#craterellus fallax

a cruel question: what's your favourite fungus? or your top 2.2 to 3.8 million favourite species...

Aw, thanks, fellow tumblr person!

A cruel question indeed. I appreciate the alternative option for listening several million. 😆 But I think I can manage with three. No, four. No, two. I'll do two.

1. Black Trumpet (Craterellus fallax)

The first edible mushroom I ever foraged with a delightful goth aesthetic. It's pretty hard to mistake this mushroom for something else, but I was still terrified to eat it. First time round, anyway.

2. Old Man of the Woods (Strobilomyces strobilaceus... Or "floccopus" depending on who you ask, I think both are great)

Such a friendly shroom, and I'm always so happy to see it. And also boop it because it is very soft and boopable. It's like if a Newfoundland were a mushroom.

Black Trumpet - Craterellus fallax

Featuring Craterellus fallax

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, he said, BUT I COULD MURDER A CURRY.

- Death. From Mort by Terry Pratchett

I have such plans for these black trumpets (AKA trompette de la mort/trumpet of the dead)

This is my mushroomy homage to some of my favorite books: the Discworld Death series

By virtue of the bounty of black ingredients, it is an absolute umami bomb (which suits me just fine). The pasta needs to be black because, well...

Death's garden was big, neat and well-tended. It was also very, very black. The grass was black. The flowers were black. Black apples gleamed among the black leaves of a black apple tree. Even the air looked inky. After a while Mort thought he could see - no, he couldn't possibly imagine he could see...different colours of black. That's to say, not simply very dark tones of red and green and whatever, but real shades of black. A whole spectrum of colours, all different, and all - well, black.

Mort by Terry Pratchett

Squid ink pasta in a black truffle, terragon, and black pepper cacio e pepe-esque sauce, crowned with black trumpets, served beside a black garlic balsamic reduction, with chocolate balsamic pickled pear to hide the gorgonzola beneath (shamefully lamenting the lack of squid ink that could've turned that black, too). Oh, and more black trumpets.

It may sounds a bit....um.... ✨📯✨.... but it works.

Okay. Maybe it was a bit too much. 😂 Could've done without the truffle. Actually, the best part was the gorgonzola with the pickle, black trumpet, and black garlic reduction. Would do nicely on a cracker.

And if these mushrooms give me food poisoning?

I only followed recently but I love seeing your posts on my dashboard! I really enjoy mushrooms and its great to see your pictures

I was wondering though, do you have any more spore prints? I always find them so cool to examine

Thank you!

Oh thank you so much ❤️🍄❤️

I was waiting to reply to this because I knew I'd be hiking and hoped I'd find something good, but alas.

So here are some of my older prints...

(I upped the contrast on some of these to show the details a bit better.)

Viscid Violet Cort - Cortinarius iodes

False Death Cap - Amanita citrina

American Golden Chanterelle - Cantharellus flavus

Black Trumpet - Craterellus fallax (above and below)

Winter Chanterelle - Craterellus tubaeformis

Painted Suillus - Suillus pictus

Old Man of the Woods - Strobilomyces strobilaceus

Black Tooth - Phellodon niger

More recently (at the suggestion of a commenter) I've started taking prints on glass and they stay much crisper. Taking photos of those ones is a bit of a challenge I am still working on. I am open to suggestions 😉

Winter Chanterelle Risotto with Black Trumpet Butter

(Craterellus tubaeformis and Craterellus fallax)

They're so pretty! My precious babies! 😭 (...yes, I do speak to mushrooms like Ursula speaks to her eel minions when they die and no I don't find that odd)

Black Trumpet - Craterellus fallax

I found a single black trumpet in a familiar patch that had dried up in August. I don't know if this heralds another fruiting of Black Trumpets, or if this little guy is a later bloomer but... exciting either way! (A scout, perhaps??)

Winter Chanterelle - Craterellus tubaeformis

Was very happy to find these babies peeking out from a familiar (and precarious) spot!

I have been super lucky with finding these after a good rainfall this summer. I've located three separate patches and they're all in the same sort of environment:

In a forest, growing in association with oak

Coming out of the ground in mossy areas, or by dirt paths.

I usually look down and when I see a lot of moss and a lot of acorns, I know my chances are pretty good if there's been decent rain and it's not been too hot (they dry up easily, but bugs don't seem too bothered with them)

Finding them reminds me of looking at those old magic eye posters. You think it's a leaf or some shadows, and you shift your perception just right and...BAM. A dozen black trumpets.

There aren't really any toxic look-alikes in the North Eastern US/Eastern Canada, so this is a great mushroom for beginning foraging, and was the first mushroom I ever found and cooked. At worst, you might make a tasty mistake of confusing it with another variety of craterellus.