We gave up our expectations…
identified traditionally overlooked edibles and had a great learning year in the kitchen. Here’s a look back on what was found and preserved.

 Morel season was looking so good with rains leading up to their much anticipated appearance… and then things began to go wrong. Dry weather, odd temperatures, late season rains all contributed to very few preserved Morels.



Ok, in Eastern PA , I accept that finds may be a little smaller than those of our brethren to the west.
As Chanterelle season neared, I cleaned and prepared my extra big basket and gave the dog extra patience training. It’s rough on a Chesapeake Bay Retriever to travel a long way only to spend hours in a small patch of woods. The extra training proved unnecessary as each hopeful trip provided more miles of crispy dry open forest floor for the dog to enjoy. One trip only turned up the now very dry mushrooms found a few weeks before. We dug into stored mushroom reserves for the Tasting and put on a brave face, but my mushroom mojo was in crisis. 
 In the mountains, the summer seemed to get hotter and drier. Here in the Pequea Valley, rains came just enough when needed making for another terrific corn crop. Local gardens were a little dry so my Amish neighbors had fewer corn smut ears for me.

The hot weather, bountiful garden and corn brought out my inner Mexican. Kathy and I made fresh corn Tamales (uchepos) which call for the starch of field corn. If the Wanners read this, I owe you for six ears.


We removed and lightly processed the kernels before wrapping and steaming the Tamales in the fresh green husks. In August we put on a mega Mexican dinner for our old gang, serving several Moles, Swiss chard Tamales, refried beans from scratch, Mexican rice dishes, traditional fresh and cooked salsas and of course, my favorite pickled Chipotle morita. The mega dinner called for a mega clean up and I was moving
slowly the next morning when I looked out to see Paul Good’s truck pulling up the studio drive. It was August and really hot. Paul, listing to one side from the weight of his enormous basketful of Leccinum insigne, left us with 4 pounds. Re-energized, we got back out there and produced 3 more pounds giving us ½ pound dried total.



On September 1^st the club hosted Leon Shernoff
Mushroom The Journal at Middle Creek where he introduced our foray finds like old friends. 
No identification books required.
Leon was no stranger to edible Russulas, at his recommendation we adjusted our radar for Russulas mariae, aeruginea, variata, olivacea.
We met the Dawsons at Clark’s Valley the next day. Our exploratory foray yielded quite a few of these Russulas although most specimens were past their prime. We sautéed them until crisp, cooked them with eggs and enjoyed wild mushrooms. Next year we’ll pay more attention to their season and test out some preservation techniques. 
September may have broken the mushroom drought, but not everywhere and not in real quantities.
Forays on the Welsh Mountain turned up various Russulas, Amanitas, Boletes, Calvatia and a beautiful Sparassis Crispa which we preserved with a pickling technique. I wasn’t very happy with the results. Sparassis are delicate and become limp if cooked too long.

By the end of September we were back in very dry conditions. Our tasting event at the Miknis foray depended once again mostly on stored mushrooms.  Our offerings were oriented to the Italian dinner served by Kings Gap that evening. Special thanks again to Cathy Cholmeley-Jones for her perfect
Chicken of the Woods.

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Cathy cut up her Laetiporus sulphureus specimen into bite-sized pieces, she then blanched them for a few minutes in chicken stock before freezing. Special Thanks also to Bob Hosh of N.J.MA. for preparing his wonderful Paprikash.

Despite dry conditions, we had some success at Marysville. I decided to try a quantity of
Lycoperdon pyriforme.



Despite its choice rating by some, I found them completely tasteless, having a disturbing gum like texture. Well seasoned and well ground they thickened a stew nicely.

The last days of October through December 1^st were our most productive. Following the club’s exploratory foray at Clark’s Valley, we found Suillus americanus and Coprinus comatus at several locations on the way home. Over the next 3 to 4 days, we found 3 grocery bags full of S. americanus, brevipes, granulatus, and I’m sure a couple more species.



 Some of these had seen too much rain, some were too buggy. We removed the slimy cuticle and the soggy pore surface from all of them before drying the flesh. We ended up with a quart of dried Suillus.

 

 In 2006, we cooked down extra Coprinus comatus in some butter before freezing it for a few months.
I felt the quality suffered slightly but the mushroom was preserved for later use. We found 4 pounds on October 28^th.  3 pounds made it to the freezer; they will be on menu for the 2008 winter meetings.



 As most of us know, it was a weak year for finding Hens. Grifola frondosa seemed to give up in the hot dry weather. I was surprised by one 21 pound specimen at Susquehannock on November 18^th. I gave it extra blanching time because of its age. I was able to freeze 17 pounds for events. We ended up the year with sporadic Blewit finds until the morning of December 1^st when we located 4 mostly frozen pounds under Norway Spruce. We worked like mad to clean, slice and jamb 3 pounds into our drier. The end result; ½ pound.



 Iend with some cautionary culinary information gleaned from our more current identification books and the featured site on our resource page: mushroomexpert.com.  Due to the lack of more commonly collected species this year, I became interested in the fall edibles described by Jack Czarnecki in Joe’s Book of Mushroom Cookery." Joe", romantically describes basketfuls of pine scented Tricholomas in the mountains North of Reading. Believe me, I wanted that experience. With Paul’s help, we got into the right place this fall and picked a piney basketful. Unfortunately, after careful review, my basket of Tricholoma flavovirens/equestre ended up on my mulch pile .In addition, I was surprised to find a caution regarding mature specimens of Grifola frondosa. It appears some people have allergic reactions to them (including Michael Kuo). I have served them in all states of maturity to the club without any reactions to the best of my knowledge. If any members recall a reaction, I’d like to know about it please. --Chris