Shaggy Mane Mushrooms

I found something cool in our backyard! Last night I was cleaning up apples off the ground for the green waste removal today and I found a bunch of mushrooms growing out of the ground… without really thinking about it I started knocking them down because I didn’t want Kona to start munching on something that I have no clue whether its poisonous or not. Then I remembered I had heard that there are tonnes of varieties of mushrooms in the Okanagan so I stopped wrecking them so I could figure out what they were. This morning (since it got too dark last night) I did some research and took some pictures (of course) and discovered I have Shaggy Mane growing in our back yard! They are edible… so I blocked off the area they are growing to protect them from the dogs to see what happens. I don’t know if I will eat them but it’s a really neat thing to have growing in the yard!

I did some research to find out more about them and here is a bit about Shaggy Mane Mushrooms if you're interested!

Shaggy Mane

Coprinus comatus

• cap is up to 15cm wide, narrow, cylidrical, white, and covered in thin, shaggy red/brown scales.
• older specimens have a cap that is bell-shaped.
• flesh is white, soft.
• gills are narrowly attached to the stem and white/grey when young.
• the flesh and gills of older specimens liquefies into a black inky mass.
• partial veil leaves an inferior, possibly moveable ring on the white stem.
• grows scattered or grouped together in grassy areas covering decomposing wood.
• appears in early spring and late fall.
• has a pleasant taste with no odor; cook before eating.
• tip: collect younger specimens and/or remove blackening areas which have a more bitter taste.
• tip: cooking with water shortly after collecting helps to prevent the dish from turning into a black inky mess.
• an edible look-alike is Coprinus sterquilinus, which similar in appearance but smaller, with fewer scales and growing on dung.

Info taken from http://northernbushcraft.com/mushrooms/shaggyMane/notes.htm