“Everybody says ‘oh
man, you have to try this restaurant or that restaurant, they have the greatest
chowder! But dude, this spot [pointing to the sandy beach on which we were
standing], this spot has the BEST chowder I have ever tasted!”- My best friend
Alex
Well we got a nice set
of rainstorms over the break and with this wonderful weather a flush of
fantastic fungi flourished!
Andrew and I headed out
early and snagged some nice oyster mushrooms from a half rotten willow tree.
Next I headed out with
my girl and brother to a secret spot where we spent hours in the woods
harvesting black trumpets, yellow foots, the occasional hedgehog, and Justin
even found a few matsutake’s!
Having never gone for
matsutake’s before we were careful to key them out completely (including getting
the distinct spore prints). Once we were confident of our identification we
sautéed up a small portion to taste. It is always best to try just a little the
first night as some folks are allergic to foods that to most are completely
safe (e.g. Wheat, dairy, peanuts, avocado, etc). The matsutake’s were very good
indeed!
I brought the remaining
mushrooms home and put them in the dehydrator to last a bit longer.
The next weekend I was
off to see my good buddy Alex and try a little low tide mussel chowder.
We searched the woods
high and low for a short time but found no edible mushrooms around. Luckily I
had started soaking a few handfuls of the previous harvest back at our base-camp
so when we arrived there were plenty of delicious rehydrated fungi sitting in a
bath of dark mushroom stock…the base of a great soup!
We spent about fifteen
minutes gathering mussels to reach the daily bag limit of 10 lbs per person
and headed back to our spot on the beach to start cooking.
Mussel and mushroom
broth was poured over sautéed potatoes, carrot, celery, bacon and foraged herbs and
then left to simmer. A little cream and some flour were added after the
mushrooms and mussels were tossed in and Alex and I began to break bread.
Standing there on the
sand as the tide went out we had to chuckle. After all, just a few meters away
in the parking lot there were families eating fast food and artificially
flavored tortilla chips completely unaware of the magnificent forager’s feast
we were enjoying. Alex shook his head with a smile between bites and said
“Nobody does it like we do!”
