The Golden Season

The rain we had early last week is starting to produce mushrooms in the forest. For those of you who have always been interested in collecting wild mushrooms I must warn you that it could be dangerous if you do not know enough about the fungi to realize that some could be hazardous to your health to the point of causing death. If that is not enough to scare you, then you should not go out into the woods at all.

Mike has spent his life living and working around the woods and has harvested Chanterelle mushrooms specifically commercially since he was old enough to walk with his Father and Uncle’s in the forest. Once I came into the picture, I spent a good amount of time looking for the elusive gold poking through the carpet of salal, ferns, understory and shed fir needles. Mostly I was there to help pack the buckets filled with mushrooms. It took many years for me to actually go into the woods by myself and be sure that I picked the correct mushrooms and would not harm anybody by bringing them home to eat.

Until freezing weather sets into the area, mushrooms will be poking up and I have started the tradition of ‘one bucket walks’ with visitors to the farm and by myself when I get the urge to gather a little gold.

From the house, I can grab a bucket and knife and one of my trusty dogs and scour the hillside across the river. Yesterday I was able to get a small bucketful in about an hour.

There will need to be cleaning since they grow right in the duff around the base of the tall fir trees, but these mushrooms are solid and fairly dry this early in the season. They are also perfect for keeping in the fridge for several days because they are so dry. Once I get a couple buckets ahead, I will start the dehydrating process for ones that I don’t use right away.