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
