Our new "white meat"

I have been looking for ways to stretch our grocery money. About a week ago I shared how I stretched a chicken to make five meals for our family. Little did I know that I had access to lots of free chicken, well chicken of the woods that is. Which actually isn't a chicken or poultry of any type. It really is the fruit of a fungus, properly called Sulphur Shelf, but I prefer the more descriptive name Chicken of the Woods.

This is the best edible mushroom we have found so far.

It is . . . . . . .

• Easy to identify. Orange on top, yellow underneath.
• HUGE! I froze seven quarts last night.
• Easy to preserve. Clean and freeze.
• It keeps on coming! You only cut off the outside edges and then it grows more.
• It tastes like chicken. REALLY! I made a casserole last night and the fungus feels and tastes like chicken.
  
• It is growing on a stump right next to our driveway!
  

I didn't have the camera with me, but this picture from Wikipedia is very similar to what I found.

This is an easy mushroom to identify, but as always, never, ever eat a mushroom you have not positively identified. There are some dangerous 'shrooms out there!


As a side note: I still have lots of apples to process, but we did go buy a peeler/corer, so that should make the process a bit faster! I am overwhelmed by all the wild (free) foods we have, I am not sure what I'd do if I had a garden too!