My first exploratory mushroom hike was in late February of this year. It would be another couple months before I had anything to prepare in the kitchen but no more hiking to rocky summits or trudging around in the snow. If there is not a compelling reason to suspect fungi fruiting, its a hard pass. I probably share your anxiety about poisoning myself or the family but great youtube content (especially Mushroom Wonderland) has made it so much easier to assess shrooms beyond just by a picture and some overly scientific descriptions found in most books. So from a grand total of one wild mushroom harvested and cooked (morels) in the first 36 years of life, this last trip around the sun added another 19 variates to the list. A few of these are not much more useful than a chance to gross out your kids trailside but most are good enough for me to regret my wasted youth. Probably more importantly - no misidentifications on the table to date!
Its been a great activity for walking/hiking with kids because inevitably our pace will slow to a crawl because of a hunger strike or we are paused to blast a stream with rocks. When not joining in to chuck rocks, I can step off the trail into the bushes to see whats for dinner. Below I wanted to show off the list of species we tried this year but also maybe provide a little information on the relative value of the mushrooms and our favorite preparations (Pro tip: if its a great mushroom, salt and butter is all you need):
My Top 6: Not coincidently, these all taste great to humans but have very limited appeal to our northwest bugs and worms.
Morels - The salt and butter preparation was a big hit with the youngest as well as friends and family. We also featured them on pizza and in risottos. Being hollow and light, they dry great and the June harvest is still bringing joy. I tried them in a deer liver mousse recipe but discovered that liver is the one thing they cannot make palatable.
Chanterelles - The classic fall mushroom and a beautiful, golden beacon in a forest of brown and green. You can't go wrong with butter and salt but these guys reportedly do not dry well so I have spent many afternoons cooking down the surplus and then freezing them. Our biggest hauls came while at deer camp in eastern WA but also found some honey holes closer to home that kept producing into mid-December.
Winter Chanterelles (Yellowfoot) - Not actually a chanterelle but my current infatuation because we are still finding piles of them going into the last week of the year. They have a great texture that lends well to adding to pasta sauces and stews.
Shaggy Parasols - Only the caps are the desirable edible and these have a much darker, earthier taste than most of my preferred mushrooms. They were great on their own or in a meaty bear chili.
Shaggy Manes - An ink cap mushroom that will dissolve into black goo within a day or two of picking. They make a fun, black (honestly more greyish) risotto. Cooked solo, they were a little too mushy for my tastes. Again the biggest patch of these came from deer camp but my first finds of both shaggy species were in a west side county park. Its also a species where my oldest has discovered as many patches as I have.
Bear's Head Tooth - An ungainly name but a very fun mushroom to eat. We discovered a multi-pound specimen trailside in a city park. In my opinion its got a little bit of sweetness to it and that combined with its texture is reminiscent of crab meat. Not sure how that ties into the best applications for consuming it, but looking forward to finding more next summer to begin the experiments.
Honorable Mentions (roughly in order of author's preference)
Oysters - My first significant finds in the spring of 2023 and they are so common that this fall I found myself walking past them until I was skunked and needed a consolation prize. Unlike the primo mushrooms, these are veritable bug colonies even when young. Still, when fried in butter until almost crispy they are one of the wife's favorites.
Lobsters - This one is considered a culinary treat and maybe it will climb my list as I get more experience preparing them. The funky scent of the sea that you get off them while in the forest doesn't come over when fried but dehydrating them will fill the house with an amazing buttery aroma. Maybe even more fun than eating them is pondering that a lobster mushroom only exists as a parasite of a much more boring mushroom.
Matsutake - Very popular in Japan and was one I spent a lot of time looking for with only the little guy above to show for it. At the time of picking I was only 90% sure of what I had and it took a lot of research and a couple days out of the fridge for it to develop the tell-tale spiced aroma. Still, I only got to 99% confident, the family didn't get to try this one. A little less firm than a lobster with a sweetness and flavor that I cannot explain.
King Bolete (Porcini) - I think 2024 will see the porcini jump in the rankings but the two I found on the PCT this year were already host to some worms so I dried and ground them into powder. Maybe they are greatly enhancing my soups and stews but I haven't done a blind taste test...
Cauliflower - Not knowing the treasure I had in hand, I just took a small sample of this guy home for identification. That small chunk was breaded and fried (after confirming the ID). It didn't detract from the fried batter but I hope to find some more as tasters I trust say it makes a great substitute noodle in stroganoff.
If you need to fill the bucket:
Once is Enough:
Alpine Jelly Cones - Little gummies with no flavor but are safe to eat raw.
Witches' Butter - A bigger, slimier version of the tasteless gummies.
Any of the Ramarias - I thought I had positive IDs on the species I tried either in butter or battered and fried but I have since learned that people consider it too easy to be fooled without using a microscope to confirm spore characteristics. Since I don't like to gamble on my GI track, I'll have to pass on these beautiful specimen in the future.
Pig's Ear - I've eaten actual pigs ears and I'm not sure which I disliked more. It might have been that the one sample I found was older than it appeared or concealed some nasty bug but I did not appreciate the taste.
Late Fall Oyster - Not an actual oyster mushroom but similar texture. The problem was that about five chews in there was a bitter flavor similar to chewing on a grapefruit rind. Other folks report only a minor flavor but with so many other tastier options out there, I'll be leaving them alone.
Turkey Tail - A legit medicinal mushroom that has been used clinically to help arrest cancer growth and improve the immune response. I found some really fresh ones a couple weeks ago and tried them in a tea. Tasted like the liberal dose of honey I applied and the tea led with the distinct odor of fungi.
Well... I'm really sorry to put you through that. If its any consolation, it was almost as painful for me to comb through my spreadsheet of 94 outings and all the associated tasting notes. But such is my commitment to losing my audience...
I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2024 with lots of opportunities to escape into the woods (even if you don't want to get into the mushrooms)!!
