LOOKING FORWARD TO SPRING
As I write this in early February, tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday (Go, Saints!), and our section of the Oregon coast is gray and damp, although surprisingly windless today, at least temporarily. My mind is wandering to spring time, and what it may hold for us in the way of mushrooms.
The fall, 2009 season wasn't a good one for us, in terms of quantity. As Mary has written, we found new mushrooms that were interesting and fun to encounter, but some of our old friends were conspicuous by their absence. Sure, we found enough Golden Chanterelles for the table, but not enough to preserve much for future years. Boletes weren't abundant, and neither were Matsutakes, at least in our favorite haunts. What will Spring hold for us?
Much depends on the timing and amount of our travels. If I was to schedule an ideal year, when we had ample time and the Mushroom Gods cooperated, it would look something like this.
Verpa are a sure sign of spring!
Sometime in mid to late March, we'd head for the Mount Hood area and home in on the crest of the Cascades. Here, amid the mixture of Firs and Pines that prevails there, we'd seek Montana Helvellas (Gyromitra montana) in places where Winter's snow was just receding, but not quite gone. The Helvellas' rich chestnut color is always startling to first encounter, and when we encounter one, we usually find lots of them. They are fine of flavor, but must be carefully identified; they can be mistaken for the Brain Mushroom (the inappropriately latin-named Gyromitra esculenta, which are poisonous), and additionally need to be parboiled and then cooked thoroughly.
In April, we'd spend some time in the Cottonwood-studded lowlands along the Columbia River, in search of Verpa bohemica. The so-called "Early False Morel" is shunned by some because of the necessity of parboiling them in a well-ventilated place to rid them of toxicity, then cooking them thoroughly to be doubly sure. In addition to the foregoing, they are often accompanied by Stinging Nettles, a plant no doubt designed with the same mean-spirited philosophy as was Devil's Club and Poison Oak. Yet, they're a favorite of ours despite themselves. While not in the gastronomic league of their namesake true Morels, they have a pleasant, earthy taste that we enjoy. They're also a good excuse to get out of the house and begin the season. As such, they're a harbinger of Spring, and better things to come.
About the same time, we'd concentrate on the wet side of the Cascades, and start to encounter Oysters (Pleurotus ostreatus). Growing on dead and dying deciduous trees (mostly Cottonwoods and Alders in our experience), these highly complex and variable mushrooms are showy, flavorful, and always interesting. Their first or second year on a given tree or log is almost always the most prolific, and the colony declines dramatically thereafter, the nutrients they need apparently depleted by then.
In late April or early May, we'd head back to the crest and look for Warted Puffballs (Calbovista subsculpta), an eminently fine edible. These also have the delightful characteristic of returning to the same areas, year after year; you simply have to love that in a mushroom. They can get big (our biggest was one about the size of a football), but most are on the 3 to 6" Diameter ramge. They're one of our favorites on the table, too.
About this same time, we'd begin looking along the Columbia for early Morels (Morchella elata and esculenta). These probably wouldn't be overly large, but Morels are Morels, right? Southern Oregon friends home in on favorite areas from Roseburg south through Ashland about this same time; we know these areas less well, but they no doubt can be productive, too. Maybe through habit and perhaps through laziness, we often stick to areas where we've found them before.
By mid to late May, we'd start to cast our net wider for Morels, returning to the Cascades in search of them, and hoping to encounter somewhat larger specimens. We are not great morel hunters by any means, but they are thrilling to find, and when you find one you almost always find enough for a nice meal. It's seeing the first one that's the hardest; they're amazingly well camouflaged, and your "radar" - that hard-to-explain ability to spot them as your eyes sweep back and forth through the woods as you walk - must be cranked way up.
As the Morels reach their peak, Spring Boletes (Boletus edulis) start to show along the Cascades. These delightful critters are usually hard and dry, and less likely to be colonized by bugs if you get them in their first couple of days. They're also hard to spot, and usually the very best of them will just be starting to push their way up through the duff on the forest floor.
As the Boletes begin to wane in early to mid-June, the Spring season is about over, but still has one or two attractions before the curtain goes down on the season. When the Bear Grass is in bloom, we again return to the Cascades in search of Northwest Spring Coral (Ramaria rasilispora). These are often large and plentiful; unlike their cousins in the Fall, there are reputedly none of the Spring variety that are likely to cause stomach upset or other adverse side effects. They're pretty, too; their down side is that they are usually difficult to clean. They have a pleasant flavor, though, and are good candidates for pulverizing into powder to mix in with flour and other ingredients for a delicious coating for fried fish and meats.
Lastly, through this same time period, we'd have a watchful eye out for the Prince (Agaricus augustus). Absolutely delicious, the Prince is as beautiful as it is flavorful, and where one is found, usually there are several more. Any day the Prince makes an appearance is one to be remembered with fondness, and it should be noted that it can be found on the southern Oregon coast as well as inland.
So there you have it - our itinerary for spring mushrooming in our favorite state. No doubt our travels will not be quite as extensive or frequent as we would like (they never are!), and even if they were, for some of these species, this won't be as good a year as we might like. And of course, just to keep us humble, we will at least occasionally be in the right place at the wrong time. It is then that we will hear one of our least favorite things: "Gee, you should have been here last week! They were just everywhere!"
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