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Sunday, October 22, 2000
I went walking on the recent Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club Mushroom Mania 2, not to get mushrooms, but to get a story for this column. This was my fourth mushroom foray, and starting out, I felt about it as I did about the others. Finding mushrooms interested me less than the walk in the woods hunting for them with the good people who always gather for these events.
My first hunt took place 25 years ago in the woods that were part of an old apple orchard on a farm owned by friends in Hanover, Ill. Morel mushrooms are thought to be partial to these trees, but after several hours searching with a dozen children -- June's five boys, their friends and my two -- all racing around, climbing the trees, playing hide and seek, rough housing, falling down, laughing and crying, we came back with not one mushroom. Not one. Just as we were about to enter the house, June spotted them. There, under the back-porch stairs, was a bonanza of morels. We collected them, cleaned them -- a time consuming task -- and strung them from the ceiling to dry. The best ones we cooked, and the two of us enjoyed them, as the children wouldn't touch them and neither would June's husband, Hal. One week later, after the mold hit, June said she gathered those that were drying and tossed them.
The highlight of the second morel hunt was that jumping a stream, we discovered a bed of wild watercress. I went home to make watercress soup, something I could never do with supermarket watercress costing $1.29 for a tiny bunch.
The third hunt was in Johnstown last year. My friend Nancy Hanst and I went on a walk with caterer Tom Chulick. My best memory was Tom standing in the woods at the top of the hill, his arms spread wide and calling out to all those hen-of-the-woods, chicken-of-the-woods and oysters, "Mushrooms come to me." And they did. They crawled right to the edge of the path, where we collected them.
Just this month, Chulick and his wife, Denise Thompson, two talented cooks, have expanded their catering business to include a small restaurant. At Thomas and Thompson's Back Door Cafe, 402 Chestnut St., Johnstown, they serve their delicious wild mushroom soup. For restaurant times: 814-539-5084.
I remember very well my first scary meal of wild mushrooms. It was in Prague eight years ago with my daughter, Ani, and my friend, Babette, whose son Josh had collected them. Josh was raised in Chicago. What did he know about wild mushrooms? I didn't want to die. I didn't want to have a psychedelic experience. I believe his mother shared my apprehension. We stared at our plates. Ani, however, never hesitated. Babette and I summoned the courage and ate, waiting for the first stabbing pain signaling the need for a liver transplant.
Recalling this incident reminds me that people participating in Mushroom Mania were required to sign release forms agreeing not to hold the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club liable for injuries or accidents on field trips, excursions, meetings or dining.
Wild mushrooms were served, prepared by the women folk. Among the dishes was an excellent portobello soup, some marinated sheep's head (grifola frondosa), scalloped potatoes with sheep's head, black trumpet dip and a chicken-of-the-woods (sulfur shelf) dip. I tried them all.
Mushroom Mania was the most organized of the forays I've been on. Held at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve, Fox Chapel, the daylong program included walks in the morning and afternoon for gathering specimens. All walks were off the site because Beechwood is a teaching institution and wants its property to remain pristine. Our group walked the woods around Hartwood. In the afternoon, we tramped Fox Chapel's Trillium Trail.
After the picnic lunch we brought with us, we gathered in the auditorium for a slide presentation by author and photographer Bill Roody, mycologist and field biologist with the Nongame Wildlife and Natural Heritage Program at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. In the late afternoon, Roody looked over and commented on some of the more interesting of the 140 different kinds of mushrooms that the more than 80 participants had collected. On display was everything from Wolf's Milk slime mold to American truffles brought up from West Virginia by naturalist Donna Mitchell.
On one of the tables was a hen-of-the-woods (grifola frondosa) as big as a grown man's head. Nancy Hanst, whose idea it had been to go to this event, told Jerry Price of Gibsonia, who found this prize, that she knew how to cook it. Upon hearing this news, he did an astonishing thing. He gave her the mushroom.
"You take it home and cook it, and then call my wife and tell her how much you liked it," he said.
For information about the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, call Mary Woehrel (412-828-3266), president, or John Plischke (724-834-2358), vice president and eminence gris. Both can provide information about walks that are open to the public for a modest fee.
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and brown slightly, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and mushrooms. Simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Add salt, sugar, soy sauce. Simmer 5 minutes. Stir in cornstarch mixture, blend until thickened. Makes 4 servings.
"A Cook's Book of Mushrooms"
1/2 cup sliced onion
8 ounces fresh button mushrooms or any variety of domestic or wild
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water
by Jack Czarnecki