Vashon Verité

My big, fat white chanterelle

They’re heeeeere!

The rains have hit, the ground has moistened, and the air has that lingering chill. It can only mean one thing, at least for the foraging types: fungi has arrived. I’m not going to be a total spoiler, since we work hard to find our little treasure troves of chanterelles, boletes, turkey tails and oyster mushrooms (to name just a few!), but I will say, there is absolutely NO NEED to take a ferry to find yourself the goods. You simply need tenacity. Good shoes. A little knife. Oh, and permission to be on the property you’re foraging (start in your own yard!).

If you’re new to foraging (and I still consider myself very new), hit the library or buy David Arora’s “All that the Rain Promises and More…” or “Mushrooms Demystified.” Don’t leave home without them, in fact. Vashon has so many interesting fungi you could spend hours just trying to identify one mushroom.

Some great places to observe some really interesing mushrooms are Island Center Forest (enter from 115th at Cemetery Road), Paradise Ridge park, Fisher Pond, and the trails wrapping around the field of Agren Park (warning about the latter: certain brown clusters are NOT fungi, they are doggy deposits since it’s a popular dog-walking area, so step carefully!).

Look for a mix of salal, huckleberry, and 2nd growth Douglas fir and avoid places with a lot of trailing blackberry, Scotch broom, and ivy if you’re hoping to score the chanterelles. Birches often have yummy boletes near their bases- birch boletes are excellent in gravy and soups. Again, follow the guides, don’t eat what you can’t ID, find an expert (I recommend Cedarsong for a foray), and always cook ‘em up before eating.

By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, there won’t be nearly as much to look at so get out there now…and have fun!