(bright music) (lively string music) - We were lucky enough to stumble upon hen-of-the-woods.

It is growing in a little bit of a wonky position.

What I would like to say about the hen-of-the-woods is that it is commercially sold as my maitake, kind of got this beefy flavor and I feel like if you do eat meat, it's excellent alongside red meats.

It's just a wonderful mushroom to prepare and it's excellent with rice as well.

I have found them early in September.

I have found them as late as I would say late November.

You're gonna look by the bases of oak trees, usually oaks that have a wound in it here as you can see, normally they're growing, it looks like a rosette coming out of the ground.

But again, this one's growing a little bit, a little bit wonky, but I'm gonna cut off a little bit here.

Alright, so this is just a really pretty, pretty mushroom.

The top, it's got kind of just varying shades of brown.

And then the bottom, the underside does not have gills, it has pores.

And then the spore print is kind of a buff white.

And so I'm gonna harvest the rest of this hen-of-the-woods.

They can become just massive.

One mushroom can last you and your friends all winter along.