This has been a poor mushroom summer due, I'm sure, to the lack of rain. However a big Chicken Mushroom did pop up a few days ago -- even before the rains finally came last night and this morning. Here's a picture of me -- taken by my son-in-law Jean-Louis Carbonnier -- holding the specimen in question. This mushroom -- formerly known as Polyporous sulphureus -- is now classified as Laetiporus sulphureus (the second name refers to the yellow-orange color). It is a parasite on wood, dead or alive, and generally shelves our like some kin of exotic dry land coral. It was one of the few mushrooms that I could recognize as a kid and my mother, under the tutelage of an elderly Alsatian neighbor, sometimes collected it. This specimen was very clean and, after stripping off the soft growing lobes, we blanched and froze them for future culinary use. It has long been a family favorite.
Eric Salzman
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