Spring seems to have arrived with a fury this year, bringing with it torrential downpours and hail storms. Yet, there's a sweeter side to this spring as well. There are bunches of wild spring onion blossoms swaying in the breezes, stately wild iris lining the old roads, clusters of pink rhodies and of wine-colored trillium, with more blossoming plants seeming to arrive daily.
Can morels and other spring mushrooms be fruiting? Perhaps. The southern Oregon coast mushroom club, the Wild Rivers Mushrooms Club, is planning morel huntings excrusions in the weeks to come, and we've been hunting, although unsuccessfully, for giant puffballs on Mt. Hood and in the Pendleton area. Tizzzy, that great mushroom gatherer from Yamhill County, reports that he found a morel at about 1200 feet elevation in the coast range in last year's clearcut...very encouraging news indeed!
We enjoy collecting hellvellas in the spring on Mt. Hood.
Meantime, a March 26, 2010 Wall Street Journal article by Katy McLaughlin reported an abundance of wild foods, including mushrooms, this spring. Let's hope Ms. McLaughlin's optimism is well founded!
"Shoots of optimism are emerging in the high end restaurant world.
Expense account spending is trickling back and consumers are starting to shell out for luxuries again. Prices for some specialty ingredients have come down. And good weather conditions in many parts of the country are making for the best crop in years of wild mushrooms, strawberries and asparagus.
The combination is cheering restaurateurs, who are rolling out festive baby lamb roasts, multi-course shad dinners and dishes laden with wild mushrooms to celebrate the season. For chefs, it's a welcome change from last spring, when many restaurants weathered the worst of the economic storm by promoting discounts, comfort food, cheaper drinks and bar snacks.
'Last year we were in free-fall at this time of year. Now we're in recovery,' says Daniel Scherotter, chef and owner of Palio d'Asti, in San Francisco's financial district. Last March, when the Dow hovered around 7000, Mr. Scherotter says he saw a dramatic drop in customer count and spending. Today, sales are up 30%, with more orders for veal, baby lamb and high end wine, Mr. Scherotter says.
In some parts of the country, nature is lending a hand to chefs. On the West Coast and particularly in California, lots of rain this winter has yielded a huge wild mushroom crop and an early harvest of other spring favorite from fava beans to English peas. The bounty means chefs can afford to be generous with special items without raising prices.
Oregon Mushrooms, which ships wild mushrooms to restaurants around the country, says it is selling morels, a wild mushroom harvested in the spring, for $20 a pound wholesale, compared with $33 a pound last year. Restaurateurs in California, where spring hits first, are paying even less. At Oliveto in Oakland, California, chef Paul Canales says for the first time in his career he paid $12.50 a pound for morels - half the typical price. Professional foragers stop by the restaurant offering wares they collect from Northern California forests, Canales says."