A couple weeks ago, while I was raving about the number of different mushrooms that seemed to be popping up this year and the fact that I know nothing about them, and I never eat any mushrooms I find because I know nothing about them, someone suggested I follow the Nova Scotia Mycological Society on Facebook.
First off, thank you. They really do have a very interesting page and give out a lot of information about various mushroom species that are growing around us. I even seem to be learning something, almost without knowing I’m learning something. Like on the weekend when the dog and I were out for a walk and I looked and said, out loud, “oh look, coral mushrooms.” The dog just looked at me. She has enough sense to not pay any attention to mushrooms, and doesn’t pay much attention to me when I am talking to myself. But I did recognize one of the types of mushroom that had popped up on the site.
But there have been a number of people talking about lobster mushrooms. I had never heard of such a thing. I looked them up, and they aren’t really a species of mushroom. They can actually be one of several different species of mushroom that is susceptible to a fungus that takes over and turns them lobster colour. And makes them lobster flavour, from what I understand.
So it’s really a fungus growing on a fungus.
And even though some of the mushrooms that it grows on might not be edible for some humans, the parasitic fungus that grows on them makes them edible.
But people were saying that you can make chowders, pasta sauce, pretty much any number of things you might use lobster for, you can use lobster mushrooms.
Now I don’t know how close the flavour is to actual lobster, but it is interesting. And if you know any people who are vegans, you can even feed them lobster, just in mushroom form.
I have not tried them. And I have not yet spotted any. But I am looking.
Now that I know they are a thing, I’m going to have to try them.