Chantarelles

I wrote this a couple of months ago and never posted it because I never quite got around to finishing it. This is somewhat ironic because we have had no rain for the whole of December and the mushrooms have all disappeared again. It’s great to be able to work in the garden day after day in a T shirt, but pretty soon we’ll be praying for rain.

Winter generally brings abundant rain to the Santa Cruz mountains and the first storms can be expected to arrive in late October on average (though around here there is no “average”). After four months of having to irrigate continuously I look forward to the first big rain to soak the soil, it means I can turn off the irrigation timer and (hopefully) put away the hoses. It marks a big turning point of the year, the transition from summer gardening back to the winter crops. The rain is also welcome for another reason (no I don’t mean snow in the Sierras and winter camping); it wakes up all of that sleepy mycelium in the woods and stimulates it to produce the fruiting bodies we know as mushrooms. Winter is mushroom season around here, with various species to be found all winter (especially down near the coast). I’m no mycologist (my obligatory copy of Mushrooms Demystified is still clean) so I stick to the more easily identified and distinctive types, such as Oyster mushroom, Porcini and Chanterelle. These add some wonderful flavors to your meals and are free of course (which always appeals to me).

The chanterelle is a favorite of mine for several reasons; it is fairly common around here, its’ distinctive color and funnel shape is easy to recognize and it is very good to eat. A feature that makes them particularly useful is that they stick around for a while. Whereas most fungi are here today and insect eaten and decaying tomorrow, chanterelles can take weeks to grow and may be edible for a month or more. They are mycorrhizal (growing in association with the roots of trees) on a variety of host trees, though in my area they are most common around live oaks. They aren’t easy to spot initially, as the young plants hide down in the duff on the forest floor and you have to really look to see a patch of orange peeking through (my daughter with her 9 year old eyes has much better luck than I do). If you see one you should focus on it for a while to imprint the sight in your brain and with luck you will then see others hiding nearby. As they grow they become more visible and in some cases they fruit so abundantly they cover the forest floor with orange patches (a couple of weeks ago someone found so many they left a whole milk crate of them at the end of my street for people to take).

Chanterelles stay in good condition for so long there is no rush to pick them (unless you have other mushroom hunters breathing down your neck). In fact it is good to leave those small half-hidden specimens so they can grow to full size and distribute some spores. You can always cover them in leaves to hide them from unwanted eyes. Of course you have to remember exactly where they are, or you may never find them again. Woods often have few distinctive features, but you can arrange some unusual signs that will catch your eye, such as sticks in the ground, or hanging from trees.

Sauteeing is one of the best ways to cook chantarelles, as it allows a lot of their water to evaporate, though they are also good baked and in soups. The flavor is fairly delicate, so don’t waste them by cooking with strong overpowering flavors.