January is for lovers...of fungus

Despite our mother’s warnings, I joined Jack on the hunt to find edible mushrooms on new year’s eve. Let me take you back a bit first to explain how I got here. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) you either get used to the rain and find ways to enjoy and ignore it, or you get out. I lived my whole childhood in one house, and explored every inch of the abundant suburban yard. My sisters and I made enchiladas with walnut leaves, mushrooms and the plentiful sloppy black gold also called mud. I almost convinced Carrie to take a bit of one once, but I stopped her just in time. Sorry about that Sis, I shouldn’t have talked you into eating it in the first place. I was stuck on imagining a reality where kids ate worms after reading How to eat fried worms by Thomas Rockwell, so I surveyed the other appetizing yard edibles at hand. I knew that mushrooms were a food to some, and that some could kill you. A simple dichotomy, did I just needed to learn how to choose? This wasn’t a real pressing choice however, I didn’t even like most vegetables and wasn’t looking to find nutritional alternatives that my mother would accept in trade for her ideas of suitable food. Looking back, it seems that my backyard explorations imprinted a sense of opportunity and excitement after the rains.

Today, I adore mushrooms for how they look alien, feel soft and damp, and can add umami to food. It’s too bad we have such a limited representation in our white-focused grocery stores, but we live in a fungophobic society (thanks to David Arora for the vocab) unlike Asia, Russia and Europe. If guerrilla gardening and foraging have taught me anything, it’s that there’s delicious food growing in the world ready to be found every day of the year in the PNW.

Jack and I have fallen in love with mushroom hunting, but cautiously. You can’t rush a good relationship. Next on my list is to renew my library books on mushroom ID, and buy a hand lens for gill inspections. My guess is Jack will paint more mushrooms as we find them. Pictured below is a recent Study Sunday piece showing mushrooms from a walk in Tryon Creek State Park. Take care, and stay a bit wild.

Maxine