat bitter in age. In my experience, neither is as common as frondosus. I do not have good images of either but they may be seen here and here.
Where to find Hen of the Woods: In the Northeast frondosus has a rather lengthy season, from late August in coastal Maine through mid-November in the Hudson Valley of New York, but throughout its range I have found the third week of September to be the best time to look. For the past two decades the classes I conduct with The Culinary Institute of America include a foray on the weekend closest to the equinox. Rare is the foray when we do not find frondosus. Frondosus grows almost exclusively at the base of mature Oak Trees. They may nestle against the trunk or wander out for a few feet along the roots they infect. You will want therefore to seek out areas where these trees have been protected, conserved, or simply ignored. Think ‘forever wild’, ‘landed gentry’, ‘old estates’ or ‘family farms’. One of my best strategies is to walk old property lines or fence rows looking for line trees. Two-hundred year old White Oaks should never, ever go unexamined.
Note the size of the oak tree which supported these Hens.
from one tree a minute's walk from the car
Once you have found a productive tree or two you will want to return in the following season connecting them with a planned excursion, investigating other less obvious trees in the area. You will be surprised at how many you will find on smaller oaks – trees of a foot or so in diameter. If, like me, you live in a suburban to ex-urban area sooner or later you will find a tree that is close to a road near one of your usual travel routes. One such tree near my home has produced twenty to fifty pounds of frondosus annually for twenty years, failing only in one very dry year.
In areas where the oaks have been cut for lumber or firewood or have been toppled by storms the stumps and roots can continue to produce for several more years. In my experience, fruitings on these stumps usually occur later in the season, often after the leaves have fallen from the standing trees.
For obvious reasons it is advisable to carry a large market basket or an Adirondack-style pack basket for your hunt. A cloth shopping bag tucked into your pack is handy for the overflow. Not infrequently I have been faced with the delightful dilemma of finding a mushroom so large that help is needed to carry it out of the forest.
By now you might be asking yourself, “What in the heck does he do with all of those mushrooms?” For two reasons, the medicinal and culinary, I have no trouble giving most of it away.
Maitake often sells for $15 -$20 a pound
Medicinal Merit: Maitake, as it is known in the Orient, is reputed to boost the immune system. See Tom Volk’s positive summary of this evidence here. A critical reading of the literature from a scientific review conducted in New Zealand however reaches more modest conclusions. This is a major (50 page) review of the available literature. In short the New Zealand team found: 1. Contrary to popular assertions, there is no evidence for long standing use of Maitake as a traditional medical agent in the orient. Confusion with Grifola umbellatus was cited as the probable source of this confusion. 2. Although a minor fraction of the B-glucan complex was found to produce anti-tumor activity in laboratory rats under certain conditions, in humans most of these compounds were either digested by salivary enzymes prior to entry into the gut or remained undigested and excreted in the fecal matter. 3. Much of the anti-diabetic activity seen in mice could be attributed to the high fiber content of the mushroom rather than special pharmacological properties. 4. Inadequate scientific controls and methodological errors were found in the laboratory (rat) studies. Differences between the various treatment groups and controls were found to be “unremarkable”, “unreliable” and/or “contradictory”. 5. Similar errors appeared in the clinical (human) studies reviewed. They were found to be “non-randomized”, “uncontrolled”, “unblinded”, “not subject to peer review”, and contained obvious self-serving interpretations and conclusions. 6. The mushroom however is both non-toxic and safe to use as food; its specific dietary properties change with both the substrate and age of the fruit body.
Most of the approximately 75 studies reviewed by the New Zealand panel appear to have been conducted in Japan or China, presumably with oriental strains of Grifola. I was interested therefore in a separate study in which researchers looked at the DNA of North American and Oriental specimens. This team found that despite the similarity in appearances, there are important genetic differences between the Oriental and North American strains of Grifola frondosus. By this way of reckoning, the two are not the same.
Notwithstanding, there is a tremendous interest in Grifola as a nutritional supplement. Any Google search will produce pages and pages of sites and testimonials attesting to the restorative powers of this mushroom. What gives? Well, the most parsimonious explanation is probably Norman Vincent Peal’s “Power of Positive Thinking”. Of this there is no doubt: the mere act of expecting positive outcomes – the “Placebo Effect” – produces demonstrable biochemical changes in the body. However one reads the literature, there remains a considerable interest in and appetite for the Grifola that I collect, and it gives me great pleasure to see all of those Hens fly the coop of my possession. Friends close to the HIV-infected community eagerly take all I can provide and are convinced of its restorative powers.
Culinary Interest: For my money, this is where the action is. Everybody loves this mushroom for its taste and texture. Leslie and I recently brought a dewy fresh specimen to an afternoon cocktail party where five artists gathered to escape the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Outside the wind roared. Rain pelted the windows. The trees and cabin shook. Whitecaps covered the water and leaves filled the air. We placed the mushroom on a side table and commenced the greeting rituals, but a gasp filled the air as the loose waxed paper wrap was removed from the mushroom by the host. It sat there in framed sculptural beauty. Ten painterly eyes were glued to the mushroom. Five jaws slackened, and from four mouths came the same utterance: “Ohhhh!” And then, “I can’t wait to paint (or draw) it.” The hostess remained silent for a moment, torn between twin desires. I suggested that she might want to re-wrap the mushroom to preserve the freshness. She lowered her head ever so slightly and peered at me over the tops of her glasses. “Are you kidding”, she said. “As soon as these people leave it’s going into the frying pan.”
My thoughts precisely! You will want to experiment with this mushroom, as chefs throughout the world have, and I know Leslie will want to provide a recipe of her own, but my own preference is a light treatment in the frying pan exploiting the native qualities of the mushroom itself.
The Basic Grifola Mushroom Sandwich. This will take no more than five minutes. Use top notch ingredients; Butter, garlic, and artisanal bread.
Maine butter, home grown garlic, Atlantic Bakery ciabatta, fresh hen
Over low heat melt a pat of butter in a cast iron skillet. As the butter melts, remove a handful of fronds from your Grifola; clean off any adhering duff or slug stuff, by hand, brush, or a stream of water. Using your fingers shred the fronds into quarter or half inch slivers.
Smash and dice a clove of fresh garlic. Put the garlic and mushroom slivers into the pan and cover. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, during which time the mushroom slivers will give off a bit of liquid and a great deal of aroma. Remove the mushroom from the pan leaving some of the juices behind. Put two slices of bread into the skillet, increase the heat a touch and gently pan toast the bread for another minute. Assemble the sandwich, enjoy, and kick yourself for not preparing enough for two sandwiches. It is that good.
Open faced Frondosus Sandwich
For a Man’s Sandwich, add a handful of ham slivers to the pan a moment after the mushrooms.
Frondosus man's sandwich
For a Fancy Pants Special, add a few drops of sherry before removing the mushrooms from the pan. Stay tuned for other Autumn Mushrooms in future posts.
Hi Leslie & Bill,
Wow what collections!
I once found a small “hen” at the base of an oak in my yard in Bedford NY just before I sold the house and moved. I have never seen one in NH.
But in Lincoln there are not many oaks. One of the COMA members has offered to send me one because he also finds many pounds.
I am inpressed! Happy hunting.
Love, Roz
Hi Roz,
When I first came to Maine, I didn’t see many Oaks either. It all seemed a sea of Spruce and Birch. As I drove around, however, I came to notice more and more, especially on old fence/property lines and near old farm homesteads.
A month ago, in Maine, I chanced upon another collector in a wooded area somewhat new to me. I was on the lookout for Polyozellus, a fungus I have never seen in the wild, but poking around photographing anything that caught my eye. He, on the other hand, had an Adirondack basket strapped to his back and was hoofing it out to a few Oaks “a mile or so up the trail”. And he already had three in his basket from a previous site he had checked,”the other side of the mountain”. IHe said it was “Just like runnin’ a trapline”.
By the time I got back to NY by mid-September the major fruitings had just gone by. The big tree that has provided so handsomely over the years had died, leaving no appparent henly souls to brood over. But I was able to locate a new tree, miles away, and half an hours a walk into the woods that had a nice fresh cluster. Yep. It was on an old fence line at the edge of a long abandoned road.
I’ll bet there are some around you too. New Hampshire can’t be all Pine. How about checking those old cemeteries?
I Was Wondering The Best Time To Hunt The Hen Of The Woods
i will be collecting hen of he woods this year. where in missouri can i put them on market?
September is the start. when the leaves fall.
Thomas -
sorry to be so long answering and now I see Allan has answered your question. Sort of. As you can see from Bill’s post, the season can be quite variable, so the thing to do is seek out likely spots and then just keep checking.
Allan
I don’t know where you’d market wild mushrooms in Missouri, but if I were you I’d start by asking chefs who are known for their interest in using local food. A bit of creative googling should give you some names and so might a search of local members of the Chefs’ Collaborative. If the chefs don’t want to buy directly they may be able to suggest a distributor you could deal with. There’s also your local farmers market if you want to take the direct route.
Great article!
I just revisited this article and have to say that it is perhaps the best article I have read on the Grifola frondosus.
Knowing that there are no look-alike poisonous polyphores in MA ro RI (where I hunt) has made me a little careless in my collection of the frondosus. Consequently, I made the rookie error today of mistaking a Meripilus giganteus for a hen and was trying to figure out why the darned thing was so hard to chew. It tasted almost identical to the frondosa (I even rehydrated some dried specimens from last year’s haul to comare) but I couldn’t get my teeth through the first piece. So I thought I had better do some research and figure out just where I went wrong. Your site led me to the answer. My giganteus looked identical to, and tasted just a bit milder than, some of the hens I had previously collected. The only real difference was the black bruising around the edges of the fronds and at the base cut. No bruising had been apparent at the time of harvest.
Mystery solved!
Hi Simeon,
Welcome to the blog. I am glad to know that you found the article helpful and even came back a second time. And thanks for the compliment.
Like you I also made the Meripilus/Grifola mistake, way back in the 1980’s when I was at a NEMF Foray in New Jersey. It was summer and was hot and humid. Walking across the campus of the Glassboro Campus I saw what I was sure was frondosus growing in a clump of shrubbery. I crawled under and after some effort and a great deal of sweat, came out with a more-or-less intact specimen that I proudly brought to the collection table and labeled “Polyporus frondosus” (Both Grifola and Meripilus were once in Polyporus but have since been segregated out.)
Alan Bessette came by, looked at it and said, “You had better check this one out with Dick” (Homola), his teacher and a chief mycologist at this foray. It took Dick just a glance to see what it really was, but I still needed to collect it a few more times before I was confident.
On another occasion a member of a local Mycological Association brought in and cooked up a quite large Meripilus. The members tried very hard to enjoy it, some actually managing to down a goodly portion before the mistake was noticed. Thankfully, Meripilus is not toxic, or many like us would have had a quite different story to tell.
Good hunting. I plan to start looking for frondosus here in Maine in the next few days.
Bill
hi i have been trying to learn to hunt hens of the woods i found a big mushroom that looked like one it was white with two to three inch leaves the outer edges had a orange coller to them it had a strong smell it was under an oak my naber told me it was not a hens of the woods im sorry i dont have picture
Hi,
I live in connecticut and I think I may have stumbled upon some hen of the woods. I would love if you could help me out. I have several pictures of it. I have always wanted to get into wild mushroom foraging.
Hi Jason, Hi Brian,
Yep. It is time for Grifola. They have just started to emerge here in the Hudson Valley of New York.
Since both of you are self proclaimed novices, let me again stress that you join your local mycological association. Locate a club near you here: http://www.namyco.org/clubs/index.html, and hurry. They are going out right now and you will want to join in on the walks and have the value of hands on expert consultation. Don’t fear being intimidated by these folks: they are among the most genuine and friendly people you arte likely to know.
Also, please check out the links to identification given in this (and other) posts on this web site: Just click on the “here” where the little hand appears. It will take you to another page with more information. Only the sketchiest of descriptions are given in the body of these articles, and you are right to want to know more.
Images, however good they may be, can carry us only so far. You should always check out your specimen with the more detailed descriptions given in reliable field guides. Sorry, for various reasons mushroom ID images sent to this site cannot be commented upon.
Join in with your local mycological association. They are collecting Hen of The Woods this weekend!
Good luck good collecting, and good eating.
Bill
Hi there fellow mushroomers, hens were scarce in september so dry as it was but here now in week one and two of october we are finding a few beauties just right for the table. Matsu’s as well are still popping though spotty.
Say is that gigantus mushroom also known as berkley polypore? Its big and on oak too. I hadnt seen it mentioned.
One little known tip– hens have been also known to fruit near certain species of maple; I’ll just leave it up to ya’ll to determine exactly which one!
leo in central ne
Hi Leo,
Thanks for your comment. By the way, is “central ne” central New England, or Nebraska?
I’ll take your comments in reverse order. I have on very rare occasions found Grifola frondosus on Sugar Maple. That would be one tree in over a half century of collecting. At first I was skeptical, thinking there must be an old oak removed from that spot, but I have followed it for a few years and am now convinced that the Maple supports this fruiting. I have eaten it, but found the flavor to be thinner and less rich than those coming from Oaks.
By “Berkeley’s Polypore” I take it you are referring to Bondarazewia berkeleyi, (both the genus and species of this mushroom are named after mycologists). In Overholts’ classic text (Polyporaceae of the US, Alaska, and Canada)it is also known as Grifola Berkeleyi (Fries), Polyporus Beatiei Banning apud Peck, and Polyporus lactifluus Peck. There are about a dozen or so validly published synonyms for this species. See http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/SynSpecies.asp?RecordID=293765 for the current list.
You probably use Lincoff’s Audubon Guide, given your choice of name for this mushroom.
Yes, it is commonly found on Oaks, and also other deciduous trees in the Northeast. The macroscopically similar B. montana fruits on some coniferous trees in the West. Some authors, Lincoff included, consider B. berkeleyi edible, but I have never met anyone who has admitted to have tried it. In my experience the young immature stage tends to occur in late June.
And bear in mind that there are many other Polypores which you will find growing on Oaks. The two volume North American Polypores by Gilbertson and Ryvarden is the current standard reference. Their 14 page index lists somewhere around 1,000 -1,200 species.
I recall finding one large interesting polypore at a foray in the 1980’s, making a full set of diagnostic photographs, carefully collecting and handling the voucher, bringing it back to the collection tables and asking the renowned resident Polypore expert, William Bridge-Cooke, for his pronouncement on it’s identification. He picked it up, turned it over, and with a sotto voce grunt handed it back to me. “Well, what is it?” I asked. “A young Polypore” was his terse reply.
End of story. As much as we have fun trying to identify the mushrooms which fruit in our region, stick to what you know and don’t try to eat everything in the woods.
Bill
Hi there. I found a 10# hen at the base of a large oak tree in my neighborhood last week. Very exciting. Does anyone know how long it takes for a hen to grow? I was concerned that maybe I ‘plucked’ it too soon; although the restaurant I donated it to felt it was ‘perfect.’
Hi Julie,
Ahhh, the pleasures of a perfect 10 pound Hen – In November, no less. I don’t think it would have gotten much bigger, at least not here in the Northeast. The cold weather and several frosts have put a stop to the growing season.
You ask about how fast they grow. I followed several this year. On Sept 18 they were just emerging, tiny, fragile primordials the diameter of a nickel, less than an inch across and thin as a corn flake.
Five days later, (9/23) they were small rosettes about the size of a tennis ball cut in half (perhaps 3″ in diameter) with well defined segments that were destined to become the fronds.
On 10/06, they were three weeks old and the size of a head of cabbage, and I last visited them on 10/10 when I picked two which were basketball sized, perhaps three to four pounds in weight. Interestingly, there was another week-old rosette coming along at that last visit, but as we had heavy frosts in the following nights and I already had well over a dozen in the large basement fridge, I did not return to that tree.
My guess is that in this year, a 10 pound hen would have been about a month old. Incidentally, those I stored in the fridge (40F) with some moisture control were still in good shape some two and three weeks later.
Those that I left in the fridge uncovered dehydrated nicely, our first try at preserving them in this manner. We will let you all know how this experiment turns out.
At $10-15 dollars/pound, your hen was probably worth $100 to $150 if my math is correct. I hope you got a good meal in fair trade for your donation.
Bill