The Mushroom Forager
3y ago
Lobster mushrooms are having a moment, erupting quietly beneath the leaf litter. These furtive fungi are carefully concealed, for the most part, despite their flame-orange coloring and often hefty proportions. I am exploring a new spot, and a few bloated, dark red giants – now soft and covered in white mold – give away a dense and sprawling patch. I follow the fiery fruiting from a low-lying stream dominated by conifers, uphill for over a mile into an ecosystem favoring hardwoods.
Once tuned into lobster mind, every lump in the leaf litter becomes a potential gourmet wild mushroom. Some are e ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
4y ago
Invigorated by a late October spell of wet, balmy weather,
wild mushrooms are making unexpected late season appearances. In the last week,
I have seen pristine wood blewits, elm oysters, late fall oysters, shaggy manes,
and velvet foot mushrooms (enokitake). These are all hardy fall fruiters, but
unusual to find going strong by Halloween in northern Vermont.
I must admit that I laid my basket and knife down too early
this fall, hanging up my mushroom hunting hat a couple weeks ago in favor of a
few last casts in the brook trout streams. Yet today, hiking with Jenna and
Noemi on the lower s ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
Golden chanterelles are on fire throughout the region,
visible from a distance with their bright yellow caps. While all fresh chanterelles
are delicious, our favorite patch yields dense, chunky specimens with a ghostly
white – rather than yellow – stem and false-gilled underbelly. We call these
firm and meaty culinary gems ‘white back’ chanterelles, though my hunch is they
are Cantharellus phasmatis, first documented
in 2013 at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Incredibly, the same researchers discovered three new
chanterelle species within twenty meters of each other, a reminder of how m ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
Eliana didn’t miss a beat as I walked in the door, kicked
off my boots, and slipped a small brown paper bag into the fridge. “Are those
mushrooms? Did you find those in the woods?” She was onto me, leaving her post
of helping mama stir shiitake and tofu to investigate.
Born at the end of morel season of 2014, she’s nearing her fifth birthday – old enough to have a refined palate and nostalgia for ephemeral forest flavors, but too young to have committed the ForageCast to memory. Still, she knew this May was a special time of year – and had noticed Papa’s eyes being stubbornly peeled to the ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
Plump hedgehog mushrooms are fruiting at the forest’s edge, but there’s no time to stop for these gourmet edibles – Eliana has already scurried up the rocky path far ahead of us. “Pa! Waxy caps!”
While not edible, these brilliant, diminutive red mushrooms that evoke the realm of woodland sprites are a favorite find for our mycophilic daughter. But this is no time to slow down. By the time I’ve reached the waxy caps, Eliana is already on to the next find, which she confidently identifies – “Pigskin poison puffballs!”
It doesn’t take much to excite the kid, yet she keenly understands the stakes ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
No matter how many morels one has found, the first find of the season is always a revelation. I’m making a pilgrimage to an old favorite ramp patch, following a trickling streambed up a craggy hillside of hickory, yellow birch, ash and beech. It still feels early for morels in northern Vermont’s hills and I’ve learned to pace myself, saving the epic hunts for peak conditions. But with the sweet smell of springtime in the air and the temperature pushing 80, I can’t help but slow down beneath a hefty ash tree that somehow feels just right for Morchella.
My instincts do not let me down. The fami ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
Gary Lincoff, legendary mushroom expert, naturalist, writer, teacher, and radiant spirit, passed away on Friday morning. He will be deeply missed. I never had the chance to meet Gary, but his work left a lasting impression on me and instilled an enduring sense of wonder for the mycological world. When I was all of ten, his Audubon guide caught my eye in a bookstore display, and I begged my mom to buy it for me. She reluctantly obliged, and that became the bible that I took on countless hunts and used to identify my first hen of the woods as a child.
Lincoff’s later work The Complete Mushroom ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
It’s nearly dusk and I am bushwhacking up a steep hillside of mixed conifers, punctuated by ancient oaks. The oaks that stabilize these craggy slopes are survivors – spared widespread logging not due to conservation but to convenience, the prohibitive price of hauling hardwood out a ravine.
One elder oak invites me to sit down and rest my spine against its sturdy trunk as I gaze down at the sloping forest floor and catch my breath. Sometimes the hunter sees more by slowing down. A sliver of sunlight catches the rich, rosy hue of a collection of brightly colored mushrooms, so I leave my pack b ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
Baby chanterelle bursting from the forest floor.
With wild strawberry and spearmint on my tongue, and chanterelles on my mind, I walk past the sun-splashed frog pond and into a dark glade of spruce. I’m back in familiar territory, having recently returned to northern Vermont after a stint in the southern Green Mountains.
I have not forgotten my spots, and it seems the chanterelles haven’t forgotten me, either. Dozens of flakes of gold, no bigger than fingernails, stud the soil like a fine necklace. Just where I expected them to be, the chanterelles cut through time and welcome me back home ..read more
The Mushroom Forager
5y ago
Our first morel find of 2017 – pictured is one of two chubby yellow morels we spotted yesterday morning in downtown Burlington, VT.
The season’s first morels, even if growing in highly questionable soil in downtown Burlington, always are a true sight to behold. Jenna, right out the passenger seat window as we were parking, spotted two plump yellow morels on woodchips among dog-doo and debris.
We gazed out the window at the majestic morels, knowing we would not eat these urban fruits but that their presence was a sign of a delightful season to come. Morels have burst into season with gusto ..read more