Saturday found me happily traipsing through the Maine woods hunting mushrooms with Chef Michael Salmon of the Hartstone Inn. Earlier in the summer Michael mentioned to me how excited he was about taking a summer long course on mushroom hunting through Merryspring Nature Center in Camden, Maine.  Naturally I invited myself along on one of his fall forays to find some fungus.

With Michael as navigator knowing what defines prime mushroom habitat we headed to a nature preserve just outside Camden in search of dying trees, moist trail side areas, hardwoods, and oaks. Starting out my knowledge of mushrooms was limited to those I’d purchased (portobellos, porcinis, oyster, shitake, and button) from supermarkets and sauteed with butter. Who knows how many I’ve stepped on apart from  few funky looking bright colored or large ones that stood out along hiking trails.

The day was gorgeous with the sun sparkling on Lake Megunticook, birds chirping (actually more like woodpeckers pecking), granite cliffs, and a green carpeted forest.  Soon after we entered the preserve we began finding Bracket Fungi and Boletes (Sponge Mushrooms). A few of the traits Michael used to id fungi were whether they produced lactate, turned blue or orange, tubes (or pores) vs. gills, texture, color, and where found (growing on a dead stump vs. living hard tree).

Mushroom foraging can be exciting and if edibles are found rewarding. We did not find any edibles in good condition so we’re heading back fore Part Two this Saturday. Check the Hartstone’s website page FUN FOR FOODIES next summer to see if Michael has scheduled a fungi-themed cooking class.

Do NOT mess around with fungi ingestion!  If you are interested in mushroom hunting go with an expert, because that delicate looking white one will kill you in two hours.

To find a mushroom identification class contact your local Slow Food chapter, gardening association or center, or Google mycological clubs in your area. I did and found the Boston Mycological Club.  Purchase a good book or two. According to Michael no one book identifies all mushrooms, it is virtually impossible with so many kinds. The one he had on hand is Mushrooms Northeast North America: Midwest to New England by George Barron. Of course if you are hunting in Oregon or Washington State probably look for a book focusing on those areas.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Epicurean Events & Travel, Friends, Local Flavors, Midcoast Maine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.