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Hunting Old Knowledge, And Saffron Milk Caps.

Hunting saffron milk caps in minnesota

Contrary to what I believed before, the saffron milk cap doesn’t grow riddled with bugs and in small quantities, it may be harvested in pristine condition, and in quantity in Minnesota

I had just about given up on Minnesota this year. A funny thing happened last week though; we got rain, plenty of rain. Enough rain to annoy people who don’t like it. At work, my coworkers are used to me jumping up and down when I see a single drop of rain touch the side walk. With the monster drought this year, things were not looking good for a nice end of the season. We had a serious downpour last week, coincidentally, three days after the heavy rains I had a day off.

My days off are precious, and I was ready to make up for a bit of lost time and get out to see any growth the rain would bring, having not been able to indulge my mushroom wanderlust and scout old haunts recently. I expected some entolomas, and the ever present chicken fat bolete. What I found, and how I found it, were quite different from what I was expecting though.

I had some putsy errands to run early in the morning, so I decided to go in the late afternoon. I pulled into the parking lot and started walking. Immediately I noticed fresh fruitings of aborted entolomas, oozing from the roots of a dead elm on the side of the trail. Cool. I cut some nice big ones and kept on. There is a section of pure pine forest in this particular park, and I was excited to see what might be coming up this time of year in it. Pine forests don’t often treat me well as far as mushrooms go, although the chicken fat bolete I do collect in quantity to preserve via drying, as well as various other slippery jacks.

All in all though, my friends and I used to avoid pine when mushrooming, the dense blanket of needles seemed to kill all that would grow by acidulating the soil. Many fine species grow with conifers though. Coming to terms with my ignorance, one of my goals this year was to explore pine forest more. I knew stuff would grow there, but when? After which rains and what time of year do I look? What species of trees do I need to study?

I learned I am over thinking things, just a bit.

About an hour into my jaunt, I noticed I was not alone. Stooping down to pick a few more consolation prize entolomas, I noticed a middle age caucasian guy waltzing out of an equine trail with a black garbage bag over his shoulder. We shared a knowing, silent glance and nod. I thought to myself: White guy, garbage bag full of mushrooms; most likely he found a big chicken of the woods.

After seeing the guy with the garbage bag, I poked around the equine trail and only succeeded in finding much horse poop. Afterwords, I was making my way back to the area of pine, to check one last spot, which is when I saw two Russian families starting down the trail. There were two middle aged men, women, and a bunch of children, around 10 people in all, from what I could see. The older women and children had large wicker baskets, the men, had giant ten gallon plastic buckets. I knew they were just here for chicken fat boletes, but why all the big buckets and baskets? There’s no way they could fill all of those, is there?  I kept on hiking my trail, and we went opposite ways, for the time being.

Around now is when I got an email from my friend Dan, saying that he had been in a park and seen a Laotian family picking backpacks full of some small mushroom. He also said that he traded some aborted entoloma mushrooms for some of their small brown ones, and that they were very grateful for the entolomas. There is not a lot of info on entolomas, or the ground prune as they are called, and I had  suspected that the Europeans and East Asian families were not aware of them at all. I was correct. I thought it was pretty cool that my friend had shared some of his score, and passed to the Laotians a little knowledge of Minnesota mushrooms. They in turn, passed to him knowledge of what they were picking to eat by trading. After a bit of research on his part, it appears traditional Laotian cuisine definitely features the Armillaria gallica, or conifer honey mushroom.

After a quick break to read the email and do a google search in the woods for whatever the Laotians were picking, I ran into the Russians again, they had moved back into the area of pine, and had hit paydirt. They had split up like I had seen before, the women and children covering an area, and the Males together picking in another, with a bottle of E&J brandy as well. I saw the men first, and instead of just walking on by silently, staring daggers, I went up and asked what they were picking, nicely. A tall Russian man with really messed up teeth jumped about three feet in the air.

Me: “Hi, What are you guys picking?”

Russian Guy: “Mushrunz”

Me: “Have you seen this one?” (Holding up an aborted entoloma mushroom)

Russian Guy: “No, are you shore eet eez goood?”

Me: “Yeah it’s great, I eat them all the time, here I’ll show you” (I broke out the Iphone and did a quick google)

Then I did something I never would have thought I would do: I gave away some of the mushrooms I was picking, not expecting to trade, but just to spread some mushroom season cheer. The Russian guy looked at me strangely, and then smiled and said thank you. I felt good. A couple hundred feet more I met up with the women and children. The children were all in a big group, buzzing around the mothers who moved more slowly. They were like Tie Fighters returning to a Star Destroyer, going out on little mushroom missions and then returning back to show mom their haul. I went up to the kids and showed them a sweetbread mushroom. The older Russian boy, who looked to be around 12-13 did all the talking, his sisters were silent.

Russian Boy (speaking perfect English): “Whats that?”

Me: “It’s called an entoloma”

Russian boy: “YOU CAN EAT IT?!”

Me: “Yes they’re good, I just gave some to your dad back there. They kinda look like little popcorn balls.”

Russian boy: (shouting excitedly to his mother) “Momma! Something in Russian, more stuff in Russian…….. POPCORN!……More stuff in Russian.”

I kept walking and noticed something. The Russian’s had picked more slippery jacks than I had ever seen, also, the edges of the trail that were covered in pine needles and grass had been torn up, like really torn up. For at least 100 feet in each direction a foot off of the trail on each side had been uncovered and inspected. Mushrooms they were not interested in were laying all over the place. One of the shrooms they passed up was a Lactarius, with a grey cap. Looking at the gills I saw they were orange. Curious. Most likely I know this to be the saffron milk cap imposter, Lacatarius deterrimus (See a pic here). If the imposters are fruiting, then I knew the real thing might be lurking nearby, since they share similar habitats.

I kept walking on the trail through the pine forest, and then I saw them, orange mushrooms with a greenish tinge on some of their caps. Now I started to get really excited. The ones along the trail were really small, not nearly enough for a snack even,  but where there is one, there is more. This is where I borrowed technique from the Russians, I started to expose the edges of the trail covered in pine needles and grass, and I found a couple more, then a couple more.

It was starting to get dark though, so I decided to take a short cut back to another trail that leads to the parking lot. I was walking past a couple mature eastern white pine, and kept stepping on stuff:“Crunch, crunch, crunch.” “What the heck is all this crunchy stuff?!” I wondered. I looked down and noticed I had been trampling over exactly what I was looking for. The crushed saffron milkcaps under my feat were bleeding the brightest orange, screaming their identity at me.

I sat down and just took everything in for a moment, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Often I find that when I locate a patch of something that likes to hide, I just get down low and let my eyes gradually work like I’m starring at a magic eye painting. I’m telling you, it works. Low and behold they started popping out at me, I was smack dab in the middle of a huge flush of the suckers. They were near impossible to see from above and were absolutely buried in needles and grass. I took these pictures to illustrate.

hunting saffron milkcaps in minnesota

A small flush before the needles being removed. Can you say where’s Waldo?

hunting saffron milkcaps in minnesota

After the needles are removed, you can see the milkcaps

 

hunting saffron milkcaps in minnesota

Undersides of the mushrooms, and their beautiful orange hue.

It was getting dark, and hard to see. Rooting out the milk caps was getting tougher and tougher. Not wanting to be lost in the forest, I chose the better part of valor and headed back to the car. Finally, I had found a nice patch of young, bug free saffron milkcaps. I had previously thought these to be just an enigma, and would be ecstatic at finding one or two, most of the time near recognizable from bug damage. My drive home was a great time to think. I don’t  believe in karma, spirits and whatnot, but I would like to. There was a part of me that wanted to say:

“You were nice to the Russians, that’s the only reason the saffron milkcaps let you find them.”

I know it’s not true, but its fun to pretend, and a good way to live. What is true is that by watching them, I learned how to hunt saffron milkcaps. However inadvertently,  they gave me a bit of their old knowledge, and I gave them a bit of mine.

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Next Post: Fricando Of Veal With Saffron Milk Caps »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dan Farmer

    October 16, 2013 at 1:56 pm

    Great story, Alan!

    By the way, the armillaria gallica is out in great numbers right now. Hard to avoid stepping on them in some places!

    I must add, however, that at least one website I’ve found claims they are toxic:

    http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/armillaria-gallica.php

    Toxicity

    Although all Armillaria species were for many years generally considered edible when thoroughly cooked, those members of the honey fungus group (including Armillaria mellea, the type species of this genus) that occur on hardwoods are now considered suspect, as cases of poisoning have now been clearly linked to eating these fungi. We therefore recommend that Armillaria gallica is not collected for the pot.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 17, 2013 at 8:21 am

      Instead of discussing this topic under the heading of “toxicity”, I think the website should use the heading “Edibility”. True, there have been reports of people getting sick after eating a particular species of honey. Typically this is linked to ingestion of alcohol following or proceeding ingestion of the particular species. This same “Poisoning” has also been suspected of happening with Coprinus comatus, (Shaggy mane) which is one of the “fool proof” four. I would assume this is the “poisoning” they are talking about. I have sold hundreds of pounds of these to restaurants and served them many times with no issue. I made sure to drink alcohol and eat each species by myself multiple times before serving them. People should be careful about the context in which they discuss such things.

      Reply
  2. Sam Schaperow

    October 16, 2013 at 9:19 pm

    Dan, I can’t find anything backing up the idea that any Armillaria is toxic when thoroughly cooked, especially A. gallica is when cooked. Do you have a reference with some data to consider?

    Sam Schaperow, M.S.
    http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/plantforagers/
    http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mushroomtalk/

    Reply
  3. Dan Farmer

    October 17, 2013 at 8:14 am

    No, I certainly cannot, Sam. I found a couple of other websites that stress caution, including Wikipedia, but none that cite an actual study or professional reference. My note was simply intended to point out that there are some that urge caution, not to claim that they are toxic in any way.

    Reply
  4. jake xue

    March 23, 2014 at 6:43 am

    What a great read!
    Shame Saffron Milk Caps and Slippery Jacks are all that we have here in Australia, just got a few kilos today from state pine plantation.
    Maybe there are more edible types but Aussies don’t have a mushroom picking tradition so no one knows, only see folks with European accent picking shrooms here.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      March 23, 2014 at 11:34 am

      Hi Jake, really interesting about the Australian mushrooms. If you have saffron milkcaps I would bet others like lactarius indigo grow in your area, but I couldn’t be certain. Thanks too, that was a really fun day of hunting, glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply
      • Dan Farmer

        March 23, 2014 at 12:31 pm

        I was able to find a couple of sites about wild edible mushrooms in Australia:

        http://morrie2.wordpress.com/tag/australian-edible-mushrooms/ (check out the last picture on that page!)

        And, of all things, boletus edulis!
        http://www.lambsearsandhoney.com/2011/03/australias-first-locally-grown-porcini-mushrooms-found-in-adelaide-hills/

        Reply
        • Alan Bergo

          March 23, 2014 at 3:35 pm

          Wow Dan, the canned stinkhorns look pretty fun, I’d sure like to try those! Not fresh though, they smell sooooo bad. Good work on finding the porcini article too, looks like there is a lot more than saffron milk caps huh?

          Reply
        • sam

          March 23, 2014 at 3:51 pm

          Dan, if you find Australian mushrooms you want help in identifying or determinging probability of ediblility, MushroomTalk accepts such posts (you can send your pictures of mushrooms there, too). Also, I had posted there about a deadly bolete: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MushroomTalk/conversations/messages/20313

          Alan, I’ve done quite a bit of work with stinkhorns, though a chef may be better at maximizing their flavor potential. See either of these links:
          https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MushroomTalk/conversations/messages/17581 (Traditional Sichuan Recipe Derived Use)
          or
          http://foraging4ct.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/ramen-wwild-inedibles/ (Ramen w/Wild “Inedibles”)
          or google “bamboo pith fungus” and then try local stinkhorns w/the same methods.

          Reply
  5. sam

    March 23, 2014 at 4:00 pm

    This should be useful, too, regarding one culture’s inedibles as another’s edibles, and Sichuan cookery:
    http://foraging4ct.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/foraging-fungi-sichuan-cookery-even-a-bit-on/

    Reply
  6. Michael

    October 11, 2019 at 4:41 pm

    Hello Alan
    It’s was wonderful to read your story like I was with you in forest!
    I move to Canada from Russia and I try find similar spices what I regularly picked back home
    Can you give me idea, what kind of pines tree was we’re in this place? Because it’s can be red pine , Easter white pine , or something else?
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 13, 2019 at 9:32 am

      Eastern white pine.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Forager|Chef – Slippery Jack-Cabbage Soup, For An Old Russian Man says:
    November 20, 2013 at 11:39 am

    […] recently I had an encounter with a group of two Russian families that I spoke about HERE. The last encounter I had with the Russian mushroom pickers ended up being me and an old Russian […]

    Reply
  2. honey mushroom soup recipe says:
    February 17, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    […] Europe’s love for slippery jacks is well documented, see another post on that here. Another one of their favorites, and a slightly superior mushroom in my eyes is the honey mushroom, […]

    Reply

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

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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. 

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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
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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. 

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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. 

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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
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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. 

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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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