After several years of scouring the woods behind my house I am starting to find the spots for the specimens at last. The hericium keeps coming back in relatively small quantities year after year, but this is the first chanterelle haul so far, and there were many (more than pictured). Beauties.
Well it seems like you do pretty well with cultivation, which I am envious of. But I will say that foraging has its own distinct charms. It’s a really nice excuse to just spend time wandering the woods, which is therapeutic even when I don’t find anything. But after a few years, I now know some reliable spots for lobsters, hedgehogs, and now chanterelles, which makes it even more rewarding. Found a huge flush of hedgehogs at the lake down the road yesterday actually. Like probably ten pounds. Really turning into a good season now that the weather has chilled out a bit. Plus I saw a black bear while I was out, which was a first for me. Looked a little like our mascot here. Only slightly less hexagonal in shape.
It’s been a great year for mushrooms in the northeast which is nice since I garden too and fucking everything has blight.
Everyone says to start with a club for foraging but i don’t like strangers. I feel like i could do well enough with the audubon field guide and maybe some videos and an identification app. A lot of edibles are really distinctive.
I also have been toying with the idea of guerilla inoculation of wild species, the bucket idea posted elsewhere in here is a really good one.
I am in the upper midwest so we probably have mostly the same edible species, and most of them really are pretty easy to ID.
I took a class, which was a good way to learn. Plus if I ever have enough to sell at like a farmers market or something, I can do that because I’m now a “certified mushroom expert.” Lol. But I don’t think there’s any reason someone couldn’t just learn from books, internet, and experience.
Guerilla inoculation is probably where it’s at if you’re willing to wait awhile. One thing I saw that seems kind of cool too was some folks selling tree seedlings with inoculated roots. Not sure how well that’d work but it’s a cool idea.