Mushroom foragers are a close-to-the-vest kind of people.
Much like hunters and fisherman, mushroom enthusiasts are very tight-lipped when it comes to the spots where they find the most sought-after edible fungi. While always willing to share the fruits of their hunt with friends and other gatherers, unless they do it to eventually sell at farmers markets or to restaurants, giving up a secret place in the woods, along trails or back roads is not something that is going to happen.
Jean Rosenthal of Peterborough found that out the hard way when she took an acquaintance for a hunt and found out the person was returning to her spots. That was the end of her sharing.
“I learned early on that you tell people what you found, not where you found them,” she said. “Everybody has their secret spots and I don’t go in places where people are really traveling.”
Scott Hecker of Temple has been mushroom foraging and eating what he finds for his entire life, dating back to his days growing up in Ohio. After moving back to the area a few years ago, Hecker began refamiliarizing himself with the mushroom hotspots he found while a student at Antioch.
“Generally speaking, mushrooms come up at the same time in the same place every year,” Hecker said. “But that doesn’t mean they come up every year.”
Rosenthal said it’s a challenge even if you have a list of spots because it’s so varied from year to year.
“I have vast areas over the whole region I go to,” she said.
She said she goes out every day, while also looking for wild blueberries and black raspberries. Her trips usually start at 7:30 a.m. when it’s not as hot and she is properly dressed for mosquitoes since most places mushrooms sprout are in damp places. She also has a special knife that will not disturb the soft base.
Rosenthal has been gathering for about 20 years after taking a course at the Harris Center with famed NH mushroom expert Rick Van de Poll.
Hecker said that mushrooming all depends on the weather. Last year “was the worst mushroom year I’ve seen,” he said, but with recent rainstorms, the colorful fungus are in ample supply. Rosenthal said “there wasn’t a mushroom showing for most of the spring, but now we’re getting a whole bunch sprouting over night.”
Hecker has a few ways of looking, which he does just about every day this time of year. He’ll go for a hike, armed with his camera for photos for his Flickr page, he drives slowly down back roads or if something catches his eye when he’s on the way to somewhere, there’s a good chance he’ll pull over.
“There are dirt roads you can drive down where you can find great mushrooms where there aren’t even any houses,” Hecker said.
Because with a short window to pick and many other foragers out there, he knows it might not be there if he waits. Rosenthal said “there’s no sense in leaving it for anyone else because mushrooms literally grow over night,” and that if she picks more than she can eat, she has no problem giving them away. Hecker said for a lack of a term, interest in gathering has “mushroomed” in recent times.
Some of the most sought after mushrooms are the Black Trumpet, Black and Yellow Morels and Matsutake.
“Morel hunting is very serious business,” he said. “It is the mushroom and very hard to find.”
Hecker said one of his favorites is Hen-of-the-wood and Rosenthal agrees.
“There was one year I picked about 30 to 40 pounds of them in an hour and a half,” she said. It was so much that the passenger seat in her car was filled.
Chanterelle is an easy one to see with a yellow-orange color that some say is the same as an egg yolk. Hecker said he’s seen them from up to 50 feet from the road. Chicken of the Woods also has the same eye grabbing characteristics.
While he used to stop and grab mushrooms from front yards and trees on someone’s property, it doesn’t happen much anymore. But he has a funny story of when he appeared in a police blog as an unidentified man taking mushrooms from a yard.
“I know it was me,” Hecker said.
It is one thing to find mushrooms, but something completely different when it comes to identifying it correctly. Hecker said people should never ever eat a mushrooms unless they’ve been able to verify the specific species. He said there are a lot of great groups out there, like Monadnock Mushroomers Unlimited, that can help with identification, as well as mushroom guide books.
Rosenthal said she has a handful of books that she uses and “you have to look at a whole bunch of signs” to properly identify, but even after two decades of doing it there are times when she’s caught off guard by what she finds.
“I’ve seen several mushrooms I’ve never seen before this year,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re going to find.”
While there’s only a few mushrooms that will actually kill a person – like the Death Cap, Destroying Angel and Galerina – Hecker said the dangers of not knowing a species is not worth eating it.
“Every year people die from eating poisonous mushrooms,” Hecker said. “So that’s why you only collect mushrooms to eat if you know for sure what species it is.”
The edible phase can be a short window, Hecker said, and young and tender is “when they taste the best.” He estimates there are at least 30 or 40 around the area that are good to eat and a good way to get them, if people aren’t interested in gathering, is local farmers markets. Rosenthal likes to remind people that all wild mushrooms need to be cooked.
Each species has an entirely different flavor, and the only way to know if you like it is to taste it.
“All mushrooms are edible, but some only once,” he said.
“You certainly don’t experiment,” Rosenthal added.
Mushrooms can be found in these parts from April to December. Some will appear in all three season, but Hecker said generally speaking they only come up in one or two seasons.
To see what Hecker has found recently, check out his Flickr page. Just don’t expect there to be any information on where to find them.