Friday, October 25, 2013 - Chanterelles

I headed out alone today (something I'm trying not to do and the first time this year to be solo...) to mostly get some time in the woods.  Finding mushrooms would be a dividend if it happened.

I headed along my usual route out east of Monroe on Highway 2.  First stop was to investigate the Reiter Road area.  I've heard that there are mushrooms up there and have wandered around there once or twice - but never with too much luck.  At least for the chanterelles and Boletus edulis that are my main targets.  Today was no different.

I did find some mushrooms to photograph.

On this one I couldn't get the camera to focus on the mushrooms - it apparently thought I was more interested in the forest behind.

CLICK ON A PHOTO TO MAKE IT LARGER

I tried again with no luck.

So eventually took the easy way out and used the flash:

Some more photogenic subjects:

And these:

Up close:

I found no chanterelles and just this one bolete:

So I headed further up the highway to a spot that has provided plenty of chanterelles this year - but that was looking pretty ragged the last time I was there almost a month ago.  The recent weather has been reasonable - and the plethora of mushrooms at the Reiter Road stop gave me hope of possibly finding some new chanterelles that had recently sprouted.

There were 30 or 40 old gnarly past-their-freshness-date chanterelles for every one I picked.  This is an example:

But then there'd be a beautiful one list this:

And this photo shows how closely the two of them can be:

It turned out that there were enough to put on a pizza tonight - but not much more:

While the chanterelles were disappointing, there were a lot of good looking fresh mushrooms in the mountains.  People out for the mycological experience rather than trying to fill up the pot with chanterelles are still very much in luck.

POSTSCRIPT:  We ended up making this highly recommended delicious recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/pasta-with-wild-mushroom-sauce-recipe/index.html