Bumper crop of wild fungi
Bay Area storms are good news for mushroom aficionados
The winter onslaught of wet weather has been a challenge for many locals, and for many Bay Area farmers it has led to financial challenges and delays in spring planting.
But for local foragers, the rain has sprouted a bumper crop of wild fungi.
In fact, the rain has been more than just a good thing in the short term.
“After five years of drought, it’s the salvation of a lot of species we adore,” says Kory Stewart, general manager at Wineforest Wild Foods in Napa, which has been supplying mushrooms and other foraged items to high-profile Bay Area restaurants for more than 35 years, including the Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa and State Bird Provisions in San Francisco. Thanks to the rain, mushrooms like hedgehog, porcini and chanterelles are thriving, while black trumpets, another local favorite, have been growing in areas you might not normally find them.
Wild mushrooms love landscapes where the forests are healthy, says Stewart, especially chanterelles, which are a mycorrhizal fungi and have a symbiotic relationship with oak trees. Not only has the moisture-saturated soil made for ideal growing conditions for mushrooms, but the rain has also helped revive the trees, which were hit hard during the drought.
Far West Fungi’s Ian Garrone notes that this year has been the best season for chanterelles in years.
“The rain really equates to good fungi activity,” says Garrone, whose family has operated their Moss Landing farm and foraging company for nearly three decades.
The Bay Area season for chanterelles typically runs from January to mid-February or early March. This year Garrone’s team began harvesting back in November — and they expect it to last another month or so.
Beside mushrooms, there’s also an abundance of other wild edibles, including miner’s lettuce, mustard flowers, pickleweed and fiddlehead ferns.
While last year proved to be a really good year for morels for Wineforest’s supply, Stewart isn’t anticipating the season to be as abundant this year. On the other hand, Garrone says that his mushroom hunters are saying it’s an early season for morels and have been excited about what they’ve found so far in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
The rain has made for great conditions for mushroom growth, but the rainswollen streams and fallen trees, along with the overall muddy state, have made foraging efforts a bit more challenging. Yet that’s just how it goes for the mushroom hunters.
“These guys that do this as a living, they’re used to all this. It's part of the lifestyle,” Stewart says.