Going on a Mushroom Trip

Going on a Mushroom Trip!

What a winter we are having. It seemed as if we were in for another with the few storms we had in the fall. But alas, we are bone dry in January? At this time of year last year we had similar weather in January but we had much more rain and snow prior. When it’s raining and snowing like it did last year, I find myself outside in the foothills. With rain comes fungus. The early deluges last year primed the forest for plenty of gourmet edibles. Even though there are only a few choice edibles that grow locally I’ve learned to distinguish them from the diverse array of mushrooms that pop out of the ground during the cold and wet winter months. But this year is a different story. With the weather leaving the Sierra bone dry all the way up to the pass it’s been a slow season around here. When I hear the crackling of leaves and sticks when I’m walking through the forest I don’t expect to find much. No use sitting around waiting for the rain. I’m heading for the coast in Mendocino.
Even though they haven’t gotten much more rain than we have hear in the Mother Lode, they have been getting bits of rain and fog at least. I hear that the price for fresh picked mushrooms is low in the city and the mushroom buyer’s are paying rock bottom prices to the commercial pickers. That makes me wonder if there is a plethora of gourmet edibles out. Only one way to find out is to go see for myself. So I’m packing my truck and camping out for three days with a couple of friends. I’ve been there before at this time of year so I am somewhat familiar with the area. I’ll be going to Jackson State Forest in Mendocino County. Nestled in between Fort Bragg and Ukiah, Jackson State Forest is 50,000 acres of second growth redwood forests. This is also where you will find commercial pickers and the brokers that buy the mushrooms from the pickers.
To those of you who are freaking out from the thought of people picking wild mushrooms to eat, do not to fret. Commercial pickers or just some “Joe” trying to fill the cupboard with the years supply of black trumpets, candy caps, yellow foot chanterelles, golden chanterelles, hedgehogs and a few others know what they are doing. Many people, myself included, have spent some time to learn from others and research the subject to the point that they are extremely confident in their ability to identify mushrooms correctly. Mushroom pickers aren’t just randomly going out and picking everything they think is edible. They are targeting certain mushrooms. So they look for the conditions that specific mushrooms thrive in, which in turn leads to the mushrooms. They don’t just randomly start picking everything that grows in the same areas as the targeted mushroom they are closely looking for specific characteristics that are inherent to the mushrooms they are looking for. Once they hone in on those characteristics and the habitats that certain mushrooms thrive in it may be hard to stop going out to pick, especially if it happens to be a great year for mushrooms. There may be even too much for nature to handle them and they’ll go bad before anyone or anything can utilize them.
A very wise mushroom hunter will also have a good understanding of the most important mushrooms to avoid, such as the death cap, or the destroying angel. These are both Amanitas, which contain many different alkaloids known as amanitoxins. These mushrooms can destroy your liver and your kidney and live up to their name quite well. There are telltale characteristics of these mushrooms that should be learned from anyone thinking about picking and eating wild mushrooms. The best way to learn about mushrooms is directly from a person that knows a lot about them. Columbia College offers the class Mushrooms of the Mother Lode every year and is a great way to get acquainted with the mushroom life cycle, their biological role, cultural significance and so much more. There are also Mycological Societies that are great ways to bump elbows with wildlife biologists and ecologists.
If you’re still wondering why people might go pick wild mushrooms and eat them I’ll give you a few more reasons. The flavors of fresh mushrooms and their dried counterparts are very unique and impossible to replicate. Many choice edibles are difficult or impossible to grow, so to enjoy fresh chanterelles is only possible if you or someone else goes into the forest and picks them.
If you’re thinking you want to hunt wild mushrooms I recommend using extreme caution. Learn from someone that really knows what they are doing. It can take a while before you become well acquainted with being able to identify wild mushrooms. Be patient and don’t rush into eating a mushroom you picked yourself. There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters.
I just hope we get some rain this year because I would like to pick some morels in the spring. If we don’t get anything in the next few months it will be a grim morel season and I’ll have to look into going somewhere else to get my mushroom tripping fix.