Monday, June 24, 2013

Mushroom Foraging

This weekend I went to Joseph, OR for a wedding.  I had never been that far east in the state and was delighted by the beauty of the area.  I expected eastern Oregon to be entirely desert, but that's not the case.  Both the Blue Mountains and the Wallowas offer extraordinary variation. Trip consisted of some delicious seasonal camp food and an incredible surprise!

Joseph, OR near Wallowa Lake.
Firstly, I've been gone a lot in the past two months so I wanted to do this trip on the cheap which meant camping and packing my own food. I've always had a knack for creating camp menus and packing meals that can be stretched and diversified using the smallest amount of creativity.  This trip wasn't any different.  I packed sour creme bread for chicken salad sandwiches since I always cook a large chunk of some kind of meat the day or two before a trip (in this case a whole roasted chicken).  Its cherry season, albeit a few weeks early where I am at, so a gallon size baggie of cherry tartlets (recipe to come later) served as a constant supply of dessert or an easy munchie.  Also on the menu were chicken burritos (anything you can eat without utensils or plates is great when camping) and of course egg scrambles with lots of spring's final greens including spinach, kale, lettuce, arugula and also asparagus.

This little guy agrees with me, everything tastes better by a campfire!
At the end of the trip a friend and I checked out a river that we both had heard was pretty amazing.  We figured a good teaser would entice us to come back for another visit and it would also give us a chance to stretch our legs before several hours in the car.  So off we went on a short walk in the woods.  We didn't get more than 10 feet from the car when my friend discovered a fairy ring!

Part of a complete fairy ring of coral mushrooms.
I don't know much about mushroom foraging, but as he explained it (and wikipedia later confirmed) a fairy ring is an indication of the outermost reach of the mycelium (is it singular or plural for a single fungus?) network that exists below ground.  The edible mushroom portion that we covet is in fact only a small portion of a fungus- the fruiting part- while the mycelium is the vegetative part.  We found tons of coral mushrooms and many partial fairy rings, but this one was in its entirety which was incredible to behold. 
Yellow blotches outline a fairy ring.  Our small harvest in the bottom right.
This ring was a little past its prime as you can see from the lighter colored mushroom on the right of the picture below, but we collected several young fruits from another area.  (Special considerations: I should note that identifying edible mushrooms takes a lot of skill and training.  I'm not very good at it, but luckily my friend it.  Its important NOT to eat a mushroom unless you are absolutely certain of its identification!) Although I'm not quite sure what I'll cook up with these mushrooms for dinner tonight, I'm thinking Beef Strogonoff sounds good.  From all the research I've done (and a bit of taste testing the raw mushrooms) this type of mushroom doesn't impart flavor on a dish but rather takes on the flavor of the food its incorporated into.  Since these are so earthy smelling and tasting I think beef will pair nicely with them!
Coral mushroom of varying ages.  The ones on the left and top look yummy!





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