Mushroom Obsession RSS
Getting out there, part 4: What to hunt for
In previous posts, we've talked about where to hunt, when to hunt, and how to prepare for your hunt. Now it's time to get down to brass tacks. What should you hunt for? The bottom line is, if you get out in the forests during the right time of year, you may very well see dozens of varieties of mushrooms. How do you know what to harvest, and what to merely photograph? When my son Nathan and I lead hunts, invariably, within the first mile, team members are quite excited to find some very fascinating-looking mushrooms. "That's so cool!" they...
Getting out there! How to hunt - Part 3
We've covered where to hunt and when to hunt ... now it's time to talk about preparing for how to hunt. My son Nathan and I have been leading groups into the forests for the past five years or so, teaching them how to hunt for wild mushrooms. As a result of this, and the experiences we've had, I've developed a fairly extensive checklist. Hunting in the forest can be dangerous. Here are some of the hazards, prioritized according to what I feel is the greatest ot the least risk: 1) Getting lost. It is so easy to get lost...
Getting out there! When to hunt, part 2
In my last blog post, I addressed where to hunt, and the difference (here in Washington State) between national parks, national forests, state forests, and private land, and the requirements for hunting on each.In this post I'd like to address the question of WHEN to hunt. Here in the Northwest, there are two times of the year most fruitful for hunting mushrooms: Spring, and Fall. Spring Mushrooms In the Spring, it's pretty much just about morels. Between April and July, the morels pop out. There are very few morels to be found here in the Western Washington / Puget Sound...
Getting out there! Where to hunt, part 1
One of my favorite fall hunting grounds is in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, about an hour or so south of my home in the great State of Washington. Here we usually hunt in rainforest at the foothills of the magnificent Mt. Rainier, typically at the 2,000-3,000 foot elevation.In many national forests here in the Northwest, while limits are stated and enforced for hobby hunters (typically 3 gallons per day maximum), permits aren't required. The Gifford-Pinchot (filling the space between the triad of volcanoes, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood) is an exception. A "free forest products use"...
Are you mushroom obsessed?
I wasn't always mushroom obsessed. I was more or less a normal dad. Then one day my company relocated me, my wife, and our two kids from smoggy, hot, crowded Southern California, to beautiful, green Washington State. And my kids were mad as heck at us for taking them away from all their friends. I found myself trying to think of fun and adventuresome things we could do in the Great Outdoors here to help the bitter pill go down easier and make them forget their friends. And there's lots to do here. Fishing ... my daughter and I caught...
Tags
- All
- Admirable Boletes
- angel wings
- Armillaria ostoyae
- blonde morels
- Blue Chanterelle
- boletes
- Calvatia gigantea
- cauliflower mushroom
- chanterelles
- Chicken of the Woods
- children
- Clackamas River
- Club Mushroom
- Coltricia Perennis
- Coral Mushroom
- Crimini Mushrooms
- cultivation
- Elfin Saddle
- Enoki
- Exercise
- fall mushrooms
- Fat Jacks
- forest safety
- geocaching
- Gifford Pinchot National Forest
- golden chanterelles
- Gyromitra esculenta
- H-Mart
- hedgehogs
- Honey Mushroom
- Humongous Fungus
- hunting
- King Boletes
- King Trumpet
- lion's mane
- Lobster Mushroom
- lobsters
- Malheur National Forest
- maple logs
- matsutake
- morels
- mushroom hunt
- mushroom worker's lung
- national forests
- national parks
- Oregon
- Oyster
- Oyster Mushrooms
- permits
- polypores
- Porcinis
- private property
- Puffball Mushrooms
- Radagast
- Ramaria
- shaggy ink cap
- shaggy mane
- Shaggy Parasols
- Slippery Jacks
- Snowbank Morels
- Sparassis crispa
- spring mushrooms
- state parks
- straw logs
- Tiger Mountain
- White Button Mushrooms
- White Chanterelles
- White Shimeji
- yellow morels
- Zeller's Boletes
