Blake Shelton

Blake Shelton Fried and Ate This Funky-Looking Mushroom He Found in the Woods

Shelton is embracing the fungus among us

Blake Shelton
Getty Images

Blake Shelton is a man of many talents, one of which is apparently … mushroom foraging?

"The Voice” coach just celebrated one of his lesser-known hobbies on Twitter, posting a photo of a funky-looking mushroom he found recently in the woods.

“Would y’all fry this up and eat it?” he captioned the photo of the white, furry fungus.

He explained more about the unusual mushroom in a funny, behind-the-scenes clip from “The Voice.”

“I found, collected, fried and ate a lion’s mane mushroom the other day,” Shelton told his fellow coaches. “I was walking through the woods and saw one growing on the side of a tree. I took it off and fried it and ate it.”

He also revealed that he is a member of the Wild Mushroom Enthusiasts of Oklahoma, which is the name of an actual, private Facebook group with more than 6,000 members that describes itself as “a place for good ole' Oklahoman’s’ to congregate and rejoice in the majesty of the fungi and (its) many, many fruits to man.”

It’s unconfirmed if Shelton is actually a member of this particular Facebook group, but in any case, his interest in mushroom foraging seems to run deep. Back in October, Gwen Stefani revealed that her fiancé was passing the time in quarantine on his Oklahoma ranch by finding and and eating fungi.

"The other day he found some kind of bearded mushroom that he fried and ate," she said in an interview with Popculture. "It had fur growing off of it! I'm like, 'Why would you find a huge furry mushroom and then fry and eat it?'"

"I found a lion's mane mushroom, which I have watched videos about on YouTube many a time with (Stefani’s son) Zuma," Shelton clarified during the same interview. "We've watched people find these things, take them home and cook them. I blasted it up, fried it and didn't die. I didn't see Jesus or anything."

Here’s the perfect moment for a disclaimer: Never eat a mushroom you find in the wild, unless you are a professional mushroom forager and can 100% identify it as safe.

But when it’s possible to forage them safely, lion’s mane mushrooms are considered a delicacy.

Their rich flavor and texture makes them a tasty alternative to meat, according to Urban Spore Mushrooms, an Australian gourmet mushroom producer. They recommend slicing lion’s mane mushrooms and frying them in olive oil until golden and crispy.

Some people even think these quirky-looking mushrooms have a flavor similar to crab or lobster meat and make vegetarian "crab cakes" out of them, according to the food and gardening blog Tyrant Farms.

Moreover, apart from their culinary possibilities, lion’s mane mushrooms may contain compounds with serious medicinal benefits; they may even be used in the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and other cognitive conditions, according to a research review in the journal Acta Mycologica.

So, maybe Shelton is onto something with these furry fungi … but we may just have to take his word for it!

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

Copyright Today Digital Originals
Contact Us