Wild Food: Mushroom Hunting - Yellow Foot and Black Trumpet
The other day I saw some wild mushrooms at the local farm stand and thought to myself... I need to start looking for mushrooms!
My friend had told me that Yellow Foot, Morels and Matsutake can be found in the local forests. But he was unclear on time of year. I figured things need to start warming up.
Then I saw these farm stand mushrooms and looked up in my book. Turns out Yellow Foot can fruit throughout the winter if the conditions are right. So you're telling me I missed out on 3 weeks of mushroom harvesting already since I got here?!
The first chance I got I went for a hike and took a meandering path through the forest.
It sure is beautiful!
Well I didn't know exactly where to look but as it turns out it didn't take long to find some Yellow Foot mushrooms!
Once I found a few it didn't take long to find a few more and then a few more.
Yellow Foot is easy to identify because of the hollow center at the top of the mushroom and more often than not in the stem. The gills look like Chantrelles and the bottom of the stem is yellow, often brighter at the bottom with a gradient going down the stem.
It had just rained and snowed for a few days so the Yellow Foot mushrooms were a little on the soggy side. No worries, that didn't stop me and I picked the ones that were still firm.
This was my favorite find :)
Here is the biggest patch I came across.
So I came back home excited about my harvest. Not bad for a few hours of walking around, fairly clueless about where to look. A little luck and it paid off early this time :)
I spread the harvest out on a towel to air dry a bit. After they were no longer soggy and fairly dry to the touch I put them in a paper bag. No room in the fridge so its sitting outside - temperature is still cool enough out there.
Word to the wise: Don't harvest and eat wild mushrooms unless you are 100% sure what they are. And even then if its your first time with a new mushroom just eat a little bit at first until you know how your body reacts to it. Better yet have someone show you how to identify the mushrooms, especially if you are not sure!
So I went out the next day for a second harvest but in a different part of the forest. I wanted to learn where they liked hanging out and see if I found any bigger patches. Well I didn't find any bigger patches but I did end up with some more.. not quite as the previous day.
On the way out I met a man that was just finishing his own mushroom hunt, coincidentally enough. Only he was a true professional and harvesting mushrooms is his full time job. Pretty nice if you ask me... getting paid to camp and walk around the wilderness??
So he had another mushroom with him... the black Trumpet. I said... so you're telling me those are around here? Yep! He wouldn't tell me where his spot was of course but he gave me some vague tips.
Day 3 I set out for a few hour walk around the woods. This time I try a totally different area, different microclimate and within the first hour lo and behold.. I stumble across my first Back Trumpet! This must be my lucky weekend.
It's beautiful. And so different than the Yellow Foot. A ways off I find a few more.
The Black Trumpets are much harder to spot because they blend with the dark forest floor. Actually it seems impossible to spot them from a distance. Apparently they are not as common as the Yellow Foot and so that makes it even harder to spot them.
Black Trumpets are easy to identify as there are no lookalikes! There are no gills and the whole mushroom is completely smooth. The stem is hollow and the cap has a hole in it as well.
Interestingly I did not find any but one Yellow Foot in the area where I was finding the Black Trumpets. I suspect they prefer different habitats.
At first I thought I was on a roll and I would find a bunch more. I found a few more but then I spent another few hours and didn't find anymore. But I came a way with a decent harvest for my first time that will make a nice meal or two :)
The Yellow Foot mushroom didn't really stand out to me in terms of flavor. It is very mild in flavor. The texture is soft. I don't dislike it and am grateful for the wild mushroom in my diet. I really like that it seems to absorb and pickup other flavors that I cook with it.
The Black Trumpet mushroom has a lot more flavor and I'm really liking it so far. I've only tried it raw and have yet to cook with it. That will be tonight :)
I am excited to keep exploring new patches of forest... find some "spots" and see how the mushroom season changes throughout the year. I am pretty sure I will be able to find Morels. But some of the less common mushrooms... we will see!
Wild Foods
I really appreciate wild mushrooms because they pack a lot of protein, nutrients and minerals. Some mushrooms are known to prevent or fight cancer.
Its food that wasn't grown or shipped industrially so there is less pressure on the system.
As a novice mushroom hunter I am glad to be adding more layers of wild food to my diet and wild food repertoire.
Foraging mushrooms gives me more respect and appreciation of nature. I get to find food and explore nature's beauty at the same time. It certainly doesn't feel like work.
The more time I can spend in nature, the better. I am happier, feeling more fulfilled, disconnected. I feel more unplugged... but then I feel plugged in to a whole other world, one that I want to be a part of and connect with.
Sustainable Harvesting
And mushrooms can be harvested sustainably if you follow good ethics and practices. Taking only a minority of the mushrooms that were found so that the remaining can grow through their lifespan and sporulate to ensure longevity of the mushrooms.
Also it is a good idea to keep in mind, if you see a harvester has already been to a patch you found (you see evidence of mushrooms cut off the stem already) best to take even less or better yet move on to find another patch that hasn't been tapped yet.
What Are These Mushrooms??
So... for the Mushroom connoisseurs that have been at it longer than I have... I have a challenge for you. Can you identify any of these mushrooms? I saw them, they stood out to me and I have know idea what they are.
Excellent post! Those are some new mushrooms for me. I also like to forage. I have heard that you should always cook the mushrooms, even the little button ones and portobellos that’s you get at the store.
Interesting... I haven't heard about always cooking any mushroom and will have to look into it. I do prefer my mushrooms cooked though!
I haven't found many mushrooms here. Too hot I think. I am going to take a vacation up to the mountains when the rainy season begins. I might have better luck there.
Great idea! Maybe near the streams where it is more cool and wet?
Lots of cool mountain rivers an streams up where I am going, so hopefully I will have better luck.
I love hunting for mushrooms! I've been waiting all winter for spring to come so I can go out and find mushrooms. I live in Chicago, we get harsh winters so I don't think we get any mushrooms during the winter months. I'm excited for morel season! Check out my post about morel; I included my own pictures of mushrooms I found. Finding my first morel was like a rite of passage as a mushroom enthusiast 🍄
It's funny you say that because Morels was my first experience wildcrafting mushrooms as well. It was also exciting for me to find a whole new type of wild food I hadn't experienced yet. How fun that we can share the same morel mushrooms in totally different climates!
Have you tried fairy ring champignon? I harvest that from people's front yards in the summer, including my grandpa's front yard every summer. They have a sweet delicate taste and they say you can make them into cookies as well. I'm taking a different approach to mushrooms this year so I'll try that.
Nope I have not yet, but I will keep my eye out! Mushroom cookies you say? Very interesting, I would not have guessed that-- maybe it makes more sense once you know what they taste like! Thanks for the tip :)
Excellent #walkwithme. The forest you have to explore is beautiful! Very different from the forests of the Ozarks! Congrats on your harvest!
Thank you @powellx5! Yeah it is so beautiful... the ozarks are so beautiful too! :)
That's some pretty cool stuff! What fun adventures at your neck of the woods this past weekend! Glad you had a very successful time mushroom hunting! I was going to go and get some dirt from where my garden was to do prayer tie ceremony but was reminded it is still under a good 2+ feet of snow!! Lol
So nice to see the beaming green moss 💚 .....i've no idea what type of mushrooms those others are. Hope you can find out what they are.
Yeah I love adventures in the woods! 2+ feet... now that's a lot of snow still on the ground! I am curious to know now.. What is a prayer tie ceremony?
Yeah! There is still a lot of snow around. It's nice. We don't usually get this much!! Prayer Tie Ceremony is a Native Indigenous Tradition. Led by an elder with teachings. Done around sacred fire. We take square of fabric, also called a print, and tuck tobacco and our prayers in the corner. Bundle it up and fasten it a certain way (our Elder uses earth, seeds, and tobacco). There is a print for each of the four directions. Then we bundle all the bundles together. Put the prints away in nature (in a tree or a bush) for the prayers to do their thing like tree seeds. We burn them at the fall before winter comes. To spend winter receiving new prayers for the next cycle. This was my 5th year doing this ceremony. Thx for asking.
I appreciate you explaining the Prayer Tie Ceremony. It sounds so full of heart and thanks. What a beautiful ceremony to take part in.
It's really special 💜
What luck you had! As always, I love your photos. So clear and great attention to detail. With 4 little ones, mushroom hunting is one thing I really want to have a good handle on before we even go looking. I have one wild one that still likes to put everything in his mouth, so he will have to be strapped on my back for that adventure! We have about 10 acres of forest and half of it is marshland half the year. Would that be a good place to look, or perhaps too soggy?
What a fun way to introduce wild foods to your kids.. how great that they get to have all these experiences in nature with you :) Yeah definitely a good idea to know for sure a mushroom is edible before feeding it to them :) Maybe there are mushroom foragers in your area that do workshops or mushroom walks? I find having a friend helping me identify mushrooms is easier than reading in a book. But there's always more to learn. As far as the marshland I don't really know the answer to that question to be honest. I have not spent a lot of time around marshes. My guess is that if there are dead trees in the marsh there might be mushrooms growing on them even if it is too wet below... but I am not really sure! I would just explore and find out whats growing there!
Oh, man, I'm not going to encourage you by identifying those mushrooms! I held onto my belly whilst reading your fabulous gathering episode, dead nervous about your identification which reads "more often than not"! No casualties so far!? Ok those black ones are one-offs, but the rest! I don't know how many mushroom gatherers died this autumn but my newspaper was full of them. Happy gathering, but remember: when in doubt, grab an apple!
Thanks @sukhansanasister. I definitely don't eat any mushrooms I can't identify with 100% certainty! Warning heeded. Happy foraging to you as well :)
I am suffering from some serious foraging envy right now! Man, that was an excellent Score. My Husband and I love foraging for shrooms too and I love eating them even more! Edibles we have found so far are Chanterelles (quite a few), Hen of the Woods, a few oysters and Reishi. We eat chanterelles with everything. My favorite meal with them was peaches we picked on the farm sauted up with onions and the mushrooms, served with grilled scallops. We were fixing them with everything and this was a sure winner for us. I will study your unidentified more and see if I can assist. Loved this post and felt your enjoyment of being in the woods. There is no better place :)
Oh nice! I love Chantrelles! Wow what a combination. I would have never thought of combining peaches with mushrooms and scallops but it sounds delicious! I have harvested oysters and chantrelles before... not hen of the woods or reishi yet. I will have to do some research and see if either are growing around this region. Thank you for this fun comment and opening my eyes to new ways of combining fruit, fungus and seafood!