Hunting Morels and Ramps in North Carolina
A hunt for morels and wild leeks in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Asheville leads to a host of edible discoveries.
Recent Posts
So I Gather is On the Road
After years of threatening to do it, I’ve hit the road for a very long foray. Over the next several months I’ll be traveling the U.S. seeking fungi and chasing stories. In addition to finding baskets full of mushrooms, I’m hoping to tell the stories […]
The Scent of a Yellowfoot Chanterelle
The yellowfoots surprise me. I’m down at the creek, between the trail and the creek, really, when I stumble upon them. Call them winter chanterelles, yellowfoot chanterelles, funnel mushrooms, like the Fins do. Craterellus tubaeformis—their official name—arrive at my feet in a surprising bounty. Yellowfoots I […]
Oyster Mushrooms Redux
Do oyster mushrooms grow on the same tree over multiple years? In fact, they do. Back in May of 2018, I’d been looking for morels in Mills Norrie park, on the Hudson River’s eastern bank, when I ran into two couples in the woods. It […]
Oyster Mushrooms While We Wait
“What am I eating?” my friend Danny asks, picking at the leftover pasta and oyster mushrooms cooling on my stove. To which I explain how I had just been out picking mushrooms a few days prior. “These are mushrooms?!” I’d forgotten he’s been telling me […]
Facing East, and Heading West
Throughout early May of this year I had a lot of success finding morels under tuliptrees. I’d been especially lucky finding morels under tuliptrees on southeastern facing slopes. That all came to an end recently. As I stepped from my car, heat enveloped me. It […]
Hunting Trees, Hunting Morels
Morel season in full swing and I am once again in search of hallowed ground. As a new-ish transplant to the Northeast, I don’t have a honeyhole to speak of. No spot has been handed down to me over familial generations; I haven’t had seasons […]
Preparing for the Start of Morel Mushroom Season
With the snow receding, soil temperatures beginning to rise, and spring on the horizon my mind has been turning to morel mushrooms. Actually, it’s less of a casual thought and more of an obsession. Over the past couple of years, I’ve returned to Michigan for […]
What To Do When Your Winemaker Hands You A Random Mushroom in Uruguay
Earlier this month, I had the luxury of spending a week in Uruguay, exploring the country’s wines. Bounded by Brazil and Argentina, the Atlantic Ocean and the Uruguay River, this small South American country is big on flavor. Despite it’s relatively flat terrain—the tallest hill […]
Reflections on Eating Bugs (and Drinking Them, Too)
Just a few weeks ago, in my story about finding my first Hen of the Woods, I wrote about not eating bugs. I’d be remiss to mention, however, that I actually have been eating bugs recently. In fact, I wrote an article on edible insects—on both drinking […]