Chantrelle Mushrooms

Is it time, and is anyone finding some?

NWP:

Been picking whites and yellows on the Kitsap since early August. With the cool weather, all my ususal spots had em up very early. Last weekend the whites were really starting to pop.

They have been coming into local restuarants over the last two-three days...

Thanks guys, thought they might be out. I live on holly rd and close to green mtn, usually find many up the rd to the lookout.

Picked some last night walking out from the river. It's definitely time.

They are in. Thanks for this post as it reminded me to go look. Went up to my old spot yesterday on the east side of the sound and they were pretty thick. The girlfriend and I got two large bags full in an hour.
Last night was chanterelles over tri tips. This morning I put them in the biscuits and gravy.

Just remember that the State of WA requires you to have a permit when you posess over 5 gallons of mushrooms. The permit is available from the county sheriffs office. Some land owners have set their own limits (usually 3 or 5 gallons) however you must have a forest products permit when posessing over 5 gallons of shrooms. Technically you even need the permit if the shrooms come from your own property. Violation of this law is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,900 fine and requires a mandatory court appearance.

They are coming on strong around here.

Nice. I am going to try for some on Sunday morning.

Went up on Green Mtn tonight for a couple of hours, found some buttons about a doz, no full grown ones.

Kitsap area lowlands have one of the better early season blooms I have ever seen.

OK - i see other people are finding them. My wife and I have been out a few times last year and this year and have come up empty handed. Can anyone provide some pointers as to where to look (not any secret spots) and what to look for? We have been in big fir tree areas around king county and kitsap county. Any help is appreciated....we love those tasty things.

Thanks, Dave

Look in second growth forest, primarily fir and hemlock. Avoid any areas with lots of alder and maple. Look for a mixture of salal and deep moss on the ground. If you have those ingredients you will eventually find them.

Good luck.

Thanks - will head out again in a couple of weeks to try again....We keep saying we are getting close.

Once you see them, have your wife get on one side and you on the other. Only leave them 2 escape routes, they are the fastest fungi on the planet.

There are mushrooms out and about (got some Saturday morning), but with all the rain, they are too wet to keep around for any more than one day right now. Just like the salmon fishing around here, the mushrooms should really get going with the nicer weather this week. Of course, I will be stuck at work and unable to benefit from any of that, but what else is new?

RR - we tried that last time we were out...must have been too far apart because by the time we closed in on where we saw them they were all gone! I had no idea they could move that fast.....

How to find a new chantrelle spot----- take a page from the road hunters manual. SLOWLY drive logging roads through 20 year old doug fir plantations. Look for the pumpkin orange of shrooms in the ditch and open areas. Use your binos to check suspected colors. You`ll cover alot of ground this way. Once you spot one get out of the truck and do a grid through the area. Bill

Went back up to Green Mtn 3 days ago and caught almost 5 gals, ate some and froze some, and went again yesterday with son, we caught them again, almost 5 gal apiece, freezer is getting a work out. Here are some directions to get you close. Take Holly Rd towards Union, turn left on Lake Tahuya Rd near Lake Symington, for about a mile maybe a little more to gravel rd on left with metal gate. Walk up the main rd till you cross a creek and start uphill, you will see a clearcut on right. Anywhere from this clearcut up to the lookout will have mushrooms. I have been picking in the area;s that have been thinned but there are better spots. I have found some white chantrells there as well but not many........good hunting, wear hunter orange, hunting season is on and lets hear about your success with the mushrooms or furry critters.....those of you that might come over to Kitsap for either, don't forget a bucket for a winters supply of huckleberries.....Green Mountain has a bumper crop and the bushes are full and ripe.......I already have about 5 gals of huckleberries so a 5 gal batch of huckleberri wine will happen this winter...........

billjr64 and NW Panhandler - Thanks for the advice...we will be heading out again next weekend in search of the elusive prey! My wife went to Oregon this week and got some nice MR from my brother, he has a nice spot down there that produces well! I will post how we do! I just got back from a fishing trip in Mexico...need to find a nice Chanterelle and Yellowfin or Dorado recipe next!

Thanks again - Dave

How do you guys preserve chantrelles? canning? vacpac? or just eat them all at once?

After a monster harvest yesterday I am either gonna have to eat em all or find a way to store them. advice is welcome.

Kanektok Kid - thanks for the recipe...looks pretty tasty, will try it when we get the Chanterelles

D3Smarti, I have been just freezing them in ziplocks for the moment, assume they could be vacuum packed after freezing. I will look for some idea's on canning, should work........seems like I have heard of stringing them up and hanging in the garage to dry........don't forget the huckleberries, they are thick and easy to pick this year, great on cereal and make great pies.....freeze well because of their thick skin.

Did some digging on Google and found this on Chantrelles

http://www.mssf.org/cookbook/chanterelle.html

There is a section talking about care of chantrelles and canning plus some good looking receipies.....enjoy

Hit my honey hole this weekend and there were quite a few around. Last year I froze/vacu-sealed a bunch of chantrelles and they still eat well.

Now I just need to go get some backstrap to go with.

I got some chantrelles a week or so ago, but they had been rained on. I didn't know about freezing them, so we just fixed them with dinner for four nights in a row until they were gone.

Is it my imagination, or do chantrelles shrink more than other shrooms when cooked? I put some butter in the frying pan and filled it with chantrelles and sauteed, and the pan was about 1/3 full.

Sg

Yeah, they really reduce down in size. That is why you should reduce them prior to vac-sealing. You can fit a lot of shrooms in a small space.

Steve: Only cook them in a hot dry pan. Either let the water that comes out evaporate or pour it out. If you want butter and onions with them do it after all the water comes out. And yes they lose a ton of mass.
It took me a while to learn that one but the flavor is much better if you do it that way.
I use the dehydrator on what I don't use but that is a poor substitute. Will try NWP's link and can some.
When I get a bunch I:
1 eat over meat
2 eat in salad
3 make a couple of gallons of mushroom soup and freeze in tupperware. I highly recommend this.
I don't have a recipe for the soup but...
mushrooms,heavy whipping cream,butter,bay leaf,pepper and chicken or beef stock. Add some other stuff if you have it laying around. It's really good but probably not for heart patients.

Dehydrate them in a food dryer... You can use them all year after that....

Keith

I tried the dehydrator thing one year. They ended up being really tough and chewy when I rehydrated them. I ended up rehydrating them, tossing the mushrooms and using the water they rehydrated in as vegetable broth. Really good broth for risotto. This year I have had the most luck finding my mushrooms at Ballard Market. $10 a pound is cheaper than gas to get out of Seattle.

I am just the opposite. tagged my "backstrap" saturday, just need to go pick some chantrelles.

Nice, what did ya get?

With this couple of days of no rain, the chantrelles have really popped and they're nice and dry.

Boy howdy! This year has been (and likely will continue to be) lights out for mushrooms. The quality and size of the chanterelles I found on Saturday was ridiculous. In a perhaps sad and pathetic way, finding such a wealth of beautiful mushrooms has made the lack of success on salmon a bit less discouraging.

Now, for the bad news.... I have had more than one old timer around here tell me that when the mushroom picking is really good, it's a sure sign we are in for a rough winter. I don't have a lot of experience to go on, but from what I have seen since I started picking mushrooms a few years ago, I think there may be some truth to that. Last year, the mushrooms were relatively scarce, and I spent a couple of days steelheading in February that felt like June. Conversely, the year before, the mushrooms were abundant. The winter that followed was the worst I have seen in my 11 years in Washington. I have seen a lot more mushrooms this year than I did even that year, so I am hoping my limited observations have been misleading.

I never thought about starting them in a dry pan. I figured they might burn or scorch. Plus my limited cooking repertoire only knows sauteeing as lightly frying in butter. But I will try that next time, cuz most of the butter evaporates with the water that comes out of the mushrooms. Never thought about making mushroom soup either, but that sounds like a good idea.

Wear Bright colors out there guys! Don't wan't any members getting mistakably shot for a Bear.

I used to think chicken stock came from cans. About six months ago I started making stock whenever I did a chicken or turkey. Easy and way better.
Mom was a good cook but didn't do a whole lot of "from scratch" stuff. I'm learning as I go.
I put it in jars and freeze. Seems to work good.
Next time I'm going to pressure can it.

Pickled Chanterelles are an option as well

Jason
How did they work out/taste? I'm open to that idea.

They are a hit- I think the recipe is still kicking around. It was pretty basic, I ended up not having enough shrooms. So I added a bunch of Onions from my garden, I think adding some clove garlic would be helpful.

On a side note, I recently found a nice patch of Chanterelles within walking distance of my house.

so a question from an amateur like me, is it possible to find chanterelles in a local city park or any sea-level Puget Sound woodsy area that has lots of fir trees? Most of the folks seem to be finding them in higher elevations, but can one stumble into a chanterelle patch while walking thru the woods of my local urban park?

I've never found them down low but would love to hear from others who have.
Here's a cool weekend drive....Brinion on Hood Canal. Take any road West from there. Pull over at stuff like Dave V described. You will find them quickly.

Just reread Jason's post. He lives at sealevel.

The first time I was invited to pick the Wild Elusive Chanterelle we got up early and drove about 85 miles. Now granted we each picked alot of them.

However, this year I have found them in second growth less than 200 yards from my back door. As well as second growth in the Coyle unit. After finding them in basically my backyard, I have knocked on a few doors and recieved permission to check about another 20 acres of second growth that is very near by as well. No point in pissing off the neighbors.

For the backyard mushroom grower/harvester check out Puget Sound Exotic. They sell spores for alot of different varities, I am attempting to produce some Shitake and some Pearl Oyster at this time.

I am looking for the pickled mushroom recipe

A couple of weeks ago I went up to my usual spot off the Hwy 3 up the hill. The trees were thinned out as they have been clearing between Clear Creek Rd and the freeway. I went on the other side of the freeway and couldn't find any. Seems that there are not many spots left in North Kitsap. My dad and I used to find them along Bond Rd between Minder and Stotlemeyer roads before Pope and Talbot thinned it out. I know there are a few patches of fir left like over towards Jason's place.

Anyway I went to my dad's old hunting ground across the Hood Canal bridge by Thorndyke, were we found some a couple of years ago. I got two gallon size bags in an hour. Cooked them up, drained the water, and sauteed them in butter, soy, herb, garlic, and pepper. Saved one bag in the fridge and one in the freezer. We had spaghetti tonight.

The only other place I've picked them is down in the hills above Lincoln City a couple of years ago when going on an elk hunt/steelhead fishing in November.

Hint check out satellite maps to see where the forrest is thick.

There are shrooms all over the place. its just a matter of beating others to them and getting far enough from the road to avoid commercial pickers.

Forked horn. nothing for the record books. now its time to fish!

Thanks for all of your help. We finally found some last weekend!

Kanektok Kid - the recipe you posted was excellent! We cooked up a bunch of fish with the chanterelles and they were loved by all. Can't wait to get out again.

Thanks again, Dave

Your welcome Fish Hunter, I`ve been perfecting the road hunters method of chantrelle picking the last few weeks. Found alot of spots, canned and dehydrated them, now if I could just get that fresh heart and liver------ Bill

Sunday morning as I was searching for river access in the Forks area they started popping out at me all along the road. Never found that river but I bagged about 3#'s w/o shutting off the truck. mmmmm good.

I was very surprised to find them at that low elevation near the ocean.

Keep that low elevation site on the coast in mind for early chantrelles next year. I`ve picked them the beggining of August in a spot I know like that. Bill

Just curious... i found some opening weekend of deer ... how long is the growing season for chantrelles and should they be picked or cut?

Chanterelles will keep growing until snow or a couple of heavy frosts in a row. I always cut them but not sure why.

Thanks!! Heading back out this weekend... hopefully the rain will let off.

Another one to look for is Matsutake or Pine Mushroom.
An old friend of mine used to pick them up Hwy 58 out of Eugene.
They're an awesome shroom.
http://www.ehow.com/list_6851766_different-kinds-forest-mushrooms-oregon.html
http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6717930_matsutake-mushrooms-oregon.html

DD they are so valuable that there are big camps of pickers up in the Kispiox area. Three years ago they we so thick the buyers would only buy perfect buttons. I saw a buyer with a stack that must have been 5 yards of perfectly good looking shrooms that no one wanted. She gave the wife and me several pounds to try. I wasn't all that impressed with them.

Later we found literally hundreds of them in our campground.

It's weird that so many were rejected. I have heard of gunfights over Matsutake beds.

The ones I had were picked @ around 4000' in the Crescent Lake area of Oregon.
For table fare, I thought that these were right there with Chantrelle. Well, maybe I'd give the edge to Chantrelle but these Matsutake were quite good.

Price of Matsutakes depends on the year. This year, conditions are good and Matsutakes are plentiful. Price is lower than I have ever seen.

Just sounding a note of caution about eating matsutakes unless you are an experienced picker. Unlike chanterelles which are very distinctive, matsutakes look like several other different types of mushrooms, some of which are just not good to eat and some of which are poisonous. In particular, quite a few white gilled mushrooms look similar when they are in No. 1 or 2 button state. Based on what I've seen at the PSMS ID Clinic, only about 1 in 4 that people think/hope are matustake actually are. One way to nail down exactly what the matsutake looks like (and smells like--very distincitive) is to go to the fruit stand in the middle of the Pike Place Market and buy one of the smaller ones.

Sage advice. A PSMS member told me of an edible-looking NW mushroom so deadly that if you consumed even a small amount you would become an immediate candidate for a liver transplant, or you would die. On the scale of toxicity, this fungus falls somewhere between radioactive rabbit crap and black mamba venom. That's why I stick to harvesting easily identified morels and chanterelles. When it comes to mushroom gathering, I'll always be the biggest Chicken in the Woods.

The cold front thats moving on in to the SW WA and cascade foothills of Oregon and Washington throughout the rest of the week and early next, will likely end the Chantrelle pickings for the year.

Unless we get some more warm front rain pushes and some sunshine. Good Luck all! Waiting for spring and hoping its going to be a little bit warmer so I can find some morels.


Dan

Always cut your chantrelles and they will grow in the exact same spot next time.

That is a myth.

The mushroom is the fruiting body (think apple) of the mycelium (think tree).

Feel free to pick then cut.

They are easier to clean if you cut them.

Wish they did'nt grow were I hunt. Its distracting. Meat n shrooms...umm