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While some sit out in the open for easy picking, others are tucked into tree roots or hide beneath thick carpets of soft moss. When hunting boletes, we learned to look for unusual uprisings of moss.Īfter our first successful rainy afternoon of bolete gathering, Eric and I were hooked. They like the sandy, pine needle-strewn, moss-covered floor of the coastal forests.

#BUTTERCUP RESTAURANT NEHALEM HOW TO#

The choicest of all is the king bolete-also known as porcini-and we were there at the perfect time for nature’s festival of boletes.īoletes are easy to identify, and we learned how to choose the best ones (firm, no worm-holes, not overly large, a creamy tan color). There are some that will make you sick, some that might kill you, some that are edible but not very tasty, and some that are highly prized choice edibles. We stood in the pouring rain in parkas and beneath umbrellas while the ranger introduced us to the colorful world of local fall mushrooms. We figured the class would be canceled, but noooo….this is the Pacific Northwest, and folks are hardy here. The morning of our mushroom class dawned cloudy and gray, and by 10:00, the skies let loose with a drenching rainstorm. A staggering array of fungi emerge when the fall rains arrive, and some of the choicest mushrooms in the world of gourmet delights make a brief appearance in the coastal forests. October is the perfect month for mushroom hunting on the Oregon coast. When we discovered a mushroom identification class offered at Fort Stevens State Park in Astoria during our stay there, we signed right up. But with the exception of morel mushrooms, we’ve never been brave enough to venture into the world of mushroom hunting. There’s something primal and deeply satisfying about gathering and harvesting wild foods. We’ve gathered wild blackberries on Lopez Island and huckleberries in Oregon harvested wild mint and watercress from pristine creeks in the Pacific Northwest lured Dungeness crab into traps in Oregon and blue crabs to traps off my folks’ dock in Florida and pried oysters, mussels, and clams from the shores of the Pacific Northwest coast.

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