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Home » Forage » Mushrooms » Foraging for Oyster Mushrooms

Foraging for Oyster Mushrooms

May contain affiliate links or sponsored content. Please see my privacy policy and affiliate disclosure.

Originally published on August 21, 2016. Last updated on January 16, 2021

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Oyster mushrooms growing on a tree, and freshly foraged oyster mushrooms.

Oyster mushrooms are easy to identify and fun to forage for, plus they are delicious and easy to use in the kitchen. Learn how to identify edible oyster mushrooms, where to forage for them, and my favorite ways to cook with this very special wild mushroom!

Oyster mushrooms growing in on a log in the forest.

Photo by Karen Kraczewski of The 3 Foragers


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Oyster Mushroom Hunting

Hunting for mushrooms is always one of my favorite pastimes. To start with, the areas that most mushrooms prefer to hang out in are usually gorgeous.

They are often near water, in lush green rainforests, which we have plenty of here in Oregon.

Many times when I actually find wild mushrooms I’m not even actively looking for them. This has most often been the case when I’ve come across oyster mushrooms in particular.

I’ll be crossing a creek on a log and look down to see there are mushrooms on the log, or I’ll come across a stump that has a few clusters of oysters.

Foraging for oyster mushrooms is generally pretty easy, as they are not hard to identify, and exciting to find!

oyster mushrooms on a log

Photo by Adam Haritan of Learn Your Land

Oyster Mushroom Identification

Oyster mushrooms are one of the easiest mushrooms to identify (they are included in my 5 easy to identify edible mushrooms guide).

One important thing to note about oyster mushrooms is that they always grow on wood, either on dead logs or living trees, usually hardwoods but occasionally conifers.

They also always have white or light colored gills that run down their stem.

They most often grow in shelf like clusters.

Different varieties can be various colors of white, beige, yellow, and brown.

There really aren’t any poisonous look alikes if you follow the above descriptions, most importantly that they always grow on logs or trees.

Adam from Learn Your Land has a great post and video about identifying oyster mushrooms.

Regardless, I always recommend that you bring a mushroom guidebook whenever you go foraging, one of my favorites is All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora.

a clump of four oyster mushrooms in a hand

These mushrooms prefer cooler weather, so will often start emerging after fall or spring rains.

This is just a general rule though, as they can also be found in winter, and I have even found them in summer.

Related: What to Forage in Winter: 30+ Edible and Medicinal Plants and Fungi

a small cluster of oyster mushrooms in a hand

We found these ones in June near the Umpqua river in Oregon.

oyster mushrooms in a hand showing the gills

We were unprepared when we found these and didn’t have much to carry them back with, so we used a hat.

We weren’t expecting to find any edible mushrooms, but we got lucky!

foraged oyster mushrooms in a hat

Cooking Oyster Mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms are delicious and ranked as some of the tastiest edible wild mushrooms, along with morels, chantrelles, and lobster mushrooms.

They are amazing simply sauteed in butter with a little fresh thyme.

foraged oyster mushrooms on a table

Growing Oyster Mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms are one variety (along with shiitakes) that can actually be cultivated at home by growing them on logs using plug spawn.

You can also get nifty little mushroom growing kits that make growing them super easy!

We have grown mushrooms on logs before when we lived in Arkansas with wonderful results! Here are some of the oysters and shiitakes that we grew.

homegrown oysters and shiitakes on a round pan

I hope to get some mushroom logs going again this spring, and when I do I’ll definitely keep you updated on the process!

Have you ever gone foraging for wild mushrooms? What have you found?

Further Resources on Oyster Mushrooms

Here are some more great resources on growing, cooking with, identifying, and foraging for oyster mushrooms:

  • Growing Oyster Mushrooms on Your Homestead from Joybilee Farm
  • Pleurotus ostreatus: The Oyster Mushroom from Mushroom Expert
  • Wild Mushroom Croutons from Forager Chef

More Mushroom Foraging Guides

  • Morel Mushrooms
  • Chanterelle Mushrooms
  • Yellowfoot Chanterelles
  • Lobster Mushrooms
  • Chaga Fungus

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gale says

    April 9, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    I have found Oyster Mushroom growing behind my toilet, where I had had a water leak and they keep coming back. I just want to know are they safe to eat?

    Reply
    • Grow Forage Cook Ferment says

      April 11, 2022 at 8:40 am

      I personally wouldn’t eat them, but that is a call you’d have to make.

      Reply
  2. Pam says

    July 6, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    I need to know if the mushrooms I have are Indian oysters.. can you help me?

    Reply
  3. Kris Casnig says

    January 24, 2019 at 4:48 pm

    I found a bunch of oysters in the fall while it was raining. They were plump, and I was super excited about them. They had all of the telltale signs of oysters, and were clearly not orange in any way, but when I dehydrated them the gills on the edge of the mushrooms had an orange tinge. I see in your photo a similar discoloration. Is this normal?

    Reply
    • Grow Forage Cook Ferment says

      February 24, 2019 at 1:38 pm

      As they age and start to dry they do tend to get that slight discoloration.

      Reply
  4. james kenneallysport says

    May 9, 2017 at 6:30 pm

    will thay be there year to year on the same spot

    Reply
  5. Meem Kaplan says

    September 14, 2016 at 10:05 am

    I’ve never been able to find any oysters at their peak – so far! Usually they are just past or too little. That said, I’m usually out there after Chanterelles, Boletes, and my two utmost faves, Chicken of the Woods, and Shaggy Manes. We are out on the coast and just north of Astoria so our foraging is a bit different. We had a Chicken of the Woods grow on the trunk of our plum tree one year and were SO exited…. till we tried to eat it…. Don’t eat one that’s grown on a plum trunk…. SO bitter!
    I’m excited to find you. Will be reading!

    Reply
  6. Heather says

    August 22, 2016 at 12:06 pm

    I think I found some oyster mushrooms on a tree beside a creek bed while hunting last fall they were in groups of 3 or 4 kind of stacked upon one another, I’ve just this year started learning about mushrooms so didn’t look at the underneath to see if they had ribs or not I do have pictures of them. We will hunt the same spot this mid October I will check and see if there are more. It’s damp in the creek area where I found them in a mountainous area of Idaho. Do you make kombcha also? Your mead looks wonderful.

    Reply
    • Grow Forage Cook Ferment says

      August 26, 2016 at 9:49 pm

      I do make kombucha, I have a post on hibiscus kombucha!

      Reply

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