Chantrelles!

Because he is perhaps one of the most generous and thoughtful people on this planet, our friend Officer Richards (a fun-guy...or fungi) made a special trip out to our town to deliver some hand picked chantrelle mushrooms to us. Chantrelles are a northwest delicacy and sell for nearly $20.00 a pound in specialty stores! They are hard to find unless you know what you are looking for (and are a specialist in identification) and many people have a special place they return every year to find them. It's a little game around these parts to find a secret mushroom patch and in late October, early November there are people romping through the woods everywhere! Last week a friend and I went foraging and had no luck, although the hunt was fun. We certainly found fungus among us, only what we found may have made for a really interesting evening (and perhaps a trip to the ER or morgue)!

Freeze 'em, stew 'em, sauce 'em, soup 'em... can't wait to eat 'em! Come for dinner- there's plenty of 'em.

Cool facts!

Chanterelles grow in a symbiotic relationship with living trees. They gather moisture and minerals to feed the trees, and in return, trees offer the mushrooms food in the form of photosynthesized carbohydrates. Because of that intricate relationship, Chanterelles are almost impossible to cultivate and are not yet commercially grown (although researchers are trying).

In many parts of the world, including California and the mid-Atlantic coast, they grow around the base of oak trees. In the Pacific Northwest, they favor Douglas-fir and western hemlock forests. But wherever you seek them, you’ll always find them around the base of living trees!