Happy New Year, food & foraging friends!
January can feel like a letdown after the holiday hoopla – especially for hungry foragers left with little but pictures of their prized finds from the year prior.
It can still be a fun time for fungi, and fun guys and gals, willing to romp in the cold. I’ve found some nice flushes of winter oysters in the past month — pre-snow, but they will rebound as things thaw out. Some mushies like it that way; check out this interesting article on some “snow-evolved” mushrooms in the West!
Fun facts about oyster mushrooms: There are spring, summer, fall and winter oysters, each a distinct species; the Pleurotus family itself includes 200+ edible species and yet some of the so called oysters aren’t in the Pleurotus family, because mushrooms be like that. The so called winter oyster, Pleurotus ostreatus, is one that is commercially cultivated. This article offers some great ID tips for ostreatus seekers.
Oyster mushrooms are fairly easy to ID, with their fan shapes growing in clusters on wood from a short firm stipe. A white to lilac spore print will seal the deal, if you’re not confident. These are all oysters in recent weeks. Bottom right shot is oyster cornbread stuffing, a great holiday side dish.
Winter can also just be a great time to further your learning. I am taking a great class on wilderness skills from my friends at Fox Haven Farm & Learning Center. Click here to read about our first session, on shelter building! I’ve also just completed Mushroom Mountain‘s intensive wild mushroom food certification, which enables me to legally sell foraged mushrooms in several states. It was a fantastic learning experience I recommend to anyone interested in wild edible fungi!
If you prefer to be a fair weather friend and stay cozy indoors this season, I invite you try out a new winter hobby! Check out the beginner’s crochet class my project for chronically ill creatives, the Chronic Market, is hosting this Sunday, January 30. Sign up with the code FORAGEON for a 25% discount.
Wildly yours,
April
PS – I’ve consolidated all my past newsletters and tour offerings into one page, if you want to check out past editions!