Wild mushroom and berry picking in Oregon forests? (Bend, Burns: camping, professionals)

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by *anya*

I grew up picking mushrooms, but it's been almost 20 years since my last trip. Plus that was on a different continent, I'll definitely have to brush up on my shroom knowledge lol, so very excited though! I paid $10 for a small basket of morels and the Farmer's Market today in Cali, ridiculous!

Go to the source. I stopped at the market in Ukiah once and there was a buyer there and about 50 little brown people from a dozen different nations. I handed the buyer $20 and asked him for morels. He handed me a paper grocery sack full to the top. Oh yeah!

I have this recipe for mushroom soup that starts, "First fill a large stock pot with sliced mushrooms." Mushroom soup without enough mushrooms is like clam chowder without enough clams.

[*anya*]

oh that's the kind of mushroom soup I need to make lol, I have no idea where I can find someone close to the source in the bay area, the people at the farmer's market have a mushroom farm in monterey county and that's as close to the source as I can get. Their porcinis are $34 per pound! eek. I haven't had those in 20 years and when I did have them 20 years ago I remember not liking them, I wonder if that would still be true.

[Squidlo]

Cooking notes for Morels be sure to fully cook them. Eaten raw they can cause severe gastric upset (yes this I have experienced). My favorite way to eat them is dredged in seasoned flour and deep fry them quickly. We usually try to combo this with fresh caught crappie fillets also dredged and fried.


I can pick 4 or 5 mushrooms by name another half dozen by sight. I do not recommend picking to eat without a "trainer" or a good field guide. I had benefit of a person with 50+ years of picking to learn what was "ok". The weirdest mushrooms we picked were Puffballs and some cauliflower looking mushroom that grew along logging roads and pushed up through the soil. Puffballs are so so not a lot of flavor. The "cauliflower" mushrooms WoW! I will check back if I can find a proper name. Either I don't remember or I was never told.

Best picking was 2 to 3 days from a moderate rain temps 70+. I have picked around the snow lines for some.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by *anya*

oh that's the kind of mushroom soup I need to make lol, I have no idea where I can find someone close to the source in the bay area, the people at the farmer's market have a mushroom farm in monterey county and that's as close to the source as I can get. Their porcinis are $34 per pound! eek. I haven't had those in 20 years and when I did have them 20 years ago I remember not liking them, I wonder if that would still be true.

Be sure to hit the Portland Farmer's Market (not Saturday Market, that is a craft market) at PSU on a nice day in fall when the "mushroom people" have their tables and their grill set up. I don't even LIKE mushrooms, and I think that stall smells wonderful.

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by hamellr

There certainly is! I'll eat ferns, cat tails, camas, dandelions and a lot of other wild foragables. Even some questionable ones such as wood sorel that should be eaten in major moderation. I will not even think about eating most mushrooms for this very reason.

Yesterday, a doe was out in my basspond eating on my Water Lilies...

I wish she would eat some of the Cattails.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Hawk J

Yesterday, a doe was out in my basspond eating on my Water Lilies...

I wish she would eat some of the Cattails.

Hawk, why don't you eat some of those cattails? The early shoots are tender as asparagus, and the roots are an excellent starchy dish. In fact, they are so edible that the nutrea have nearly wiped out cattails in the Willamette Valley.

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

Hawk, why don't you eat some of those cattails? The early shoots are tender as asparagus, and the roots are an excellent starchy dish. In fact, they are so edible that the nutrea have nearly wiped out cattails in the Willamette Valley.

Thankyou bro. I will think on it.

Cattails first appeared in my pond about ten years ago. I like how they look in the water, but they have really multiplied.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by Hawk J

Thankyou bro. I will think on it.

Cattails first appeared in my pond about ten years ago. I like how they look in the water, but they have really multiplied.

Cattail Recipe

The first one is really good. They're like bamboo shoots at that point.

[whirnot]

WE visited our property south of Bend over the weekend and there were a lot of Boletas.

[Larry Caldwell]

Boletes are mycorrhizal with pine trees, so where there are pine trees you will find boletes. Of course, the mushroom is only the fruiting body. Most of the fungus is underground. In the case of mycorrhizae, that means intertwined with the roots of the tree or trees.