They’re little brown mushrooms, don’t eat them or you’ll be sorry! Actually, they’re fairy rings (Marasmius oreades) and although they’re small, they’re right up there with the best tasting wild mushrooms I’ve come across. Once you find a little patch or a hole where a stump used to be (where I find most of mine) you can come back year after year to the same spot to pick more-they’re very reliable.
You might be thinking that something so small and seemingly nondescript would be hard to identify, but there are a number of characteristics that make these guys easy to pick out, as long as you pay attention.
The name fairy ring itself is a little misleading, since plenty of mushrooms grow in rings. 9 times out of ten when I see these though, they’re in a definite ring, and where I pick them, it’s often around the crater of a stump that’s been removed, nestled in the “brulee” or dark ring of grass that lets you know some type of fungus is growing, taking nutrients from the grass above.
Habitat
Knowing where they grow is important for a correct ID. You’re not going to find these in the deep damp woods, like a chanterelle or a lobster mushroom. These like sunny, open areas, pastures, yards, and grassy meadows. I usually start to see some here and there right after the peak of morel season in the spring here in Minnesota.
Fairy ring mushrooms in the front yard. I always see them around the area a stump was removed from every year. Note the bell shaped cap.
Identification
Its always important to pay attention to multiple ID details, like spore prints, etc (theirs is white) but for me, the biggest give away with these is their stem.
The stem is tough and pliable, you can bend it back and forth and it won’t budge, in fact, you have to be careful when removing the stems for cooking these, since the cap will tear with it if you use too much force. There’s a lot of mushrooms that can look like these, but most of the other ones have stems that are brittle, or snap off easily when bent.
Then there’s the cap, the fairy rings that I pick usually have an umbonate, or bell shaped cap. When I show it to people, I usually describe it as looking like a nipple, which seems to help.
Very young fairy rings may not have the nipple shaped cap.
The gills are useful to look at too. For the most part, fairy rings have more widely spaced gills than other similar looking mushrooms. The gills are also special in that they fork, meaning that some of the gills won’t completely connect with the stem.
Look closely, see how some of the gills don’t connect with the stem, and how some look forked.
For posterity, here’s a recap. Fairy rings:
- Have a white spore print
- Typically have a nipple shaped cap
- Have a tell-tale, tough, pliable stem
- Generally grow in rings
- Have gills that will fork and may not attach to the stem
- Fruit in open meadows, and grassy places
Cooking
Once you have some fairy rings, the first thing you want to do is remove the stem and leave the cap in one piece. I’ve found that the easiest way to do this is to grab the stem and twist to remove it, it pops right off. I suppose you could save the puny stems for stock, but for the amount of yield you get from these, it’s hardly worth it.
As far as cleaning, these are generally not filled with dirt or bugs, which is nice. If they have grass or some detritus stuck to them, I rinse them in some cold water and then allow them to dry between a few layers of towels in the fridge before cooking.
Preservation is a breeze too, if you leave them out on a counter, they’re so light that they’ll just dry themselves, although I still like to use a dehydrator. On a related note, while they’re growing in open areas, they can get dried out and shriveled by the sun, don’t forget about them though, since they come completely back to life after a little rain.
Here’s a fun way to prepare them. I like to keep it simple with these as combining them with too many ingredients will obscure them and make them blend into the background, as with many other mushrooms.
Capellini With Fairy Ring Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 ounces fairy ring mushroom caps cleaned
- 4 ounces dried angel hair pasta my favorite brand is Rustichella d'Abruzzo
- 1 tablespoon shallot diced 1/8 in
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/8 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup chicken or other poultry stock preferably homemade
Instructions
- Bring a few quarts of salted water to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter on medium heat.
- Add the fairy rings to the pan and cook for a few minutes to brown them, then season with salt and pepper. Add the wine and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the chicken stock. Bring the water to a boil, add the pasta and stir thoroughly to prevent clumping.
- Cook the pasta to al dente, then add to the pan with the mushrooms.
- Cook the mixture for another minute or two, add the remaining butter and stir to make a creamy sauce, finish with the garlic chives at the last minute, double check the seasoning for salt and pepper then divide the pasta between two warmed bowls and serve immediately.
Teeny tiny fairy rings are great with butter, wine, salt, chives, and nothing else.
Tried finely chopping stems for use in recipes?
Have you ever noticed a slight bitter flavor if overcooking them in butter?
No, but it’s definitely possible.
I have a fairy ring! Actually it’s not a complete ring as it curves into the bricks of the corner of my house. These are a total surprise, it’s been freezing cold since they’ve appeared, day and night. The lovely ring is gracing the northwest corner, mostly totally shaded. I was looking out the window one morning to see what had the interest of my cat, and saw the semicircle ring of light putty colored growths that from the window look as if they could be gravel from a road, or driveway. I’m thrilled with them being there, but I was surprised to see these had popped up with the temperatures had plummeting down to freezing. I read somewhere that these are sometimes called spider rings, am I correct? That’s fine with me as well. I don’t use pesticides, just naturals that include chalk around doors, bay leaf thrown into cabinets, that sort of thing. So I’ve had permanent resident golden orb weavers, much to my delight. I’m not strange, just a reformed arachnophobia case, do as long as they’re helpers. And they’re safe in lodging from my patio, above my huge rosemary that’s taken over almost half my patio. It blooms as often as six times a year, maybe a couple more small stress blooms. I’ve had some health problems that have kept me in so I’ve not been outside to look at my nice fairy ring, spider ring, so I’ve not seen the underside of the fungi but they appear to be almost sitting on the grass, like a ring of rocks, part of a medicine wheel kind of. I’m just taken with them popping up in freezing and below freezing temps, day three or four, five? I’m not sure. I just wondered why winter would spur on the growth, and what do I do to make sure they return as often as possible. Thank you so much.
Myra, and Bailey Kitty ???? Kat, owner and proprietor ~~~Best wishes to all from our home, always!~~~
Where are you located? During this time of year I’d be skeptical of M. oreades growing. Many mushrooms grow in fairy rings.
I’m in northwest Alabama. The ring is still producing but I’ve not gone outside yet to look at it. It’s quite large, but it’s not a complete ring because of it going against the corner of the house on two sides of the house. My health is somewhat dodgy and I am not able to get around. The weather has been raining off and on and the winds are dipping into near freezing temps during the day early mornings and late afternoons. Would there have been a tree there at some point? I do know that thes houses along this streeet are around twenty to twenty five years old. Thank you for your time! I like your website and am glad to have found you. Thank you again, my best to you and yours this holiday season!
Hello, and Season’s Greetings!
I looked at my fairy ring that I asked about when I first emailed and discovered it’s larger than I realized, about 8-9 feet. I discovered that there are actually two, one inside the other. In several places they are in thick clumps, tightly packed together which is why at first thought they were stones. But I rarely get out so it’s not surprising. They are all the same height at their tallest, two inches. They’re growing on a north side, shaded most all the time, even those circling around to the west side. The corner of the house intruded into the ring. With some taller oak trees close.If there is nothing to add as far as information other than you’ve already kindly provided for me then there’s no reason to bother taking time on your part with a return on this. I have no questions, I just thought I would pass along this as a closer for my previous email/emails. Thank you so much, I never knew until recently what fairy rings actually are. I was excited to see one, a double maybe, right here under my nose.????????♂️????????♀️Have a blessed Holiday Season, everyone!
These are delicious little mushrooms, and surprisingly substantial for their size. I like to sautee them at a high enough temperature that they get a bit crispy (they almost seem to caramelize like onions) — at which point they are reminiscent of bacon. 🙂
M. oreades are not always tiny little mushrooms. We have recurring fruitings of these delicious shrooms in our yard every year and some specimens have caps up to 5″ in diameter! Most are 1 to 3″. We usually eat them fresh, sauteed in olive oil with a little garlic and mirin and folded into omelets. I really should try to dry some just to experience their miraculous rebirth when re-hydrated.
A great piece of information. Thanks for the information on how the gills fork. Super helpful-I have a bunch in my yard I’m looking forward to trying.
You give recipes for fairy after which in the first line you you say, “don’t eat them or you’ll be sorry.” This makes no sense to me. Please explain.
When I say “little brown mushrooms” I am not referring to the edible mushrooms in this post. Little brown mushrooms or “LBMs” as they’re known in mycological speak are not Marasmius oreades (the mushroom I’m profiling here), but some amateurs might confuse them as such. I would suggest you read up and familiarize yourself with some scientific mushroom names. These are not a beginner mushroom.