Our Fall 2023 mushroom forays in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest have been spectacular. They're not over yet (we may or may not do one more next Saturday, depending on the results of a research foray today to evaluate the impact of recent freezing temperatures on the shrooms), but I wanted to quickly show off some of the visitors we've really enjoyed, as well as the exotic mushrooms themselves.
A couple of high-level bullet points first:
- Due to a dry spring and summer, we were concerned about having a bust year like we did in 2022. However, thanks to some bountiful September/October rains and falling temps, our fears were mostly unfounded.
- The main thing we hunt for, Golden Chanterelles (Cantharellus), were still in relatively low supply, but at least there were some out there this year!
- Lobsters (Russula brevipes infected by the Hypomyces lactiflourum fungus) were plentiful in September and into October.
- Boletes -- primarily Slippery Jacks (Suillus luteus) early on, then later Fat Jacks (Suillus americanus), Admirables (Aureoboletus mirabilis), and a few Kings (Boletus edulis) -- were everywhere. Especially Admirables -- in a typical year we find only one or two, but this year we found 30+ during a single foray! And some were enormous, with caps 8" in diameter.
- Much to my personal delight, my favorite of all Fall mushrooms, the Hedgehog mushroom (Hydnum repandum) was back. I hadn't seen these for the past four years, but last month found enough for several breakfasts' worth.
- Lots of Angel Wings (Pleurocybella porrigens) this Fall. (I've harvested and eaten this for years and think it's quite good, but as you'll read on Wikipedia it has a storied history and so caution is advised.)
- In early abundance was the common puffball, Lycoperdon (which is Latin for "wolf fart" ... they get their name from exuding clouds of brownish-green "spore smoke" when mature specimens are trod upon)
- Also coming on in large numbers was several species of coral or club fungus (Ramaria). Many are considered edible, though some cause digestive distress. (I've eaten them but don't care for the flavor and texture. On recommendation, I've even pickled them. Yuk! Pickled mushrooms?)
- We found a number of other unusual mushrooms that we hadn't seen any or much of during recent years, including ...
- The excellent Cauliflower Mushroom (Sparassis)
- Pig's Ears, also known as Violent Chanterelle (Gomphus clavatus)
- Fluted Black Elfin Saddle (Helvella lacunosa)
- Shaggy Mane, also known as Shaggy Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus)
- Shaggy Parasol (Chlorophyllum rhacodes)
Okay, now, here are the photos you have been waiting for. (While we enjoyed about two dozen foray guests during October, not all are depicted.)
This group of foragers hit the jackpot with more than 30 Admirable Boletes collected, some as large as 8" in diameter!
Eli proudly displays his first find of a nice Golden Chanterelle.
Early Golden Chanterelles (this one from September) are lighter in color than their more later counterparts.
My long-time hunting companion and beloved son Nathan shows off our first (of many) Admirable Bolete.
Above is the gill view of one of several Pig's Ears mushrooms we found, and below is the view from above the cap, which more closely resembles the name "Pig's Ears."
Despite a particularly rainy day in the rainforest, a foray participant (right) shows off a nice Golden Chanterelle, while I hoist a medium-sized Admirable Bolete.
More Admirable Boletes, in situ. These always grow out of decaying wood. Some don't care for the flavor, which is somewhat lemony, but I like the savory nature of the mushroom. And they can grow as large as 8" diameter caps.
Here's a nice large Admirable Bolete procured by one of our foray participants.
Speaking of large, here is one of two wonderfully edible and choice Cauliflower Mushrooms we harvested. These reportably infest one out of every 1,000 dying fir trees! And frequently return in subsequent years.
Here are some other favorite finds: Clockwise from upper left, a Shaggy Parasol, two large Shaggy Manes, and a collection of my Fall favorite, the Hedgehog Mushroom.
In this photo, the unusual (particularly unusually textured, almost like soft rubber) mushroom on top is a white Toothed Jelly Mushroom (Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, subspecies pusillum), compared to the gill side of a single Angel Wing below it.
This shows Angel Wings in situ. They always appear brilliantly in dead and down fir trees.
Our research associate, Dr. Dave Lingenfelter, displays a nice Lobster. (In the background is our new basecamp rig, an all-solar GoSun Camp365.)
This Lobster mushroom announces its presence as it pops out of the humus.
The results of a final research foray in early October convinces me that we are ready to start hosting regular forays for our public. Results includes a large Lobster at upper left, and also small puffballs and coral mushrooms front and center. Lots of Slippery Jacks upper right, and Golden Chanterelles below them. At far left are some unusual polypores set aside for research purposes.
While we found many edibles, we had as usual to weed out some inedibles, including ...
Amanita muscaria, or Fly Agaric. As these contain psychoactive compounds, they are technically considered toxic, although some seek them for enjoyment of their effects. Personally, I boil off the water-soluble toxins and enjoy the remaining mushroom flesh, which is edible. Photo courtesy of first-nature.com.
Lots of False Chanterelles out there right now. The caps look similar from above, but the gill structure and dark, flimsy stipes will give them away. (The insides of true Golden Chanterelle stipes are firm and white.) I've eaten one of these falsies (by accident, in a batch of true chanterelles) once and regretted it for a day or two.
Worse by far are the pretty but highly toxic Amanitas which are springing up in everyone's lawns right now. I'm not 100% certain but believe this sample to be Amanita smithiana, which will make you quite sick with kidney failure. Eating even one of certain Amanitas can be deadly, which is why we practice 100% positive identification.
On the up side, hunting and eating exotic edible mushrooms is a fun and healthful pasttime, and one that helps you to learn and appreciate the amazing world around us. And sometimes, you can even use mushrooms for holiday decorations, as this student at one of the schools we work at showed us!
Happy Halloween, and happy hunting!
HALLOWEEN RESEARCH FORAY UPDATE:
In follow-up, here are results from my Halloween research foray. It's clear many mushrooms have survived the recent frosts, although edible varieties are decreasing in quantity.
Clockwise from top left: Miscellaneous boletes, probably Fat Jacks; one medium-sized Admirable Bolete; Angel Wings; a Fluted Black Elfin Saddle (I ate that this morning for breakfast and it was delicious!); a nice collection of Hedgehogs (my favorite Fall mushroom, and tomorrow morning's breakfast); a few remaining decent Lobsters; a Fly Agaric (center, orange-ish red with white spots); and quite a few decent (though nearing the end of their lifespan) Golden Chanterelles.
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October 10, 392 miles -- After camping near the Cascade Locks on the mighty Columbia River, we proceeded east into the Mahleur National Forest to see the Humongous Fungus, arguably the world's largest single living organism. This is a 4-square mile Honey Mushroom infestation that has been killing pine trees out in this lonely spot for several thousand years, expands outward at the rate of 3 inches per year, and is considered unstoppable. But before we reached the fungus we also had lunch and got advice at the 1811 brewery in John Day, as well as a stop at the ranger station in Prairie City.
As you can see from the photos, there really isn't much evidence (after traveling 7 miles up this gravel forest service road) that you are actually there. I think we were a few weeks too late to see any fruiting, but we saw lots of dead trees, and the evidence of the Amarillia ostayae mycelium that is killing them.
October 11. 541 miles -- We proceeded east to Salt Lake City, where we had reserved the very nice Pony Express RV park for Jed to rest up in, only to discover our after-hours check-in packet had been stolen by a group of three international tourists who were tent camping on our pad in this RV-only park. The management wasn't pleased and interrupted their tea time to usher them out. We had a good laugh (although we were concerned about people tent camping in below-freezing temperatures) and a good night of rest before proceeding east.
October 12, 462 miles -- We hit the road early and on our way out traveled through the heart of Salt Lake City, enjoying lots of interesting Mormon architecture, great coffee at Jack Mormon roastery, and marveling at a heavy police presence downtown. We then headed over the beautiful gorges of central/eastern Utah, turning north as we skirted a major winter storm up in Montana. (Our original plan was to follow a more directly northerly route, but the storm changed our minds the day before we left.)
We had lunch at Bitter Creek Brewing, then arrived for the evening at the KOA park in Douglas, Wyoming, self-proclaimed jackelope capital of the world. We saw lots of jackrabbits and lots of antelope, and concluded that whoever somehow combined the two into a single image had had way too much to drink and perhaps their mind had been tweaked by the boredom of miles of Wyoming scrub.
October 13, 389 miles -- On day 5 of our journey we headed northeast out of Wyoming and into South Dakota. There were somethings we wanted to see there -- Mt. Rushmore (which neither of us had heretofore had the privilege of visiting), Wall Drug, the Corn Palace, and the Badlands. We also toured the Bicycle Monument in Pringle, looked at the Crazy Horse Memorial near Rushmore (a sandstone carving in progress that will end up being larger than Mt. Rushmore itself), and did a little shopping for the missus in Keystone, heart of Black Hills Gold country. (Nice set of earrings -- our wedding bands are all Black Hills Gold.) We saw gold, lots of bicycles, and even more sandstone -- but no jackelopes or mushrooms.
October 14, 821 miles -- After a good evening of rest we left Presho before sunrise as we wanted to make good progress eastward. We had some very good coffee at the Elixir Roasterie in Mitchell, before proceeding to see the nearby world-famous "Corn Palace" (closed because this was "Indigenous Peoples Day" in South Dakota, formerly Columbus Day, although the birds who were pecking at the corn murals didn't seem to care). South Dakota is one weird place. I kind of like it.
And one of the most interesting stops (which added 21 miles to the map) was our tour of Badlands National Park. Now that I'm 62 I've been able to secure a lifetime national park pass, so I definitely took advantage of that this trip. Didn't see any mushrooms there, but lots of Prairie Dogs, a bighorn sheep, and lots of beautiful geology.
We didn't have a reservation here and were surprised to find the RV park completely full. It was late (after midnight, after a our longest day of driving) and we were tired. After circling a few times we had decided to go search for a Wal-Mart, but the nearest was many miles away. Fortunately a young hippie couple (no doubt intrigued after they saw the mushroom logo on the back of our RV invited us to share their space, and we shared some of our beer bounty with them in return.
Every week I'm out there (on the slopes of Mt. Rainier) hunting this fall, there seems to be a different variety of exotic mushrooms predominating. At first (about a month or so ago) it was Lobsters, loads of Lobsters. Then shortly after that the Chanterelles started, but didn't come in as strong as usual; but after the rains what did come in strong were the Boletes: Fat Jacks, Zeller's Boletes (pictured at right), even Admirables.
Also in the basket: Angel Wings, more than I've ever seen before. (They are the white oyster-like shrooms in the basket pictured ... these typically grow on down and decaying fir, as in the photo above.) I'm going to be a little cautious with those, because while no one in the Western Hemisphere (that I am aware of in my reading) has ever been sickened by sufficiently prepared Angel Wings, there was a bizarre case in Japan a few years back where a number of elderly feasted on a large batch of Angel Wings, and several died afterward. They are not toxic, and so my guess would be either they weren't sufficiently sanitized, or something evil got mixed in somehow. But caution is warranted with Angel Wings, nonetheless.
Also still going (though in much smaller quantities): Lobsters! I had three smallish ones in the basket pictured. As well as Ramaria (club fungus, or coral fungus). Ramaria is very pretty, but there are many varieties nad some have a tendency to give many people diarrhea. I've eaten Ramaria with no ill effect, but in my opinion they just don't taste that great, so it's not really worth the risk. But they are pretty!
Well, the good news is that we're not done yet with the Fall Mushroom Season here in the Pacific Northwest. We have about two weeks of rain in the forecast, but no freezing temperatures yet. I'm hopeful that after two weeks we can get back out there and be up to our ears in mushrooms again! Please let me know if you are interested in a Friday afternoon/Saturday forage, potentially on November 2/3 or 9/10 depending on weather.
So if you'd like to join us in a foray (they're free, we just ask for a donation if you join us for a BBQ lunch at our basecamp in the forest afterward), please let us know! And then, next year we'll begin offering key mushroom-related products on this website where you can help support this effort and pay it back. Happy shrooming!
This year we started early in May in some minor burn areas north of Leavenworth. We've had good luck in the past in the general vicinity. But we found nary a mushroom, so we did what we should have done earlier and paid the local (Wenatchee) Ranger Station a call. (The rangers are always VERY helpful!)
They hadn't heard any reports of mushrooms in the area we were hunting, either, but they did suggest we try a large burn area that had been designated a commercial hunting zone, north of the town of Cle Elum, and gave us a lovely map. After ensuring we had the appropriate permit (which in the case of hobby hunters in the Wenatchee National Forest is only an "
We did, however, find a Snowbank Morel (left), a false Morel which is toxic if not prepared properly. (Some say if you cook the hydrazine out of it thoroughly enough, they taste just like true morels and have no ill effect. I've never felt in the mood to chance it.)
The morels we found upon our return (222 of them in total, in four hours of hunting) were nearly always near the base of burned pine trees, and often in groups. (I found one group of 18 morels, all within 5 feet of one another. See the bottom of this post for a shot of that fun spot.)
The morels are just fine dry sauteed with some butter, but if you are so inclined you can grind in a little salt and pepper to taste, and finish with a dash of sweet red wine, like a port, sherry, or marsala. (At the point where all the natural liquid has sizzled out of the morel during the sauteing process, they will begin to suck up any juices around them and adopt the character of the wine, which is a really wonderful combination, the natural morel flavor and the red wine.)
After the meals we prepared, we still had some (mostly smaller) morels left, and they don't stay fresh very long, so into the dehydrator they went. Morels dehydrate very well and their flavor on rehydration, later, is still exceptional. Several cups of morels yielded a half quart-baggie of dehydrated product.
On Saturday, we did find some decent Golden Chanterelles, and also nearly as any false Chanterelles. The edible Chanterelle quantities had declined quite a bit since the last time we were out, a few weeks ago. We found one good Lobster, but we were tripping over those a month ago. We started to see some Boletes (mostly Slippery Jacks, but also a few Admirables), though not near as many as last November. And a few small-ish coral fungi (Ramaria).
Equally notable was what I didn't find. Not much in the way of shelf mushrooms (saw a few Angel Wings, is all), and not a single hedgehog. Hedgehogs are my favorite, and prefer the cool wet climes of late fall. But this year, I didn't see any.
There are several ways to prepare a puffball, but we chose to grill it as steaks, about 3/4 of an inch thick. Normally I would do this on a char griller, but it was raining so hard outside we decided to prepare it indoors. After slicing and cutting away the skin, I rubbed olive oil on both sides of the steaks then seasoned them with Himalayan salt, garlic, and coarse ground pepper. Then, onto a hot flatiron they went. I gave each side a few minutes to brown, then removed my treasure and served it up.
I've written about preparing puffballs before. Here in the Northwest we typically only find the smaller, golfball-sized variety, which are much more challenging to prepare. The flavor of the giant puffball was similar, but the reward was greater because of the size of the steaks and the ease of preparation.
I've also read many people chop up sauteed puffball and use it in soups. I think this would also be tasty. Or perhaps you could use it in many Asian recipes, just as you would use fried tofu.
I haven't yet visited outlying areas (like Tiger Mountain, where I frequently hunt Chanterelles and Sulfur Shelf; or the Olympic Peninsula), but I've heard reports that they are going well in these places too.
If you haven't yet tried lobsters, there's a reason they are prized. We are discovering that if you dehydrate them (and they dehydrate well), the seafood flavor actually intensifies after you rehydrate them. Use them in soups, stews, and any dish where you would like a lobster flavor.
There are nearly 500 different varieties of Ramaria, or coral mushrooms. A few are fairly toxic (causing severe gastrointestinal distress), but I don't believe these typically occur here in the Pacific Northwest. In the forests where I hunt, a beige version of Coral Mushroom typically starts about the time Chanterelles start, and is nearly the same coloration as the Golden Chanterelle. I've tried different methods of preparing them (pickling and sauteeing), and I think I prefer sauteeing because the texture is fairly crisp and pleasing. The flavor is decent, but nothing to write home about.
When I suggest to people that we are heading out to hunt Lobsters, I get a lot of raised eyebrows. "I thought you were into mushrooms?" they say. "Are you switching over to seafood now?"
Lobsters are highly prized in Asia, so many migratory pickers comb through the forests looking for them. We see them almost every time we are out. They are in a hurry. When they find a lobster, they slice through the stipe (the stem), looking for evidence of worms or rotting (which lobsters are susceptible to as they get older). We see large piles of sliced lobster stipe, and some discarded mushrooms, every time we are hunting. In fact, that's one clue that lobsters may be near.
The good news is that just a few good Lobsters go a long ways. As you can see from the "selfie" photo associated with this post, they are a decent size, often a pound or heavier. Collecting just a half dozen in a foray gives me plenty to deal with. I find they dehydrate well; I cut them into large chunks and dry them for 24 hours in the dehydrator, then store them for at least a year in ziplock baggies. Rehydrating is easy; stir them as is into soups, or let them sit in warm water for a few hours. (And you may want to reserve the liquid, which will be lobster-flavored!)
Some friends and I, pictured at left, had taken a previous foray, in mid-April, into a canyon which had a 2015 burn where we had previously found fire morels, near the town of Leavenworth. Because of the wet winter, we had found lots of brown mushrooms, but no morels yet. There was still unmelted snow on the ground, in some places, and my sense was that we were still too early, at least at this altitude in Eastern Washington. We committed to returning, and plan to do so in two weekends.
Once on the ridge, the hunting began in earnest. During our forays off the trail into one promising-looking spot (lots of tall fir trees which had been toasted in the burn, and pine needle loam covering the forest floor), we soon found a false morel — Gyromitra esculenta, pictured at right. These are said to be highly toxic, unless you cook off the hydrazine fumes in a well-ventilated area. If you do, some people have said, you are rewarded with a very morel-like flavor. These are called "Snowbank Morels" (even though they're not really morels), I assume because they often appear early in these high wooded areas.
We found and collected maybe a half-dozen of these Snowbank Morels. I intended to experiment with them to test the cooked edibility theory (trying very small batches after cooking thoroughly outdoors, of course), but never quite worked up the courage.
We also encountered a dead tree trunk (still standing) with a huge profusion of Pearl Oyster mushrooms fruiting out of it. It was on a very steep slope, just below the road, and we didn't dare scale it, so we did our best to harvest what we could reach ... which was about 10 pounds worth of oysters!
Also, in closing, I thought I should share five other photos: 1) this mouth-watering preparatory morel-hunting meal which Nathan fixed the night before our big hunt. That is a big bucket of steamed muscles, and dipping sauce made of butter, garlic, and shallots. Eat your hearts out!
2) We found a cool geocache while we were up on the ridge hunting. I would have contributed a morel if I thought it might have survived and been appreciated!
3) Soak in this lovely view of a very verdant covering of clover on the forest floor where we were hunting morels!
4) Not edible, but I thought this jelly fungus was pretty.
5) And, finally, the same thing goes for this pretty shelf fungus (commonly called a conch)
I actually don't own a clay pot (the cooking variety), though they sound quite wonderful, so I am planning on obtaining one as soon as I can find a good one. But instead, I used what is probably the next best thing, a nice ceramic Dutch Oven.
The Morel may be my favorite mushroom (taste-wise), but the Spring season isn't my favorite season. There are a few other mushrooms out there in the Spring, but not near as many as in the Fall. So Morels are definitely the focus.
In addition to the Morels, we also found something which you will never find when hunting for Fall mushrooms in Western Washington. I came within inches of stepping on a Western Rattlesnake which was sunning itself on top of a natural log bridge suspended over a rushing stream. He rattled like crazy trying to warn me, but naturally I couldn't hear the rattle over the noise of the stream. I'd say my foot was about 8 inches from his head when I spotted him, and almost fell off the log into the boulder-strewn creek below (which could have been equally bad as getting bit ... very few rattlesnake bites are actually fatal, although being a good three-mile hike from any ability to contact emergency help, a bite from a four-foot Western Rattler would probably have made me very sick).
Before our Leavenworth area hike, Kay and I searched the burned-out forests in Okanogan County, near Winthrop, the spring following the bad fires there in 2014. Professional pickers were out and we sat at a buyer's station watching them bring in bushels of Fire Morels. (We even bought a pound or two of top grade shrooms from one picker for quite a reasonable price, after we failed to come up with a single shroom of our own during an afternoon of hunting. When I expressed my frustration at being thusly skunked to the picker, he laughed. "It took me three full days of fruitless hunting until I found the spot where I found these," he informed me graciously.)
The prior Spring, before the Okanogan fires, my son Nathan and I had found some nice (in terms of quality, not quantity) Fire Morels in the Blewitt Pass region, and had them with a campfire New York steak dinner which I consider a highlight meal of my life so far. (My son is a masterful chef! And the Morels were fantastic simmered in steak drippings in a cast iron pan over a maplewood fire.)
I did find some true Morels once (yellows and maybe a black or two) here in my hometown of South Hill, Washington. A friend texted me a photo of some Morels he found growing in his lawn, on the edge of a beauty bark bed. ("They look just like dog turds," he informed me. "Don't touch them!" I exclaimed excitedly. "I'll be right there!" The 10-minute drive seemed like forever. I tried cooking them in a new recipe (breaded and deep-friend, Ohio-style), and decided I didn't care for them that way near as much as I liked them grilled. But oh well. For some reason my friend declined to try any. His loss.
So I guess I need to do what I always do when it comes to finding exotic mushrooms — TEST. This coming Spring I am tentatively planning a national Morel tour. I will gird up my mushroom mobile (Jedediah, pictured in action in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, at right) and head east. We'll take the northern route across, hunting in northeast Washington, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota before swinging down into Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, then up into Michigan.
Each fall we see clusters of these rimming the various trails through the forest areas where we hunt Chanterelles and other delicious shrooms. We've harvested them while they're young (firm and white), but they are a lot of trouble to peel. Their flavor is fairly nondescript, many compare it to scrambled eggs or tofu. And like tofu, they pretty much soak up the flavor of whatever you cook them in or with.
The amazing thing, to me, is why it's so tempting to stomp on mature Lycoperdon. The translation from the Latin gives a clue as to what happens next: These "wolf farts" explode in an amazing and delightful display of greenish-brown "smoke" which contains the billions of airborne spores. What kid (even grown kids-at-heart like me) can resist THAT?
For instance, we've been talking a lot about Oyster Mushrooms. Some time ago I learned something amazing about Oyster Mushrooms which I really can't explain, at least by appealing to evolution. Here it is, hopefully in a nutshell ...
The method I spoke of was using 3-foot lengths of cut maple lots, about 5 or 6 inches in diameter, with mycelium-impregnated spawn plugs (commercially available) hammered into quarter-inch, inch-deep holes drilled into the log, then sealed with wax. The log is then mounted on a tripod-like mount (which I made of outdoor wood) about 18" tall, which keeps the log off the ground. This method produces fruitings typically in the spring or fall, and supposedly can continue for many years. The entire apparatus is depicted at left, and you can see some of the plugs fruiting.
If you use bags purchased for the purpose, as I did with the bag depicted at right, they will have perforations which allow for the Oyster Mushrooms to fruit out when the organism is ready. Once you see that your pleurotus mycelium has taken hold (once again, watch out for green mold, which will spoil the batch), you can start "stressing" the organism to cause it to fruit rapidly.
Second, I mentioned in my last blog how we discovered that "Mushroom Worker's Lung" is a real thing with Oyster mushrooms. Some people are allergic to the airborne spores (my wife is, I am not). These cause flu-like symptoms of respiratory distress. The problem can be alleviated by using a filter mask capable of filtering out objects at least 3 microns in size (as Oyster Mushroom spores are typically 8-10.5 x 3-3.5 µ), or by avoiding indoors areas where Oyster Mushrooms are fruiting. I haven't heard of anyone (my wife included) experiencing problems in outdoor areas where they are fruiting (like my back yard).
Last summer I began raising Oyster Mushrooms in "straw logs" indoors, in a room above our garage that doubles as a wine cellar and exercise room. I was growing oyster mushrooms like crazy, and very inexpensively (I'll blog sometime about that). but the experiment went south when my wife discovered that the oyster spores were making her sick every time she went up to exercise!
The mushroom organism (which is primarily mycelium, hidden in whatever medium it grows in, usually either soil or wood, but sometimes other things) usually doesn't fruit unless it is stressed somehow ... by changes in season, in temperature, or by excessive moisture. The latter is said to work quite well for Oysters, and when I was growing them indoors out of straw logs I tented them with clear plastic, suspended above open pans of water to keep the humidity level up. And I placed them near windows. The light and moisture seemed to cause them to fruit quite quickly and well.
Hedgehogs are a late fall/early winter mushroom that grows in damp, ferny areas, and in my mind it is one of the more savory and simple-to-cook shrooms. I love it as a side dish, or as a breakfast mushroom with scrambled eggs.
Since my discovery, Hydnum repandum has been a favorite, and I look forward to collecting them each year at this time. It is a close relative to the spiny 
Like their cousin the Golden Chanterelle, Hedgehogs can also be dehydrated for long-term storage; but as in Chanterelles, some complex flavor characteristics as well as texture is lost in doing this. (I haven't yet tried dehydrating and making "Cream of Hedgehog" soup with them, but I do plan to do that this winter, and will report back!) But some chefs have learned to preserve (or rather "conserve") them by pickling them, after a fashion. 
There are several different false Chanterelles to watch for. One that we found (in abundance, sometimes mixed right in with real Chanterelles) during our foray last Friday was Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca, aptly named "False Chanterelle." Note the color in the attached three photos (side view above, cap view at left, and gill view below), which is very similar to that of Golden Chanterelles. The cap shape also can mimic that of young Golden Chanterelles.
The real difference is in the gills. The gills of true Chanterelles are "forked" in places, and less deep or less pronounced than the gills of the False Chanterelle, which are typically not forked. Also, the False Chanterelle gills connect more abruptly with the stipe (or stem), whereas true Chanterelle gills are more likely to merge gracefully and gradually down onto the stipe.
Another class of mushrooms some mistake for Chanterelles is the Jack O'Lantern (
Once again, the important part of identifying any counterfeit edible mushroom is getting to know the real thing! That (and caution) is the easiest way to prevent misidentification and accidentally ingesting a false Chanterelle. So be sure to go through your basket when you are done collecting. Look at the color of the cut stipe, and the gills. If anything is off, toss it ... better safe than sorry!
First we sliced up all our Boletes in roughly quarter- to third-inch slices, after brushing them clean and inspecting for worms, which they are prone too if they are too old or sit too long. The younger, firmer ones with brighter colored pores under the cap seem to be the best.
Continue throwing in more sliced boletes into the mixture, two handfuls at a time. (You should have enough each time to cover the bottom of the pan, but not stacked on top of each other, as connection with the sizzling oil is what makes this recipe work.) You will occasionally need to add more ingredients, usually the port and sometimes rosemary.