Only a few chanterelles have greeted us over the last couple of days as we prowled the forest lands in the refuge. We encountered a handful of golden and white chanterelles along with a lovely cluster of the tan and lavender colored pigs' ears, see photograph below. We also noticed a wide assortment of non-choice and/or non-desirable mushrooms, predominately russula and amanita.
Hearty pigs' ears are particularly nice in beef dishes.
Reports from down south near the California border are no more positive. During a phone conversation today, Kirsten of the Wild Rivers Mushroom Club echoed our thoughts on the current state of mushrooming in Curry County: pretty slim pickings. Their club members are not collecting their usual bounty, although there were some participants at a recent club function who noted that boletes are showing over the state line in the Crescent City area.
Kirsten added that it appeared to her that even the commercial pickers who would normally haunt the southern tip of Curry County at this time of year are not out in their usual numbers. When she recently drove by the motel that they often occupy, she saw very few of their trucks and mushroom crates compared to what she would have expected based on past observations.
Jake, our friendly commercial mushroom buyer in Coos Bay, agrees that this has been a pretty poor year. It started off with a slow morel season and moved into a bad matsutake and chanterelle season. He guesses that he's currently buying about 200-325 pounds a day, whereas in a good year he'd be purchasing closer to 300-600 pounds a day. What is a pound of chanterelles worth on the commercial market today? Close to a whopping $6.00. When a commercial buyer is paying $6/pound for chanterelles, you know that they are a scarce commodity indeed.
The November/December 2012 issue of MushRumors, the bi-monthly newsletter of The Oregon Mycological Society (OMS), echoed similar thoughts about this mushroom season in their article "Northwest Wild Mushrooms in Short Supply" with quotations from OPB Northwest News Network. "So, what happened? Mushroom experts say an unusually dry summer and fall didn't set a good crop of many favorite varieties. Then, the rains came just in time to rot those that had emerged." The source concluded "Now, it's turned too wintery for the forest fruit. Some mushrooms do OK in drier weather. And top foragers say they're finding just enough to tide them through spring when morels arrive."
So, if you are foraging for edible mushrooms in Oregon, don't set your expectations too high. Rather, concentrate on enjoying the natural beauty around you, and appreciate the gifts that the mushroom gods choose to bestow upon you!