Went picking turkey day morning with Jon Schell, founder of the internationally famous Alethea Acupuncture Clinic in Northwest Portland. I had some blue cheese, thyme, chanterelle quiche to deliver tonight at the Foodie Orphan Turkey Day, and was out of yellow mushrooms. Good excuse to get out in the woods. As you can see from this picture, it was cold. Plenty of frost on the logging roads, and some patches of snow on the ground.
The dog didn't care, and we got into the mushrooms regardless. They were, however, frozen solid. It was kind of weird to be picking mushrooms, but not cutting them from the stalk, and every time you grabbed one it was rock hard. This would be the last mushrooming trip at these elevations (approx. 3500 ft., mostly south/southwest hillsides). Freezing really messes the mushrooms up, they're just water logged proteins, so freezing then thawing then freezing pretty much tears them apart. 
We went to an old faithful spot, crossing the stream at a really pretty spot. The frozen logs with snow weren't very easy to navigate but we got across with little incident. The logging roads took us into prime chanterelle habitat -- big trees, moss, and relatively undisturbed forest. The woods here had been logged of their biggest trees some time in the past, I'd guess the 50's, but it had been a selective logging. So as you worked through the trees, you'd occasionally find huge stumps, 6-7' in diameter. But, the trees they left behind thrived and are now reaing 2-3' in diameter themselves. The mushrooms have grown well in this stretch of forest. Here's a picture showing the disturbed, but highly mushroom-productive forest we were picking through. 
The mushrooms being frozen made some extra steps to the cleaning process, affected their texture a little bit, but didn't diminish their flavor a bit. The quiche I brought to the potluck tonight were a huge hit, and I was more than pleased to be serving genuinely wild food that I had gathered myself. I love that shit.
Enjoy your little triumphs,
Bp
3 comments:
Great post BP... so does that mean you can freeze Chantrelles for storage?
I've heard tell from a commercial picker that you can flash freeze them whole and they thaw out pretty well. Whenever we store them, we dry sautee them down (keeping the broth that we pour off) salt pepper, maybe onions and deglaze with sherry like we're going to be using them for something, then we freeze them in their own broth. Has worked fine for us.
The texture of these is only slightly compromised from fresh mushies, and the flavor wasn't compromised at all, so freezing them whole seems like it would be a fine option.
that quiche sounds incredible.....
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