Chasing Rain and Getting Chanterelles

Pennsylvania is in a drought. At least, the southwestern part of Pennsylvania is in a drought. Suddenly, my beloved chanterelle mushroom hunting grounds are barren little desserts in the woods. The grounds are parched and the few chanterelles that have poked up their fiery heads have pinned, turned hard, and stunted. 

Chanterelles need a lot of moisture to grow and fruit, and that feels especially true of the smooth chanterelles—Cantharellus lateritius—found in Pennsylvania’s fantastic oak forests. Last year, the woods around Pittsburgh were absolutely replete with them. This year, those same spots are, so far, producing nothing. We need a lot of rain to make the chanties pop.

But, I can’t wait. I’m aching to get some chanterelles. So, I’ve been tracking past precipitation data and using it to identify possible chanterelle grounds. And, after a week of tracking, I decided to go on a chanterelle quest. I’d chase the rain east-northeast and hope to get mushroom lucky. 

To identify that past precipitation, I used the National Weather Service’s observed past precipitation model, then homed in on the areas of the state that had received the most inches of rain over the previous five and seven days. I zoomed in and found a big patch of yellow—places that had received 2 to 3 inches of rain over the previous week—surrounded by dark green: places that had received 1.5 to 2 inches of rain over the previous week. Within those areas were also a handful of state parks, state forests, and state game lands. 

So, Pennsylvania outdoor recreation map in one hand, and past precipitation maps in the other, I hit the road on a hot, Saturday morning. Two-and-a-half hours later, Black Moshannon State Park delivered. Within a few minutes of hitting a trail that cuts through a mixed forest of hemlock, birch, and oak I stumbled upon a patch of smooth chanterelles. I harvested a pound of the larger ones and left the smaller ones to grow. 

It’s raining in Pittsburgh now and while I expect we need more days of it to really make the mushrooms flush—chanterelles grow slowly, at about 2 to 5 cm per month, and need a lot of moisture to do so—I’m off to check my patches tomorrow. Sure, fruiting sometimes occurs two or three days after rainfall, but I’m planning to also test out the theory that they like a good thunderstorm, and can even fruit in the middle of a storm. And, until I get a mess of chanterelles, I’m just relishing my weekend quest to the east and the mushroom gold it delivered.