While spring has finally sprung and we are up to our chins in fresh, seasonal, wild greens, spring is a terrible time for mushrooms. Beyond a lucky morel, some dried polypores, and an odd Ascomycete, Connecticut just doesn't have much to offer in the way of fungi in spring. It's not even about the edible mushrooms, just about any gilled little brown mushroom becomes a welcome sight after a long winter and a foray table filled with black bumps on sticks and Stereums.
Walt from CVMS says, "Happy New Year!" when he celebrates the new mushroom season with the sighting of the first Amanita on the foray tables. With the club on Facebook, we can now communicate our finds during the week as well. This past week, we found a stately yellow Amanita muscaria var. guessowii and a baby while hiking out to a favorite nettle collecting spot. Even better were the Boletes found while scouting new hiking/foraging location. Boletes in June? Yes! The red-pored one with a reddish-brown top and immediate blue staining is in the Boletus subvelutipes group, not edible. But the others, with bulbous bases, no staining, stuffed ores, beautifully sexy white reticulation on the apex of the stipe, and the gorgeous fresh-baked-bun-from-the-oven cap color, just screamed perfect porcini, Boletus edulis. Those babies cooked up buttery and crispy, nutty and delicious with a sprinkle of sea salt. And mushroom season begins. . .
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I hold out hope that one day, I'll find a way to hunt for mushrooms out here in my rural Utah desert paradise. Deserts aren't known for mushrooms, much, but ... there has to be a way...
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