Last Sunday, Mark and I drove up to Panther Creek near Carson, Washington. With all of the trees turning color and the sun shining bright, it was the perfect day for a drive in the gorge. Even more beautiful was the trail we walked on once we arrived. The air was crisp, the leaves gorgeous, and the surroundings very peaceful and relaxing. We hiked for a little over an hour, taking it all in, before we found what we had come for: chanterelle mushrooms. I hadn't been mushroom hunting before, and didn't even know what chanterelles looked like, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It turned out to be really fun. Once we found the first couple of chantrelles and I got to know what we were looking for, the hunt was really on. Another 15 minutes and we arrived in a spot with lots of mushrooms, so many that we filled up two plastic grocery bags in about an hour. It was quite fun to search them out, and very exciting to spot one, usually hiding under a fern or other plant, or even under a fallen tree branch.
3 comments:
Thanks for the beautiful pictures, Karen. Will be waiting for your next post to tell us what you did with the mushrooms. I'll bet they taste wonderful. Love, Mom xxoo
Wow, I saw chanterelles being sold for $12.99 per pound at the grocery store today--ritzy! What did you do with the ones you collected?
Yes, chanterelles are quite expensive to buy, which is probably why this is the first time I've ever eaten them.
I found a fun web site called earthly delights (http://www.earthy.com/index.cfm) and tried a couple of the recipes listed there including a cream of mushroom soup and chicken breasts stuffed with wild rice and mushrooms. We also put the mushrooms in stir fried vegetables a couple of times. That took care of one of the bags. Mark took the other one to work to share with people there.
If the weather isn't too horrible, I think we're going to go out again on Saturday for more. If we find that many again, we many try drying some of the mushrooms.
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