Annual mushroom harvest big valley business
From our weekly issue dated November 18, 2009
A successful mushroom hunter. (IVN file photo)
Each fall, armies scatter through Oregon woods collecting something as precious as gold -- edible wild mushrooms -- and selling them to regional buying stations.
Like gold miners, they keep their best spots secret. The most-productive mushroom sites are carefully harvested by people who return year-after-year to collect their prized fungi.
Southern Oregon harvesters especially are fond of Chantrelles, a tasty fan-shaped yellow/orange mushroom, and bland round white oysters, plus boletes, corals, Matsutakes and Morels, to name a few popular culinary types.
Harvesting wild mushrooms requires a personal or commercial permit from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). A commercial two-day permit costs $10. A season permit runs $150. A free personal-use permit for harvesting up to 5 gallons is good for five days, but does not include Matsutakes. To collect the highly-prized Matsutakes, one must obtain a commercial permit.
Sonny Moore, a USFS Support Services specialist, says that he issues 300 to 500 permits each season, garnering approximately $45,000 for the Wild Rivers Ranger District office in Cave Junction. The primary Illinois Valley season is from November to January.
Most buying stations are located on the lot next to the Junction Inn in Cave Junction. Mushrooms, including Matsutakes, are graded and priced by size, shape and quality. At a retailer, one might pay from $30 to $100 per pound for delicious Matsutakes. Other varieties may range from $5 to 20 per pound. With such good return, it is no wonder that so many people turn to wild mushroom harvesting.
Traveling harvesters camp in Illinois Valley each fall to collect Chantrelles, oysters, chicken-in-the woods, boletes and Matsutakes in special locations. In spring, they gather Morels in the Applegate area. On the southern coast, boletes, lobsters, Morels, corals and Matsutakes are gathered.
Chantrelles are graded as button, bugle, horn, or flower in size and shape,” says Greg Walter, a Cave Junction naturalist. He likes to cook with Chantrelles and other culinary mushrooms. He noted that some people gather mushrooms almost all year.
Walter recalls that in the 1980s there was a “gold rush” for wild mushrooms in Oregon. At that time, mushroom gathering was unregulated, and mushroom hunters over-harvested the national forests in a mad rush to cash in on valuable fungi. Many were raking the ground, destroying fungi buds and breaking down the mycelium system in the soil.
Trees and other plants have a healthy symbiotic relationship with the body of the fungi, which is the mycelium. The fruit of the organism is the mushroom seen above ground and growing on stumps and trees. In the 1980s the forests and campgrounds were suffering from too many mushroom hunters and from reckless over-harvesting.
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To regulate and track numbers of harvesters, USFS implemented a permitting process and issued rules for harvesting in the mid-1980s. Walter estimated that the harvest was valued at $2 million at that time.
Sales of wild mushrooms in Oregon vary year-to-year and are hard to track. This is because most sales are in cash, and because not all harvesters buy the required permit. Mycologists at Southern Oregon University at Ashland have estimated the industry sales range between $40 million and $100 million a year in Oregon alone.
The mushrooms are shipped to Germany, France, Japan, and across the United States to stores, restaurants and eager gourmet cooks, all of whom have a passion for cooking with delicious mushrooms. A German favorite is a ragout of wild mushrooms with white wine and cream as a topping for Spätzle (noodles).
Lelo Kerivan, of Bridgeview Vineyards Winery in Cave Junction, says that she is especially fond of Chantrelles sautéed in garlic butter with a dash of brandy served on Spätzle, served with chilled Gewürztraminer.
Mushrooms play an important role in Asian cuisine and medicine, which prompts many Asian harvesters to travel the Pacific Northwest to pick mushrooms. Asian groups traditionally camp together during the seasonal harvests. Individuals from Vietnam, Laos and other parts of Asia change in each group as harvesters move from place to place, but return annually to the same camps.
Harvesters often collect only what they need for immediate cooking, for drying, for trading with friends, and for making medicinal teas. Certain fungi are said to boost the immune system, lower cholesterol, improve the blood, and assist human health in other ways.
It is foolhardy to wander the woods picking wild mushrooms without a thorough knowledge of what is edible and what is poisonous or even lethal. There are numerous mushroom guidebooks, but these do not provide enough knowledge, as many dangerous mushrooms resemble the edible ones. It’s best to go with an expert or take a course in mycology and learn about wild mushrooms before harvesting on your own.
Courses offered regularly through the Siskiyou Field Institute provide a good basic knowledge of wild fungi.
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