Quote Matt "If they are oysters then with it being such a big crop what would be the recommended cropping system for these?"
"a) Grab 'em all or b) take what you need?"
"Removing these will not harm the Fungi, as these are just the fruiting body the fungi is living in the tree, the worst that will happen is you will prevent any more spores traveling to a new host tree. And if you take them all because you want them it some times induces a second flush of fruiting bodys. But its best to take only what you need with all things"
If a) Will they keep? Can you preserve/dry them?
"Dry or pickle, or keep in the fridge for a while, there are enough for a couple of feeds there id just eat them
"
If b) Can you damage the remaining crop by removing some?
"no you can use a sharp knife and remove some of the fruiting bodys leaving some to spore if you liked".
And finally - Stevie, are these on the roadside? Can 'shrooms be affected by traffic pollution thereby turning a normally edible goodie into a squitty inducing beast?
"Fungi are basically about 85% moisture so they can attract heavy metals from the surrounding atmosphere, the amount in those would be negligible i would think, id err on the side of caution if i saw a crop of something on a busy motorway verge or junction where car fumes are constantly pumped out over them, each situation has to be taken with its own merits."
It's interesting to see such a difference in the specimens in both pictures.
"Mine are a tad older in that pick and from a dodgy angle, there was another group of a lighter colour, but some fungi do tend to have slightly different cap colouration according to weather, location etc, but If ever in doubt leave it out when picking fungi, and try to learn the very poisonous ones early on, its best to pick say 5 edibles and keep ID'ing them till you are good then pick another group to learn."
Squitty inducing beast! LOL
