Mushroom Mania

Autumn in Seattle means rain and lots of it. While many Seattle residents are indoors moaning about the miserable weather, a few of us are rubbing our hands with glee as the drops fall. We are the wild mushroom hunters, and this is our favorite time of year. On any given fall day after it rains, we’ll be out in the woods stalking chanterelles (pictured above), hedgehogs, king boletes (commonly known as porcini) and many other delicious wild edibles found in abundance throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Some people think it’s crazy to pick and eat wild mushrooms; “Aren’t  you afraid of getting poisoned?” is a common question. My response is that I only eat mushrooms that I am 100% sure are tasty edibles. A good rule of thumb is: When in doubt, throw it out! The Seattle Public Library owns many helpful guidebooks that I have used to successfully identify mushrooms, including the wonderfully wacky All That the Rain Promises. . .and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms (who knew you could use mushrooms to dye your dog’s fur? Or use as an artist’s palette?) and Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora. Both of these titles are in high demand this time of year, so try searching our catalog with the keywords “mushrooms” and “identification” for some other choices.

Still not sure you’ve picked something you can eat? Bring your finds to the Puget Sound Mycological Society (PSMS)’s  47^th Annual Wild Mushroom Show on October 16th & 17th and ask an expert! The PSMS also teaches mushroom identification classes and leads mushroom hunting field trips throughout the season. Visit their website to learn more.

So you’ve found some yummy mushrooms; now what do you with them? Check out some of the following cookbooks and make a feast!

• Wild Mushrooms by Cynthia Nims (part of the Northwest Homegrown Cookbook series)
• The Complete Mushroom Book by Antonio Carluccio
• The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook by Steve Brill (includes wild mushroom recipes along with recipes for other wild foraged edibles like nettles, fiddleheads, and more)!

If you’d rather experience the thrills of mushroom-hunting vicariously, check out local forager Langdon Cook’s Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st-century Forager, which details his exploits finding free food on the shores and in the woods of the Pacific NW. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan also includes an absorbing account of the author’s adventures hunting for morels in northern California.

Happy hunting, and remember, don’t eat any mushrooms that you can’t identify without a shadow of a doubt!