Happy November, food & foraging friends!
‘Tis the season for turkey/tofurkey… so I thought I would dedicate this month’s edition to the beautiful and ubiquitous turkey tail mushroom, Trametes versicolor.
There is a cornucopia of reasons to be grateful for this mushroom. For one, it remains plentiful when our fleshier fungal friends have stopped fruiting. It also is one of those copious decomposers that help break down dead wood and return nutrients to the soil (saprophytic being the technical term). And last but not least, turkey tail has a host of medicinal properties that are easily extractible.
But let’s start with a quick ID lesson. Turkey tail has a few imposters, including the false turkey tail (Stereum ostrea) and the gilled polypore (Trametes betulina). The concentric rainbow-like bands of color on the true turkey tail can vary greatly, from greys and blues to browns to reds, largely due to genetic variations, while the false turkey tail is typically always in hues of orange to reddish brown. True turkey typically has a ruffly half-moon shape, but sometimes will grow into an full moon, whereas false turkey tail tends to grow in an oyster-like shape, slightly curled into itself.
For me, the key tells of Trametes versicolor compared to the false turkey tail are its thicker body (Stereum ostrea being nearly paper thin), the white pore surface on the underside (this is often discolored with age, but still never as brownish and smooth as ostrea), and the velvety feel of its topside. It’s such a calming sensory comfort that I have been known to keep a cap in my coat pocket to rub when I’m standing in line somewhere, getting impatient. The gilled polypore can look very similar and also has a fuzzy top, but is easily distinguishable by the mazelike gills on its underside.
Trametes versicolor has been found on dozens of species of tree, typically on fallen logs or standing dead trees. You can often find both true and false turkey tail on the same log, but once you get to know these two very common species, I think they’re hard to mix up.
Turkey tails come in an array of tones, from grey to sepia, often with a distinctive white band rimming the cap.
Now, back to the benefits. As with many medicinal claims for mushrooms, the science is still somewhat incomplete, but there are strong indications from research to date that turkey tail is a “nonspecific immune modulator,” bolstering the immune system in a non-specific way. There is also a promising body of research to indicate the mushroom’s polysaccharopeptide (PSP) and polysaccharide-K (PSK) compounds can inhibit the growth of cancer and tumor cells, particularly when done in conjunction with conventional treatments (ie, patients taking turkey tail with conventional treatments have better outcomes than chemo alone). In Japan, extract of turkey tail (known in Japanese as kawaratake, roof tile mushroom) has been an approved prescription medication for cancer for nearly 50 years.
While turkey tail is certainly no cure-all, it also has no real downsides. I know of no side effects, and it’s free and easy to extract from the woods. I like to grind turkey tail with my coffee beans and steep it in hot water to add some medicinal powers to my morning brew, or throw some in with my veggie scraps to make broth. Click here on how to tincture turkey tail using a simple double extraction (alcohol and water).
Turkey tail has a neutral flavor, so it can really be infused into anything your heart desires – hot tea or ice cream! Indeed, I’m excited that a group of us from MAW will be brewing a Turkey Tail Ale with Waverly Brewing Co. this December — stay tuned for an announcement when that becomes available on tap.
One of my other fave all-season forageables, conifer needles, will be the focus of a class I’m teaching for Shop Made in DC December 8th, so check it out!
It’s been a tough year, but there is still so much to be grateful for, and this community of wild foodies is one of them. Hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving, however you choose to celebrate it.
Wildly yours,
April