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Eating Wild in Eastern Canada: A Guide to Foraging the Forests, Fields and Shorelines
152Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781771085984 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nimbus Publishing |
| Publication date: | 05/23/2018 |
| Pages: | 152 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
Forests and Edges | Fungi, Trees, Shrubs, and a Few More
Part 1: Fungi
Chaga Chanterelle Black Trumpet Winter Chanterelle Matsutake Oyster Mushroom Boletes Chicken-of-the-Woods Lobster Mushroom
How do you pick the right mushroom? Hunting mushrooms with a knowledgeable friend, attending a fungus-identification course, and using a fungus guidebook are all good ways to start. Using a guidebook alone might not be enough. In any event, learn your mushrooms before you cook them. Start with a few easily identifiable mushroom species and eat only a small portion of a mushroom until you are certain you know which kind you have picked and that you do not have an allergy to it. Although easily avoidable with a basic understanding of mushroom identification, people are occasionally poisoned when they mistakenly pick and eat the wrong mushroom species. That said, with reasonable caution there is no need to be paranoid about wild mushrooms.
Picked mushrooms need air so avoid stuffing them into plastic bags. Paper bags are okay and a wooden basket is best. Avoid rinsing them with water. It's better to cut, scrape, or brush any dirt or debris off the mushroom to avoid having the mushroom soak up water. Collecting during dry weather tends to result in cleaner mushrooms with less water content and thus better flavour and texture. When slicing your found fungi, discard any soft or mushy bits and any bits compromised by insects.
Perhaps the best way to prepare wild mushrooms is the simplest: sauté them lightly in butter. That's how I usually enjoy my chanterelles, although adding a piece or two of bacon is never a bad idea. Many wild mushrooms are excellent additions to pasta dishes and soups too. Some wild mushrooms, including chanterelles, dry well and can be stored for months in a cool, dry place. The first species in this section, however, is not eaten at all. This fungus — chaga — is just for tea.
Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) a.k.a. Cinder Conk, Birch Conk, Clinker Polypore
"Like dark chocolate, but without the sweetness," my friend mused, sipping her first cup of hot chaga tea. "So, like unsweetened chocolate?" I asked. "No, there's no bitterness. It's chocolate, without the bitter or the sweet, and the aftertaste of an Americano," she offered.
For me, chaga is liquid birch trees. Those lucky enough to have cut and split birch firewood, either white or yellow birch, likely know that fresh birch smell that you can almost taste. A little sweet, a little spearmint, a little earthy. I'll often pause while splitting birch just to pick up a piece and enjoy its scent. It's worth splitting a cord of birch firewood just for that smell. Chaga tea is that smell condensed into a hot beverage.
Chaga doesn't look like a fungus and chaga tea doesn't taste like fungus. It looks like burnt charcoal and when you crack it open it's orange-brown on the inside. Chaga grows on white and yellow birch trees, usually in fist-sized to head-sized bumpy black clumps. Oddly, I once found it growing on an ironwood tree, although perhaps this is not as odd as one might think given that ironwood belongs to the birch tree family. Chaga is found throughout eastern Canada and around the world wherever birch trees grow, from Russia to Europe to the northern United States. Chaga grows slowly, so take only a little from any one area. Unfortunately it is reported to be over-harvested in some regions.
Chaga has been used to make tea and as a folk medicine for centuries in Russia and other northern countries. The fungus can be simply broken into small chunks and steeped to make tea or can be ground in a coffee grinder and used with a tea infuser. I steep five or six small chunks — no more than a small handful — in a couple litres of water. It's fully steeped once the water turns dark, and it doesn't seem to mind sitting around for a day or two with the pot lid on. Just reheat it when you want a cup. Chaga also doesn't seem to get too strong no matter how long it steeps, and I find I can replenish the water once or twice and still have a flavourful tea. Sometimes I add a splash of milk and a bit of honey for a comforting nighttime beverage.
David Spahr, author of Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada, reports that he had great success adding concentrated chaga tea to an India pale ale he brewed. He boiled down the chaga tea to concentrate it, added it to his brewing wort instead of hops, and thoroughly enjoyed the resulting beer. A few commercial craft- brewers have caught onto the beer-chaga combo, too, and chaga lagers and porters are starting to appear at craft breweries.
Those interested in the possible therapeutic effects of chaga should do a bit of research on preparation methods. Hot water steeping releases some of the good stuff. Other methods are more effective at releasing other compounds.
The best way to locate chaga is to take a long hike through mature mixed forest or hardwood forest that has some birch trees (white or yellow) and scan all the birches you come across. Chaga is generally found on older birch trees so don't bother with young forests, and make sure the birch tree is alive as the fungus doesn't live long on dead trees. To harvest, use a hatchet or axe to remove a portion of the fungus from the tree if you can reach it; otherwise continue your quest. Don't take an entire clump of chaga — leave at least half to ensure the fungus can regrow — and be careful not to wound the tree by cutting into it. All other mushrooms we collect are the fruiting structures of the underground body of the fungus known as mycelium. The chaga we collect, however, is the very body (mycelium) of the fungus, which is why it's important to leave at least half still attached to the tree.
Cut freshly harvested chaga into small chunks with a heavy knife and set them near a sunny window or other mild heat source to dry. Once chaga dries it becomes much more difficult to cut, so do it soon after harvesting. Summer chaga has higher water content, so chaga harvested during the cooler months is easier to dry.
Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius and other species)
Offer someone wild mushrooms and he may turn up his nose. Offer the same person chanterelles and he may gratefully accept. With their apricot aroma, al dente texture, and unique flavour, chanterelles bridge the worlds of foragers and grocery-store-only types.
I have collected chanterelles for many years, but a favourite recent memory is a hike with friends along the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland. My friends' eyes sparkled when I pointed out a patch of yellow under the fir and spruce trees. "Chanterelles? Really?!" With an almost obsessive vigour our leisurely hike became a chanterelle hunt. "Ben's got gold fever bad," his wife remarked, as Ben called urgently from a newly discovered patch. We selected ones with firm flesh and little evidence of insect damage and made sure to leave some unpicked. Empty lunch bags and toques were put into service to hold the fungus and we momentarily forgot about our hike.
Chanterelles comprise a number of similar species, and as a group are found in many parts of the world, including Europe, North America, Asia, and part of Africa. I often find them growing under spruce trees, or in mixed-wood forests that include spruce and birch. The largest patches I have found were growing on old pasture land that had grown up in spruce trees. They often seem to appear in or along the sides of old roads or trails in these types of forests. I can't remember finding them in pure hardwood forests, but perhaps I just haven't looked enough.
Chanterelles are among those fungi species that form intimate connections with trees and are known as mycorrhizal fungi. The main body of chanterelles and other fungi species live underground, spread out in a wide network of filaments known as mycelium. The chanterelle's mycelium grows into the tiny root hairs of certain tree species, enabling carbohydrates to flow from the tree to the fungus, and water and minerals to flow from the fungus to the tree. It's like the fungus giving the tree an extended network of roots to access what it needs in exchange for some food that the tree makes from sunlight. A good deal all around.
Finding chanterelles
Look for yellow V-shaped fungi with gill-like irregular ridges that run almost all the way down the "trunk" or stipe of the fungus. Importantly, these ridges are not uniform like true mushroom gills. If they are uniform, then it's not a chanterelle. Chanterelles also have a particular aroma, which many describe as fruity or apricot-y. Chanterelles range in width from one to ten centimetres or more. Smaller chanterelles often have a convex (sort of umbrella-like) top, while larger ones often grow into a funnel or vase (concave) shape.
Importantly, not all yellow or orange mushrooms are chanterelles. The jack-o-lantern and the false chanterelle mushrooms (reportedly poisonous) may be similar in colour and shape, but each of these has well-developed, uniform gills that never fork, unlike the chanterelle. As with any plant or mushroom, the best way to learn to identify a chanterelle is to have a knowledgeable person show you. Once you've seen a few, you shouldn't have any trouble recognizing its distinctive beauty.
Chanterelles are better picked when they are dry (not immediately after rain), so that they do not contain excess water. Once in a while I have to cut off part of the stipe to get rid of buggy bits, but chanterelles are typically bug-free. I come across chanterelles from late June to late September (sometimes into October), with the best picking often in July and early August. The size of patches varies from year to year, but I can count on going back to favourite spots year after year to find at least some to bring home.
My chanterelles tend to quickly find themselves in a frying pan with a little butter. Many flavours in chanterelles are fat-soluble and some are alcohol-soluble, so adding a touch of wine when sautéing in butter, oil, or cream can be a nice addition. You can also cook them in a little bacon fat. Just don't cook them too long. A couple of minutes in a hot pan is plenty.
To dry chanterelles, slice them in halves or quarters and place the slices by a sunny window or in an oven on very low heat. Store your dried chanterelles in a glass jar and crumble them into soups or pasta sauce for flavouring, or soak them in water to rehydrate them and add as a pizza topping. For those interested in the health benefits, chanterelles are reportedly high in vitamins C and D, and potassium.
Black Trumpet (Craterellus cornucopioides and other species) a.k.a. Horn of Plenty, Blank Chanterelle
Black trumpets, a cousin of the common chanterelle, can be tricky to find given their small stature and colour that blends well with the forest floor. If you are not looking for them specifically you may easily overlook them. I first happened on some when I was leaning against a tree for a rest while hiking though a mixed hardwood and softwood forest in southwestern Nova Scotia. Glancing down I noticed a couple of the delicate fungi near my feet. With their image in my mind, I walked around a bit and was surprised to find them scattered throughout that part of the forest.
Black trumpets are usually some three to ten or so centimetres high and have a vase or trumpet shape with a hollow stipe (stem) and thin flesh. They do not have gills but rather have either smooth outer flesh or hints of ridges in place of gills. Black trumpets grow in the shade of mature forests from mid to late summer, and are often found where rain or snowmelt washes through a forest in the spring.
My first meal of black trumpets was like tasting a delicious tropical fruit for the first time, and they immediately jumped to first place in my list of favourite wild mushrooms. They are worth the hunt. I suggest sautéing them in a little butter, on their own, to ensure you get their full flavour. Mycophile David Fischer suggests letting a few soak in white wine for a couple of days and then drinking the wine (and cooking the soaked mushrooms). I intend to try this with the next black trumpets I find.
Winter Chanterelle (Craterellus tubaeformis and other species) a.k.a. Yellow Foot
Once upon a time, winter chanterelles resided with the chanterelle group of mushrooms. Then a discerning mycologist picked apart their genetic building blocks, found they were merely masquerading as chanterelles, and promptly shuffled them into the Craterellus group. Such are the fickle nuances of mushroom nomenclature.
Winter chanterelles have yellow stems that are partially hollow, and yellow, orange, or dark brown caps that often have a distinct "innie" bellybutton-like hole. I have found them in mature conifer and mixed-wood forests, often with red spruce or hemlock, from late summer until they are covered by snow.
I think they are best enjoyed sautéed by themselves so as not to lose any of their delicate flavour, but you can also add them to creamy soups and pastas.
Matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare) a.k.a. Pine Mushroom
Matsutake mushrooms are perhaps best known for their popularity in Japan (although those that grow in Japan may be a different species — or not; scientists argue the point). Poems are written, stories told, and large amounts of money spent, all for the love of the matsutake mushroom.
Matsutake is a late summer and fall mushroom that likes to grow among hemlock trees, especially on slopes and sometimes near streams or lakes. Not an easy mushroom to find, it seems to be associated with certain types of soils, particularly podzol or spodosol soils, which can be identified by the presence of a grey soil layer immediately under the forest floor.
They emerge from the forest floor looking like white balls being pushed up out of the soil. Important: Do not assume any emerging white mushroom is edible. Some are deadly poisonous. Ensure that you correctly identify any white mushroom or it may be your last meal.
How to cook matsutake? This can be an art in itself, and if you want to move beyond my "butter and salt" approach you would be well advised to dive into your own research. Perhaps the best place to start would be with recipes from the matsutake heartland: Japan.
Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus, P. populinus, and other species)
In spring and summer, populinus can be found growing on dead poplar (aspen) trees. In fall to early winter, ostreatus can be found on living sugar maple and occasionally other hardwood trees including beech. Oyster mushrooms can be from three to over twenty centimetres wide, and are white to tan to brown in colour. They are fleshy (not woody or inflexible), they do not have noticeable stems, and they grow only on wood (never out of the ground).
Don't confuse oyster mushrooms with angel wings (Pleurocybella porrigens), which are thin white fungi that grow on conifer trees. While many resources list them as edible, some reports suggest that angel wings are poisonous to some people.
Sauté oyster mushrooms in butter or oil and enjoy by themselves or add them to a stir-fry. Some people like to cook them in a tempura batter.
Bolete (Boletus edulis and many other species)
Boletes commonly grow with hemlock, oak, or spruce and can be found in most forest types from early summer into the fall. All boletes have pores under their caps instead of gills or other structures. The pore structures of most boletes are whitish or yellow in colour. It is best not to pick any boletes with red or orange pore structures as some of these species may be poisonous or otherwise unpleasant to eat. As with any wild mushroom, it is best to pick with an experienced mushroom picker when foraging for boletes.
There is also the bitter bolete. It resembles edible boletes except in taste: it is staggeringly bitter. I know this because my mycology professor at Acadia University (Professor Grund) asked our class for a volunteer to taste a bit of one, and in the interest of experiential learning I raised my hand. Never again!
Boletes can be added to stir-fries or enjoyed sautéed on their own or with other wild mushrooms. They can be dried like chanterelles.
Chicken-of-the-Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus, L. cincinnatus)
Chicken-of-the-woods usually grows in hardwoods and is easily spotted thanks to its colour — from bright orange to orange-yellow to pale yellow — and its overlapping layers of caps. It grows out of dead or mature hardwood trees.
These mushrooms can grow tough and disagreeable in flavour as they age, so seek out the youngest chicken-of-the-woods you can find. They can be sautéed, added to soups, or baked in the oven.
Lobster Mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum)
The lobster mushroom is an interesting beast. It is a parasitic fungus that attacks either of two species of fungus (Lactarius piperatus or Russula brevipes), overthrows their bodies, and transforms them into a shape and colour that we recognize as the lobster mushroom. Luckily for us, this transformation also turns these otherwise unpalatable mushrooms into culinary delights.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Eating Wild in Eastern Canada"
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Copyright © 2018 Jamie Simpson.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 11
Introduction 13
Chapter 1 Forests and Edges: Fungi, Trees, Shrubs, and a Few More 19
Part 1 Fungi
Chaga 21
Chanterelle 23
Black Trumpet 25
Winter Chanterelle 26
Matsutake 27
Oyster Mushroom 28
Bolete 29
Chicken-of-the-Woods 30
Lobster Mushroom 31
Part 2 Trees, Shrubs, and Other Plants of the Forest and its Edges
Conifer Tips and Teas: Spruce, Balsam Fir, Pine, and Hemlock 35
Red Oak Acorns, Beech Leaves and Nuts, and Maple Leaves 38
Highbush Cranberry 40
Wild Raisin 41
Common Elderberry 42
Wild Apple 44
Serviceberry 46
Chokecherry and Pin Cherry 47
Mountain Ash 49
Staghorn Sumac 50
Hawthorn 51
Cucumber Root 52
Bunchberry 54
Wintergreen 54
A Professional Forager: An Interview with Fred Dardenne 55
Chapter 2 Fields, Marshes, Rivers, and Bogs 57
Fiddlehead 59
Cattail 63
Cranberry and Lingonberry 64
Huckleberry 66
Blueberry 68
Blackberry and Raspberry 69
A Bevy of Tea Plants 71
Cloudberry 74
Dandelion 75
Japanese Knotweed 78
Stinging Nettle 80
Wild Rose 81
Jerusalem Artichoke 83
Coltsfoot 85
Limbs Quarters 86
Groundnut 87
Plantain 88
Grape 89
Live-forever 91
An Interview with Chef Jakob Lutes, Port City Royal 92
Chapter 3 Seashore and Interridal Areas 95
Part 1 Sea Plants
Goose Tongue 97
Sea-Rocket 98
Beach Pea 99
Sea Spinach 100
Crowberry 101
Juniper 102
Bayberry 103
Sea Blite 105
Glasswort 107
Scotch Lovage 108
An Interview with Bryan Picard, The Bite House 109
Part 2 Seaweeds, a.k.a Sea Vegetables
Irish Moss 113
Dulse 115
Sea Lettuce 116
A Tangle of Kelps: Sugar Kelp, Winged Kelp, Oar Kelp 118
Part 3 A Gastropod, a Cephalopad, Some Bivalves, and a Trio of Fishes
Periwinkle 123
Northern Shortfin Squid 125
Soft-Shell Clam 128
How to Bake Clams on a Beach 131
Razor Clam 132
Quahog 134
Blue Mussel 135
Sea Urchin 137
A Trio of Ocean Fish: Mackerel, Pollock, and Flounder 139
An Interview with George Smith, Dancing River Sprite 142
Bibliography 147
Index 149
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