I tried my luck again in my local public hunting forest Saturday, and once more I walked out without seeing a single deer. Still, it was a pleasant, cool morning with a light mist drifting through from time to time. After my morning sit, I wandered across the access road and spotted a small hen-of-the-woods. It was only about softball-sized, so I tucked the little delicacy into my pocket and kept hunting.
Then I came across this beast.
It had to weigh close to fifteen pounds!
With no suitable bag, I decided the only option was to haul the whole thing back to my truck. I switched hands constantly and stayed about fifteen yards inside the woods so I wouldn’t broadcast my little mushroom hotspot to the world.
On the way back I spotted a few small rubs around this giant tree that was attacked. Yikes, this could be a bruiser buck! Only 15 yards from the road.
Back home, I cleaned and diced the pristine portions of my “small” prize. They tasted great—and apparently the bugs agreed, because after trimming everything away, I ended up with only a few solid pounds of usable mushroom.
I kept the smaller one for dinner, then split the giant: half went into the chest freezer, and half into the dehydrator for long-term storage.
My half-yield was 2, quart sized, jars of dehydrated shrooms.
Dinner that night was fried maitake coated in cornstarch, salt, and pepper, served alongside some frozen pork potstickers. Everything turned out delicious, and my son was asking for more. The mushrooms had an incredible crunch and texture that paired perfectly with the potsticker sauce.
So even if I didn’t tag a deer, at least I didn’t head home empty-handed again.
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