The Last Mushroom Hunt of the Year
“I swear that we saw some winter chanterelles earlier. They were just on the side of the road.”
“Well, roll the windows down and we’ll drive really slow. Maybe we can spot them.”
There are winter chanterelles somewhere in this picture. Can you spot them?
It’s amazing what you’ll try to save an unsuccessful foray. Last week I went out with my Dad for what will, probably, be the last foray of the mushroom hunting season. We were, as some mushroom hunters might phrase it, skunked. We found a few interesting fungi, but none of them were edible.
It wasn’t until the end of the day that we noticed that a strange mushroom that we had picked earlier in the morning was a winter chanterelle. Winter chanterelles look slightly different from your normal everyday chanterelle. You can identify them by a a small hole on the top of their caps. I have never tasted one, but according to All the the Rain Promises and More (undoubtedly the best mushroom book ever, and maybe the greatest book ever) they are quite tasty. We tried to find the spot where we had picked them, but the day was getting dark and we had to get back home.
Despite not finding anything, we had a good time. Sometimes there is nothing half so much worth doing as simply rummaging around in the woods. And, I am sure that we will never miss out on picking a patch of winter chanterelles ever again.
