eat me?

You have to forgive my current obsession with food. As the cold sets in, I AM obsessed with cold and heat, the dwindling light, with packing away fresh foods, with how to close the hatches enough to get to the other side.

By my eyes have wandered, too. Around the corner from home there's an old maple with about 5 square feet of huge, beautiful mushrooms growing. I'm convinced they are oyster mushrooms, and they make me salivate.

I'm still relatively new to wild edibles, having bit of dandelion here, some purslane there, and gobs of berries in the summers. I'm well aware that mushrooms are a different beast, though, and that regardless of how many pictures I compare, I shouldn't dive in without some experienced advice. But sources say that there are no poisonous mushrooms that look like oysters....

I can hear them (and a recipe of Wildman Steve Brill's) calling my name.