Did we mention there were mushrooms?

With pride similar to when I "caught" my first king salmon, I write to report I've "found" my first chanterelle mushroom. Dr. Bob exclaimed "Shhh, do you smell them? I just know we're going to find some chanterelles," as he stepped back to point to a waxy orange mushroom peaking through the dirt below. Everyone else was slow to jump on them, so I seized the moment!


At home I scraped off the dirt with a pastry knife, put them in a dry hot sauté pan to "sweat" out the moisture and cooked them in garlic and butter. The result was a meaty, tasty, mushroom morsel that was great with our eggs in the morning.
-Antara



Antara is reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Pollan. She reached a chapter devoted to mushroom hunting the night before we joined Dr. Robert Cummings of SBCC on one of his famous mushroom hunts. Eager mushroom hunters fanned out under the oaks in Toro Canyon Park, and after a few hours time, we compiled our discoveries and Bob identified the mushrooms, telling us something about each one.
-Roy