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Hunt for the Minnesota Matsutake

Minnesota Matsutake MushroomsI get a lot of messages about mushrooms, as well as pictures and inquiries, both from regular readers and also from the occasional random person. Most of the time, they’re what you would expect: a picture of a nondescript mushroom and a question along the lines of “What is this and can I eat it?”

I do my best to answer every inquiry and provide additional information when I can. The way I see it, both helping beginners and sharing insights with experienced hunters is part of my job.

That being said, most of the photo inquiries people send me can be answered quickly with a few canned responses.

Don’t eat that, it’s poisonous.

Don’t eat that, it’s rotten and decayed.

Don’t eat that, I don’t know what it is.

Don’t eat that, but send me your GPS location.

Okay, the last one is a joke, but you get the picture.

In the fall of 2015, I got a message that was out of the ordinary, something to the tune of “Hi Chef! I live in Wisconsin and found some Matsutake. You should come pick some with me next year!”

I struggled to find a combination of expletives to convey my excitement.

Quick history for newbees:

If you don’t know your hierarchy of prized wild mushrooms, matsutake (Matsies for short) are basically the national mushroom of Japan and the most expensive mushroom in the world (since truffles are not technically a mushroom).

In Japan, they’re collected in the fall, but harvests there have begun to dwindle in recent history, and now matsutake are harvested and imported from a number of different places, notably South Korea and the American Pacific Northwest (which is where the first matsutake I ever cooked came from).

Minnesota Matsutake Mushrooms

Matsutake, like some other pine loving mushrooms, grow underneath the needle bed at the surface of the soil. Look for “mushrumps” on the ground.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of eating a matsutake, their aroma is what their prized for — a weird cinnamon-spicy-cedar combo that’s hard to describe. You won’t forget it, but you’ll have difficulty explaining it, too. Young mushrooms picked before the veil that covers the gills breaks open are the most prized, and typically have the strongest flavor.

The news of matsutake spread quickly since they were first found in America, and there’s been plenty of talk about them. For more reading on matsutake, here’s a great article from the New Yorker. You might also want to check out this book, The Mushroom Hunters by Langdon Cook, which discusses both the hunters and nomadic/migrant culture that mushrooms support.

Matsutake mushrooms from Minnesota

Note the difference in size. The small buttons are what you want, but if you get large ones without bug damage–take’m, they’re matsutake for crying out loud 🙂

The reason I found my first invitation to harvest matsutake so exciting was that, while I own plenty of mushroom guides for the Midwest, not a single one mentions matsutake growing in Minnesota or the Midwest in general.

The only references I could find online were to of a cousin of the matsutake, Tricholoma caligatum (as well as a very funny account, from mushroom author Micheal Kuo, of his hunting them).

Tricholoma caligatum is known to grow under oaks in Minnesota, but is apparently not as good as the real-deal matsutake, which only grow under conifers.

Minnesota Matsutake Mushrooms

Take a look at the veil that covers the gills of the matsutake. When the veil starts to break, the mushroom is maturing and getting ready to release its spores. A bonus for the cook is that the veil protects the gills from dirt.

Back to the hunt. As excited as I was to get the invitation, I bided my time for an entire year because it was late in the picking season. Then I got insanely busy with my job, and basically forgot all about the matsutake. Maybe on some level, I just didn’t believe they existed — that the invitation to come pick them was more likely a ruse designed by a prankster just to mess with me.

Then, late summer 2016, a local mushroom purveyor announced they’d picked a few matsutake in Minnesota. I knew people had looked for them in the Midwest, but I didn’t know of anyone that had actually picked one. My experienced mushroom-hunting friends from the Minnesota Mycological Society talked about them like a grail, something a few hunters had searched for, but that none had found.

But now, the hunt was on, a giant needle in a haystack the size of Minnesota and Wisconsin. By this time, I was between jobs, so I took a couple days to just hunt all by myself, do some research on the terrain I needed to be in, and find areas that seem to fit the bill.

Again and again, I walked through stands of pine, and eventually fell to distracting myself from my failed matsutake quests by picking fall consolation mushrooms. “I’ll try again next year,” I thought.

Minnesota Matsutake Mushrooms

Often hidden under a thick layer of pine needles, sometimes matsutake pop their heads above the surface. Needless to say, this makes them much easier to find.

But then, as luck would have it, my mystery matsutake messenger got back in touch with me, and on October 12th we made it out to her patch-a big stand of red pine.

Until I dug one out of the ground and smelled it for myself, I was skeptical and didn’t really believe it. I thought it had to be a lesser version of them, or somehow flawed.

Sure enough, though, it was them, and they were just as good as I remembered the last time I tasted some shipped from the Pacific North West — better, even.

Which exact species of matsutake they were, I don’t know, but their signature aroma was very strong, even as they matured and broke their veil.

After re-reading literature I have at home, I found some good info from Michael Kuo that made me wonder even more about their true identity and origins.

Here’s an excerpt from his Kuo’s writing on the topic of matsutake mushrooms in America:

DNA studies have shown not only that specimens from the northeast are distinct from western and Mexican specimens, but that northeastern matsutakes are aligned with specimens from Asia and Europe identified as Tricholoma matsutake (the “true” matsutake of Asia) and Tricholoma nauseosum (the European matsutake).

If that’s true, then there’s the possibility that our Midwest matsutake here are more closely related to the “true” Japanese species than the Pacific Northwest Species.

At the end of the day though, whatever particular species they are doesn’t really matter to me. They’re matsutake from the Midwest: Bucket-list, check!

Want to find some matsutake of your own? Here are a few points I’ve gathered about hunting them in the Midwest:

Midwest Matsutake Hunting Tips

From what I’ve gathered so far:

  • Growing with red pine or jack pine, in conifer-dominated forests
  • Season: roughly August through October
  • Look for “mushrumps,” little lumps indicating they’re hiding under the needles
  • In the patch we were picking, Lactarius mushrooms were growing all around the area too, mainly saffron milkcaps and L. detterimus.

Minnesota Matsutake Mushrooms

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. DAVE Minarich

    January 2, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    Hi Alan,
    I too believe I found Matsutake mushrooms in northern MN. Last fall.
    But wasn’t sure so took a pic and left them…
    How can I send you the picture?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 2, 2017 at 5:06 pm

      send it to my email, I’m happy to give you my opinion. I’m getting more reports here and there of them being ID’d locally last year, but the bragging rights they come with are no less impressive! Send your shots to: [email protected]

      Reply
  2. A. J Dixon

    January 2, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    Hello Chef!
    My name is AJ Dixon,
    I am wonder and head chef of Lazy Susan MKE in Milwaukee, WI. I love your posts. I am also a foraging chef.
    I am an honorary member of the Wisconsin Mycological Society. I always do a yearly mushroom dinner with them, and I am in the works of setting a February date. I was wondering if you had time to come and cook and share some of your stories or food with them. They are a great group and it is a great time.
    I am planning on a Sunday Or Monday in Feb, after Valentine’s Day. Given that it is winter, most Mushrooms would be from a local importer/grower Mushroom Mike, as well as River Valley and Sugar Bee Farms.
    Hope to hear from you soon.
    AJ

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 2, 2017 at 5:14 pm

      Hi AJ. Shoot me a message to my email and we can discuss. [email protected]

      Reply
  3. Dan F

    January 2, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    I’m dumbstruck!!!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 2, 2017 at 5:06 pm

      I didn’t believe it until I smelled them.

      Reply
  4. Nicole Novak

    January 2, 2017 at 5:25 pm

    Hi Alan,
    In our area of Northern California nearest to San Francisco, our matsutake grow in mixed woods and are primarily associated with tanoak and huckleberry. They are quite prolific in good years and their season can be short or long depending on precipitation and temperatures. I have no idea if they are a different species from those that grow in the conifers further north of our “territory”.

    Reply
  5. Judy J

    January 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    What would you say the range is in MN and WI? I wouldn’t think western MN but how about SE MN or the arrowhead? More red and jack pine are found in northern MN and there are some large stands of pines in some of the state parks in the middle of WI. If I try to look for them next year, I want to make sure there is at least a possibility of finding them. Thanks

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 3, 2017 at 11:12 pm

      My advice=go north. I’m speculating but I would say they like the Taiga landscape of North MN and WI. I wouldn’t go to SE MN, personal opinion.

      Reply
  6. Ken Marsden

    January 3, 2017 at 4:12 am

    After sun drying mushrooms what is the best way to store them, freeze, airtight container, oil, ????

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 3, 2017 at 11:09 pm

      I store mine in airtight containers, out of the light, ziplocks work.

      Reply
  7. Joe Wiercinski

    January 3, 2017 at 4:47 am

    Hi, Alan,

    Maybe you already know about Dr. Tom Volk, a mycologist at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He and Gary Lincoff both rocked a September foray with Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club about a dozen years ago. Lincoff used to lead the popular hunt every year outside Pittsburgh. I wrote a local newspaper feature about that fine day.

    In the link below, Volk almost certainly is describing the woodland wonder that currently has fired your interest. Mine, too, after reading your post.
    http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/sep2000.html

    Cheers,

    Joe Wiercinski

    Reply
  8. Lawrence

    January 3, 2017 at 10:34 pm

    Hi Alan,

    I’m so excited to hear of some possibility of stumbling upon this amazing mushroom. I used to live in Northern Wisconsin and found a bunch between Washburn and Cornucopia in the “barrens”. Super sandy soil up there and lots of coniferous trees…especially jackpines. I recall an old field guide that had information about them from the 60’s. I think it might have been by Alexander Smith (University of Michigan), but I’m not certain. I’ll look at my collection of old field guides and see if I can find any further insight.

    Thanks for the posts. Keep up the great work. I’ll try and head over to Lucia’s some day soon to check out what you are up to, as I’m only a few blocks from there.

    Happy new year!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 3, 2017 at 11:07 pm

      Thanks Lawrence, there’s more patches out there. I’m excited to check out more territory next year.

      Reply
  9. John Smalldridge

    January 8, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    Red pines, just like the Japanese matsu. You lucky dog! I’m envious.

    Reply
  10. Nathan Perrier

    May 13, 2017 at 5:55 pm

    Hey Alan, this book about the Matsutake might interest you. Just pre-ordered on Amazon:

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691178321

    Also just finished reading The Mushroom Hunter. Loved it!!!

    Reply
  11. Glenn Freeman

    June 5, 2017 at 12:52 pm

    THE Matsutake expert here in Michigan is Ken Harris of Michigan Mushroom Market.

    I joined him this past October in Northern Michigan after informing me nearly no restaurants wanted to buy them so he was not planning to pick them commercially this year. So I made a trip and he showed me the types of locations they grow and how to spot them … we picked pounds and pounds.

    In addition to the Lactarius you mention there were lots of late Black Trumpets and Chanterelles nearby as well … a rough timeline for when to best look for them in Michigan.

    They are my favorite mushroom, by far.

    Reply
  12. Richard

    October 13, 2018 at 3:30 pm

    My grandpa and I stumbled across these mushrooms wondered if you could help us identify.

    Reply
  13. Richard

    October 13, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    My grandpa and I stumbled across these mushrooms wondered if you could help us identify. We would need some help finding out.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 18, 2018 at 12:35 pm

      Join a Facebook group, a mycological society, or buy some guides. If I just tell you what they are you’ll never learn to tell bad from good. Alan.

      Reply
  14. Dr Dave

    October 23, 2019 at 8:03 pm

    There is one location in Wisconsin I know that often has matsutake. The WMS has a foray there, and I often return 2-4 weeks later than the scheduled foray. Today. 10/23/2019, I picked two young matsutake with closed intact veils, each weighing 8-12 ounces. In the past, I have found up to 5 pounds at the scheduled foray. Abundance and timing is variable from year to year. Here, they typically grow in swampy areas with older hemlocks from the large needle duff mounds accumulated over many years.
    A friend in the WMS reports picking huge quantities on his friend’s property in Canada.. I once had a small taste of PNW matsutake at a NAMA annual foray at Whistler, BC, and I think our local Wisconsin matsutake are at least as good as those from the PNW.

    Reply
  15. Gilbert

    March 5, 2021 at 11:52 am

    They grow along the highway into Yellowknife, NWT, in jackpine. That climate is not much different from here, Cook County, Lake Superior, a few miles back and 1000 feet above the lake. I am looking. Red pine and jackpine? When? Late summer?

    Reply

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    November 14, 2020 at 5:27 pm

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🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Last entry. I’ve saved t 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Last entry. I’ve saved the smallest, fern gulliest plant for last. 

False Mermaid Weed (Floerkea proserpinacoides) is a good little plant Sam Thayer showed me. It’s tiny, as in all the photos are from me on my belly, in a wet ditch. It’s so small it’s hard to get the camera to even focus on it (see pic with my finger for scale). 

Mermaid weed likes wet areas, like ditches and spots that hold a bit of water (perfect mosquito habitat😁). 

Like chickweed, Floerkia greens are like nature’s Microgreens. They’re in the Limnanthaceae, (a new-ish group of brassicas) and like the Toothwort form earlier this week, you’ll taste a strong mustard-family flavor in a mouthful of their tender stems. 

They’re literally wild mustard sprouts, and, unlike other wild sprouts (garlic mustard 🤬) they stay sprouts, and, they actually taste good. 

It has a wide range over much of the eastern and western U.S., and is listed as secure globally, but is endangered in some states and shouldn’t be disturbed in those places. 

I’m lucky enough to have some large colonies near me so I do clip a few handfuls each year-my annual reward for removing some of the garlic mustard nearby, that, along with atvs, dirt bikes, and contamination from local water pollution, is one of the biggest threats to this tiny green. 

#floerkiaproserpinacoides 
#wildsprouts #mustardsprouts #ferngully #tiny #foraging #mermaid #🧜‍♀️
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Virginia Bluebells (Merten 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are one of the most beautiful harbingers of spring I know, as well as one of the most delicious. 

They’re in the Borage family, along with the namesake plant, Comfrey (which I only eat a few flowers of occasionally) and Honeywort. 

The flavor of the greens, like borage, has a rich flavor some people might describe as mushroomy or fishy, but after a just a few moments of cooking (30-60 seconds) they get mild and delicious, with a subtle bitterness. It’s a good bitter though-nothing like dandelions or garlic mustard that aren’t fit to be in the same basket, let alone on the same plate. 

The shoots are sweet and delicious, much more mild than the greens. As they can grow to be over a foot long, they’re almost more of a vegetable than a leafy green, depending on when you harvest them. 

Bluebells love moist, rich soil, but you don’t have to go to the woods to get them. Many people know Virginia Bluebells as a garden plant, and they can make a great edible addition to your landscape.

#virginiabluebells #foraging #ephemerals #springwildflowers #wildfoodlove #mertensiavirginica
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Narrow-leaved Wild Leek / 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Narrow-leaved Wild Leek / White Ramp (Allium burdickii) 

If you’re in a ramp patch you might occasionally see some with white stems (pic 1,2). These are a cousin to the more common variety with much larger leaves and red stems (pic 3,4,5)

Allium burdickii is not as common as the red-stemmed variety, and in every ramp patch I’ve been in, the white ramp is heavily outnumbered. 

Where I harvest, I like to leave them alone, and mark the areas where they grow with sticks or middens on the ground so I can go back in the fall and help them spread their seeds. I also try and remove garlic mustard when I see it-a much more imminent threat in my mind to ramps than foragers out to gather some leaves. 

2020 was a banner year for ramp seeds, and you can still help the plants right now (pic 7) as some seed heads are still full and would love for you to give them a shake as you walk by. 

#alliumburdickii #ramps #ephemerals #foraging #spring
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 #4: Erythronium leaves E 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

#4: Erythronium leaves 

Erythronium (Trout Lily) are another ephemeral that I see widespread in my ramp patches, there’s at least 32 species world-wide, with at least one endangered species in MN (Dwarf Trout Lily). 

They’re a beautiful, delicious plant I eat every year, but I can’t recommend serving them to the general public. Plenty of people say these are edible, but also emetic if eaten in “quantity”. 

I can tell you, at least with E. albidum and E. americanum I’ve eaten, that some people are much more sensitive than others, so if you want to make a salad to serve people, make sure they’re comfortable eating it, and use a few leaves as a garnish. 

Funny enough, I didn’t learn about these from a foraging book. Like knotweed, I learned about them from one of my favorite chefs: Michel Bras, one of the most influential chefs of the turn of the 21 century. 

Any chef that works with wild plants owes a debt to Bras. His book, although a little dated now, still teaches me new things all the time. While flipping through the book I also caught a recipe using tansy flowers 😳 that I’d probably pass on. 

The whitefish crusted with sunflower seeds is a dish of mine from 2012, and an example of how I eat the leaves: a few at a time, as a garnish. 

#troutlily #erythronium #michelbras #ephemerals #foraging
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #3: Cutleaf Toothwor 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Plant #3: Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) is another beautiful spring wildflower that loves to grow in the same habitat you’ll see ramps and spring beauty. 

Its small at first, but grows to a worthy size for eating as it flowers. It’s related to cabbage and mustard greens (Brassicaceae) and eating just a few leaves will give you a potent, spicy pop of mustard-family flavor reminiscent of horseradish. 

Eaten in combination with other things, like in a salad, the flavor becomes submissive and you’ll barely know it’s there. 

Some people eat the spicy roots shaped like canine teeth, but for the work I hardly think they’re worth it. 

A great wild spring green for the salad bowl-eat them leaves, tender stem, flowers and all🤤. 

#cutleaftoothwort #cadamineconcatenata #ephemeral #springedibles #foraging #wildfoodlove
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #2 is Virginia water 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Plant #2 is Virginia waterleaf, and, I’m cheating a bit as it’s semi-ephemeral. The plant comes up in spring and goes to flower, but gives a second harvest of fresh growth in the fall, where other ephemerals I know do not. 

This is a great starter wild green-easy to recognize with the splashes of white on the leaves that may or may not be present. After you learn it though, don’t be surprised if, like me, you eventually pass it up for more delicious greens nearby. 

The plant gets tough quick, and the flavor is..meh, so I usually have small amounts of very young greens in blends of blanched and sautéed mixes. 

My favorite part is the wee flower buds, that, if you get at the right time, can be harvested in decent quantity and are good steamed as they’ll soak up oil sautéed. 

#hydrophyllumvirginianum #waterleaf #foraging #fueledbynature #weedeater
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