Storing Jelly Ears

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Preserving and Storage

Set your oven on 50-70 degrees (or the lowest possible setting). Lay out the jelly ears evenly, preferably on some kind of rack or grill to allow air flow beneath them. Leave them in the oven until completely dried. When almost done you may turn off the oven to allow the remaining heat to finish them off.

Store in GLASS, do not use plastic containers and ensure they are dry and no longer sweat. They will keep until you wish to hydrate them again. Personally, I keep a jar on my kitchen shelf and label them by mushroom type, location found and date.

Jelly Ears

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Name: Jelly Ears, Jews Ears and more.

Location: On Dead Trees particularly Elder

Months: All Year Round

Edible Parts: All of the Mushroom

Non-Edible Parts: None

 

As you can see on this particular foraging trip we also found a variety of other goodies (a big field mushroom and around 2kg of sweet chestnuts). However, I’ll discuss those treats separately, for now I chose this picture but it shows very clearly what jelly ears can look like when very big! However, they look quite different when young:

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Identification

  • Cup shaped when young resembling an ear
  • Rubbery/gelatinous texture
  • red brown colouring
  • Inner surface smooth and shiny, scurfy outer surface matte

Beware Of

Some of the cup fungi are inedible, distinguished by their brittle flesh (as opposed to gelatinous) and they grow on soil. If it’s not a tree, leave it be! (Please DO NOT apply this rhyme to all mushrooms… just the jelly ears).