Its on...

Late June chanties popping through the undergrowth

Ok now the foraging seasons of 2014 begins in earnest. We've had pretty good rainfall for June, +1" above normal, but I was still a bit surprised to see these Chanterelles up before July. In years past the first ones would usually come up sometime in early July here in upstate NY, say July 4th-10th.

But when you have a dog to walk you may as well forage. So with no real expectations I went back to an early yielding patch from last year and low and behold, there they were peeping up between rocks and last years fallen leaves.

That was two days ago...Today I walked around a new area looking for more and came up with just one small chanty. But it wasn't a total loss; I came across a nice patch of Oyster mushrooms for some compensation.

I think we're one good rainfall away from an excellent start to the season. We have some rain forecast for the next few days, lets hope it includes at least one good soaking.

For the love of Ramps

Young ramps, April 18th

Welcome to the 2014 mushroom season. May the rains be plentiful and the fungus abundant.

My total morel take this year was zero, which is only 3-4 below average so I'm not all that broken up about it. I know its different in the midwest and elsewhere but here in the Northeast morels are scarce. Ramps on the other hand...

For some reason Ramp fever had eluded me in the past. I noticed them but I was too distracted by the grand snipe, I mean morel, hunt. But this year there's a place nearby I frequently go for dog walks that's covered with them. So I pulled a few wondering what all the fuss was about. 

Well it didn't take long before I was absolutely hooked. Ramps - all of them, right down to the leaf tips - went in everything I cooked. The smell is of a freshly pulled ramp is intoxicating; the cold, moist dirt and sharp scent have captured the essence of springtime for me. The fact that they're the first fresh edible you see after the long winter months makes them even more coveted. 

Identifying: If you're looking for Ramps they're really hard to miss because in early April they're about the only green thing you'll see in the forest. If you need anything more to go on look for red stems on the young ones and a pungent garlicky smell, its hard to go wrong really. 

Gathering: Early on the roots are strong and its hard to get the bulb without digging around the plant. Later in the season you can loosen it up with a few pulls to the left and right and it'll will pop right out. The bulb will be larger too.

When: Here in upstate New York I was finding them from early April until early June, but we had a cooler start to summer and I suspect it was an especially long ramp season this year. 

Ramp pesto: Ramps including leaves if they're still fresh, olive oil, salt, walnuts (pine nuts, pecans, your choice), process to taste. Easy peasy, lasts a long time in the fridge, and tastes fantastic. 

I'm obliged to add that you should gather ramps responsibly. Take no more than 5% of a particular patch because they take years to grow back. I've heard that if you don't pull the entire bulb out they'll grow back next season but I haven't had that confirmed, anyone know? 

The competition...

Just a few weeks ago I was happy to find just one large hedgehog mushroom, so imagine how amazing it was to find a whole bag full (2 or 3 lbs).

Granted, I had some competition...The slugs seems to love hedgehogs as much as I do! It was interesting to note that while the top was often pockmarked with slug munching the underside was always in very nice shape, fresh and clean.

I realize that seeing this will put some people off eating these mushrooms but hey, this isn't a hobby for the squeamish. It didn't bother me at all. I gave them a quick rinse and into the the saute pan they went. And they were delicious...Similar to chanterelles but with more meatiness. Truly an underrated mushroom.

Hedgehog Joy, Maitake Angst

Found this nice sized hedgehog today. Usually I just find the small ones with 1 inch caps and its hard to find enough of those to do much with them as far as cooking goes. But this one will make a nice addition to an omelet just by itself.

I thought I was looking at a bolete until I flipped it over. Those hanging quill-like spores are a dead giveaway and that's why the hedgehog is considered one of the 'unmistakable' edibles.

I usually find the small ones in moss btw. This large one was sitting by itself near conifers.

The maitake season started quite early this year. The one pictured there to the right was discovered on August 17th and harvested on the 24th. I've already had the heartbreak of finding a maitake gone bad and that was on Aug 30th(!), what a crazy year...Its the same problem we had 2 years ago: We had a couple cool nights in the low 50s in mid-late August but then it got hot and muggy again just like it is now. The maitakes like the cool nights and start fruiting, but they don't keep long in the hot weather so you have to move quickly. There are 3 nice young maitakes I'm keeping an eye on but if it doesn't cool off and rain a little soon I'm afraid they'll go bad also.

Sound the Trumpets

If you ever wondered what a patch of black trumpets look like overhead, well they look pretty much exactly the same color as the grey, brown, black dead leaves all around them. This patch was fairly easy to spot only because there were some large, fully formed trumpets in there that caught my eye.

I was finding only young, thin trumpets until I stumbled across this patch today. Its been interesting this year to monitor some of my known trumpets spawning grounds and gain an appreciation for how slowly they grow. I've been looking at one patch of them for over a week now and have only harvested a few. Morels and chanterelles seem to pop up overnight by comparison.

From Golden to Smooth...

An interesting thing has happened in this great mushrooming summer...Over the course of one week the Chanterelles have gone from 90% Golden to 90% Smooth. I still find the occasional Golden as shown in the photo but when I find a good patch they're all Smooth. The big patches of Golden's are gone.

If you take a look at the photo you can see a good example of the difference between the two...The Golden is more solid with bigger gills. The Smooth is thinner with a wavy cap but not exactly 'smooth'. The gills are still visible, they're just fainter.

The Golden's are generally considered to be better tasting but I believe that's simply because they offer a bigger bite. I'd never turn down a plate of smooth chanterelles.

Chanterelle Fairy Ring

Here's something I thought was quite unique - a fairy ring of chanterelles. I've seen fairy rings of other mushrooms before but not of chanterelles.

I searched on google for something similar and couldn't find anything. BUT being as this is the 3rd chanterelle circle I've found this year I think its safe to say they're fairly common under the right conditions. [edit: I just searched wiki and found a reference to mushroom fairy rings but chanterelles were not listed has one of the species so maybe they are a bit rare.]

Unfortunately many of these mushrooms were a little past their prime with the edges starting to dry out and the cores gone spongy from the rain. Had I found this 5 or so days ago I would have walked away with 4-5 lbs of prime chanties. As it was I came away with about 2 lbs, still not too shabby.

If you're curious about fairy rings the theory is that the spores and mycelia (mycelia can be considered mushroom roots) underground push outward in search of the nutrients they need to grow thus creating a ring. So next year when I come back here - and you better believe I will be back - the ring will be a little wider and should grow more each year.

Its was interesting to see that the pine tree inside ring didn't disturb the grow of the circle.