Wild Harvest Tour Exclusive
This post is based on something we may encounter in the fall on a Wild Harvest Tour. The Hericium family is found worldwide but Bear’s Head Tooth Fungi are exclusively found in North America in the wild.
https://www.facebook.com/p/Sandhills-Wild-Harvest-61557940700225/
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| Smaller harvested chunks, they ended up being about four pounds. |
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| This is the central mass, it ended up weighing almost five pounds. |
Common Name: Bear’s Head Tooth
Other Common Names: Bear’s Head
Botanical Family: Hericiacae (The Lion’s Mane Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Hericium americanum
Description & Habitat: Bear’s Head is a member of the Hericium family that combines long spines with a heavily branched fruiting body. It is mainly found only to the east of the Great Plains in North America and typically fruits from deadwood or live trees. Some sources indicate it can be found mainly on conifers but in the filed you are more likely to find it on hardwood trees, and in the Southeast that means Oaks and Sweet gum, possibly Maples as well. It is noted to be Saprobic (prefers dead wood) and potentially parasitic to its hosts. It is known to colonize the wounds of hardwood trees and typically this is called ‘White Pocket Rot’ because of the appearance of a mass of these fungi before it starts to pin or, produce a fruiting body that you would recognize. This can make harvesting the fruiting bodies somewhat difficult as they may be quite high up.
When & What to Harvest: In North Carolina, these mushrooms tend to emerge after a period of rains where the temperatures are roughly in the low 70’s if not in the 60’s. The fuzzy looking fruiting body is what you want to harvest.
Dangerous Lookalikes: None, all members of this family of mushrooms are noted to be safely edible and nothing looks quite like a Hericium.
Related Useful Species: Fungus Icicles (Herecium clathroidies), Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus), Coral Tooth (Hericium coralloides), Comb Tooth (Hericium ramosum) and, Conifer Coral Tooth (Herecium abietis).
Recipe: This is not a mushroom you eat raw, it’s better cooked plus mushrooms have a high chitin content which requires cooking to be digestible. With that said Bear’s Head is versatile, it can be added to gravies, baked poultry, homemade pasta sauces, and the potential list of culinary uses is endless. You can even pop it in the dehydrator, grind it up after trying and make tea out of it.
Additional Information: (If applicable)
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Fresh Foods:
Tomatoes, Cherry Blend – 8 ounces
Soil Amendment Products:
Live Mushroom Compost – 18 Gallon Tote*
Live Mushroom Compost – 3 Gallon Bag
Live Mushroom Compost – 1 Gallon Bag
Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Lion’s Mane Tincture (New!)
Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Turkey Tail Tincture (New!)
Garden Plants, Perennial:
Gentian Sage
Spineless Prickly Pear
Spanish Bayonet
Garden Plants, Fall Foods:
Collards, Green Glaze
Coming Soon:
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Garlic Bulbs
Fall vegetables
*The 18 gallon tote is by special order only and is delivered to any address within the Fayetteville city area.
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (1): Wishbone Flower
Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is September 7th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.
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