culinary

Mushroom Hunting + How We Preserve Our Wild Shrooms

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Canning Wild Edibles ~ Chanterelles, Oyster Mushrooms, Bears Head, King Boletes, Morels, Chicken of the Woods, Reishi, Western Black Elfin Sa…

11 years ago Jay’s Uncle bought him a book called “All That The Rain Promises and More” by David Arora which is a Very Silly mushroom field guide. Our excitement for mushrooms and our ability to forage them is 100% thanks to this book, although when we first flipped through it many years ago we didn’t exactly strive to become myco-dorks. We had little intention to set out and find specific shrooms, but the book remained on us, floating around camp for a season or two.

One day Jay and I were scoping out a dispersed campsite and we both decided to meander in different directions to feel the place out. He went up the creek and I followed it down, through the thick willows. To my surprise, the mushrooms out numbered the plants. They were so many different kinds and they were EVERYWHERE. I picked one of each kind, filling my hands and ran back to the truck. Jay strolled up a few moments later cradling a heap of mushrooms in his shirt. We literally had never discussed picking mushrooms or even considered taking the damn book serious before this moment, but on that mini stroll independent from one another, we were both shown such an abundance that it sparked curiosity within us! I’m still to this day amazed by our synchronicity in wonder. We had the “silly” ol book in the truck, so we whooped it out and one by one identified each mushroom. Turns out the silly field guide had a lot of practical use. It has deeply empowered us over the years, and has brought us closer to the land which I am oh so very grateful for!

Never underestimate the power of “planted seeds”…

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)

Mushroom Hunting has now become a fixture in our life, feeding us the medicine of the Earth, and fueling our souls desire for adventure and exploration.

First I will share with you our favorite mushrooms to preserve to enjoy throughout the year. I offer a few tips on how we preserve them, then keep scrolling because I also share our favorite mushrooms to forage and enjoy fresh in the moment.

Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)

Chanterelles are abundant, easy to clean, easy to identify and fairly resilient even on drought years. Once you find them, you can return year after year and most often you will find them in the same zones again and again. Once you get the hang of it and learn their habitat, you wont even have to spot the shrooms themselves, but just the mounds of duff they are under and push up! They are one of our favorites, not too slimy, nice crunch and snap to them with a suuuuper delicious flavor. When we pick our shrooms we leave the base of the stock in the ground to leave some spore behind and we always clean them where they grow, sprinkling their nutrients where nature intended. This offers a mutual benefit, ensuring more for next year and it also makes the process cleaner for later. With a knife, we scrap most of the dirt off the stock, and with a paint brush or bandana, we wipe the tops. Sautee in butter and woooooowheeee!!

(We pressure can them for preservation which Ill go into detail further down vvvv)

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)

Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus Ostreatus)

Oyster Mushrooms are excellent shrooms, abundant in the wild AND easy to cultivate yourself. They grow on dead logs in wet environments usually alongside a stream, or in the dense foggy forest. They grow in clusters, so when you find them, you usually find A BUNCH. Their texture is snappy and flavor is much like seafood, so good! When you find them on a log or stump, they will most likely return for 2 or 3 years, until the dead log decomposes to a certain stage. Jay and I like to spread the shrooms that are passed their prime to nearby freshly fallen logs so they can spore out and reproduce in the coming years. When you catch them in their prime, they are true works of art, pure beauty!!

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus Ostreatus)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus Ostreatus)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus Ostreatus)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus Ostreatus)

King Boletes (Boletus Edulis)

There are SO MANY different kinds of edible boletes that grow in California, but this is by far my favorite. It is far less slimy than the rest and it is such a dense, fulfilling mushroom with so much flavor. These grow in habitat much like the Chanterelles but we tend to find them closer to the coast. They grow in troops so again, when you find one, you find many! We only pick the prime ones with firm caps, and leave the rest for nature to devour!

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting King Boletes (Boletus Edulis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting King Boletes (Boletus Edulis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting King Boletes (Boletus Edulis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting King Boletes (Boletus Edulis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting King Boletes (Boletus Edulis)

Bears Head ( Hericium Abietis)

A close relative to the beloved Lion’s Mane (Hericium Erinaceus), growing on dead logs in mass + girth! Its delicious and has many of the same medicinal properties as Lions Mane, promoting cognitive health. It too, grows on the same log year after year. Any chunks we decide to discard, we spread to nearby conifers for the spores to inoculate. Given the conditions and exposure to comfortable temperatures, he can grow to 20lb+, thats a LARGE fella !! The texture and taste of Bear’s Head reminds me of seafood.

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Bears Head ( Hericium Abietis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Bears Head ( Hericium Abietis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Bears Head ( Hericium Abietis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Bears Head ( Hericium Abietis)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Bears Head ( Hericium Abietis)

So how do we preserve these beauties you might be wondering…

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles ( Cantharellus Cascadensis)

Well! We have learned LOTS over the years. In the beginning we simply dry sauteed them + froze them, which is a decent solution if you plan to eat them relatively soon but it is NOT the preferred method. A few years ago we set out on a canning journey, now our pressure canner goes just about everywhere with us! What I love about canning is that it allows you to preserve your food without needing to add obnoxious amounts of preservatives. You are essentially boiling the potential bacteria out and sealing it off with pressure so fresh oxygen cant spoil it. BUT! Before we load our jars, we cut them in about about 1 -2 inch slices and give the mushrooms a soft saute to allow them to shrink and sweat. This allows you to fit a lot more shrooms into your jars rather than dry packing them in (which will leave you with all kinds of empty space in the jar when you are finished).

the canning process:

  • wash and sterilize the jars

  • replace the lids if you are re-using your jars to ensure a safe seal

  • we are going to “Hot Pack the Jars” so heat the empty jars in a water bath inside your pressure canner before adding the mushrooms.

  • lightly saute the mushrooms in a large cast iron pot to allow them to shrink and sweat to create a mushroom broth (add a little salt if they are not sweating, it all depends on how moist the shrooms are when you pick them)

  • then once the jars are almost to a boil, take out one jar at a time, fill it with the mushrooms and their broth they produced by sweating , and leave at least 1 inch of head space before sealing it closed.

  • wipe the rim of your jar with vinegar before putting on your lid

  • your lids should all be in small pot on a low boil, pull them individually from the pot as necessary. you want them to be hot and sterilized as you seal them shut.

  • once you have filled your canner with your jars of mushrooms, fasten the pressure canner lid on; heat on high. when steam begins to escape from the vent, set your timer for 10 minutes.

  • after those ten minutes, apply the weighted gauge and once it begins to rock / hiss / jiggle, set your timer again, this time for the full duration of the canning

  • pint jars should can for 45 minutes and quart jars are for 90 minutes

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Oyster Mushrooms
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Oyster Mushrooms

The two mushrooms we prefer to dehydrate over canning are:

Reishi Mushroom aka Ling Zhi (Ganoderma lucidum)

I feel truly blessed that we are able to harvest this medicine. We slice them thin and dehydrate them, sundry if that is an option. We put the slices of dried mushroom into a coffee grinder and add the ground up bits to our coffee and tea.

Ling Zhi is known as the "The Mushroom of Immortality”

here are just a few benefits of the Reishi

  • Reishi contains polysaccharides that boost immune function.

  • Certain bioactive compounds in the Reishi mushroom have been studied and are believed to eradicate cancer cells and prevent them from forming in the first place.

  • Reishi has been studied as it relates to brain health as well. The hippocampus of rats that had previously taken Reishi was more resistant to oxidative stress that those who hadn't. This could prove useful in preventing Alzheimer's.

  • According to the experienced Herbalist James Green, Reishi helps to lower excessively high blood pressure and cholesterol while improving the ratio of HDL to LDL cholesterol. It has a calming and strengthening effect on the nervous system, as it is mildly adaptogenic and antioxidant by protecting the body against free radicals.

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Reishi Mushroom aka Ling Zhi (Ganoderma lucidum)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Reishi Mushroom aka Ling Zhi (Ganoderma lucidum)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Reishi Mushroom aka Ling Zhi (Ganoderma lucidum)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Reishi Mushroom aka Ling Zhi (Ganoderma lucidum)

Morels (Morchella Elata)

I figured I’d add this to the list, although we harvest these in the spring / summer and sun drying them is our preferred method of cure. They are absolutely delicious, rich in flavor and texture. They are even good for grounding into a powder and using for a seasoning.

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Morels (Morchella Elata)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Morels (Morchella Elata)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Morels (Morchella Elata)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Morels (Morchella Elata)

A few mushrooms we love to eat and enjoy but dont generally preserve and save for later are:

Western Black Elfin Saddle (Helvella Vespertina)

At first glance, these little shrooms look like something you shouldnt be ingesting, but yes they are safe, and my god are they delicious!!! We have a few areas that we visit every year and again, they come back year after year, typically doing better on our wetter years. This is one of my favorite mushrooms but even when its a good year and we find a bunch, their size and hollow nature doesnt leave much room for canning them. Instead, we treat them like a delicacy and promptly enjoy them

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Western Black Elfin Saddle (Helvella Vespertina)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Western Black Elfin Saddle (Helvella Vespertina)

Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus Gilbertsonii) aka Sulphur Shelf

WHEW! One of my all time favorite mushrooms!!! We slice them in long thin bands, bread and fry them and I swear they taste just like lemon flavored chicken nuggets. I can see how they got their name alright! A real treat from the woods!!

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus Gilbertsonii) aka Sulphur Shelf
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus Gilbertsonii) aka Sulphur Shelf
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus Gilbertsonii) aka Sulphur Shelf
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus Gilbertsonii) aka Sulphur Shelf

Lobster Mushroom (Hypomyces Lactifluorum)

This mushroom is a TRIP! Its actually a parasite mushroom that has grown and taken over another mushroom which is the Short-Stemmed Russula (Russula Brevipes) which as it stands alone is no good. Nature blows my mind!!

The thick red outer layer is dense, strong and sturdy and if you harvest them in their prime, firm as can be, the whole mushroom cuts much like a potato does. In fact, they even fry up like potatoes and taste like a proper “comfort foods” home fries. Ive had some that taste a little like cooked chicken.

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Lobster Mushroom (Hypomyces Lactifluorum)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Lobster Mushroom (Hypomyces Lactifluorum)

Coral Mushroom ( Ramaria Stuntzii)

Ill be honest, they are not my favorite, but my god do I love to spot them in the woods!! We have eaten them on numerous occasions but they tend to have a mild laxative effect . Their texture is divine, while their taste is a bit bland.

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Coral Mushroom ( Ramaria Stuntzii)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Coral Mushroom ( Ramaria Acrisiccescens)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Coral Mushroom ( Ramaria Sandaracina var. Chondrobasis)

Shaggy Mane (Coprinus Comatus)

Shaggys are quite tasty but we are very picky about where we harvest them because they tend to favor toxic areas, such as growing out of the road base. When you harvest them, you must eat right away because they spoil quick, turning black and exuding an ammonia smell. When the conditions are right, and you are able to eat them quickly, their texture and flavor is quite a delicacy!

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Shaggy Mane (Coprinus Comatus)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Shaggy Mane (Coprinus Comatus)

Coccora (Amanita Calyptroderma)

* Reserved for the experienced mushroom hunters

Coccora are delicious and savory but as an Amanita Mushroom, they have a few look alikes and one is deadly. Only an experienced forager could identify and distinguish. but ayyyyy, once you are ready to properly identify, its a delilght!!! The Italians cherish these shrooms so we most often cook and add them to Italian dishes.

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Coccora (Amanita Calyptroderma)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Coccora (Amanita Calyptroderma)
All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Coccora (Amanita Calyptroderma)

Do you have any favorites that were not on my list? Which ones? Do you use a different process to preserve your shrooms? Any shroom stories you wanna share?!! Im all ears!!

Sincerely, Mikayla

All Goods From The Woods ~ EAT WILD ~ Mushroom Hunting in California ~ Foraging + Preserving ~ Living Close to the Land ~ Harvesting Chanterelles