On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good morning everyone,
Thanks TaMara for filling in Monday and Tuesday. What with my crazy life right now and missing my laptop while Dell fixes it again, I really appreciate it. Hopefully she’ll return with more pictures soon.
In early August, I bolted to Colorado to hunt mushrooms and have a few days to myself before life got very complicated (house hunting, buying, moving, getting a house fixed up and rented, etc.).
I had limited success. The whole drive there, I had dreams of coming back with 30 (dare I dream – 50!) pounds of good boletus edulis to cook, share, and dry. My haul was more like 4 pounds which was shared and eaten. This was due to my being about 10 days later than ideal and to the recent dry conditions on the mountain I was searching, so I had to break out my old-school “wildcatting” tactics which paid off.
It was a great day adventure, and I’m glad I went, even for just that experience. It had been 5 years since I’d wandered the mountains at 11,000 feet looking for delights, and I know that I will do what I can to be able to go next year, hopefully better-timed with the rains and peak opportunity. Life is short, and it’s just so much fun and a great way to plug into nature while hopefully having a “gold rush”. I was only gasping for air occasionally, and I know if it had been a good year, I would have had to take many rest breaks because of all the running around.
High altitude treasure hunt hint – bring a disposable oxygen can which is cheap satisfaction and relief from that burn of too-little oxygen. Also, do extra aerobic exercise for a few weeks before going to high altitude to optimize heart-lung state. And lose weight.
The boletus edulis, known as the King Bolete, Cepe, Steinpilz, or Porcini, is a large, delicious mushroom that grows in many forest areas in the US and Europe. To my experience and knowledge, they are found in the Rockies as far south as New Mexico, and up into Canada. I know that they are not as rare in moister areas and a friend has some land in Alaska that has them in abundance. They grow in cooperation with pine trees. They are tasty, large, and very fun to find.
On the day I went, I ran into a few people – a Polish lady looking for her husband (a common occurrence as you often separate to cover more territory when things aren’t lush) who spoke no English but was impressed with my haul and a nice couple from near Alamosa looking for mountain raspberries which were about two weeks out, they said. I explained what I was doing and delivered a brief intro to boletes and gave them a nice medium-sized specimen to take home and cook. They extolled the shaggy mane mushroom they collected near home, but I assured them that this was even better.
Ok, enough text, let’s go with some pictures. These are all from this year’s trip. I’ll share some more tomorrow and then older photos Friday.
The first find of the day and it was the biggest. One issue with large mushrooms is that they are targets for flies to lay eggs. So once you get bigger than this, they are much more out of the ground and bigger targets.
Let’s just say that I’m not Donald Trump and I’m not Dr J, so this is a large freaking mushroom. I didn’t weigh it individually, but when I first cut it, I expect it weighed 1.5 pounds. I kept them cool on the drive back East days later, but they did lose some moisture.
Another, older bolete. Notice the chipmunk nibbles. Chipmunks and squirrels are quite fond of them. I’ve been screamed out countless times by chippies for stealing their treasure, and I once saw a squirrel bound away with a small but perfect mushroom in its mouth, like a cartoon.
This mushroom was almost rotten and fell apart when I touched it. Not good eating!
This was the final haul of the day. That was some very, very good eating. Fresh boletes, sliced thick like a steak, sauteed in some butter with garlic and onion, salt and pepper, it’s close to perfection. Note the color of the top right mushroom – that is the ideal color. Once it’s seared into your soul, it’s hard to mistake other mushrooms for this one; I can see that color peeking out from leaves or other tree litter from farther away than you’d believe!
Have a great day everyone, we’ll re-convene on the morrow.
OzarkHillbilly
I wish I knew more of mushrooms. Everybody knows morels, I suspect most know Hen of the Woods,, and I do know boletes are edible but I don’t know which ones are worthy. Not to mention the plethora of others. Every year I swear I’m going to join the local chapter of the Mycological Society and every year I just run out of time. Or maybe it’s energy I run out of.
sigh
CarolDuhart2
I l;ove dry crunchy mushrooms, but seldom see them even in the store. Do you dry yours?
Spanky
I’m pretty sure I’d kill myself from picking the wrong kind, so I’m jealous.
J R in WV
@CarolDuhart2:
Carol, in my experience dried ‘shrooms are common in stores that carry foreign ingedients, whether European or Asian (or both!) in focus. Once dried, they last a really long time, too.
Dried porcini are really common in Italian foods, and Asian shops carry a wide variety of mushrooms dried or canned.
mvr
Nice haul! We have a cabin in Southern Wyoming at 9000 feet elevation and they showed up there in mid-July. I see you are looking at higher elevations yet and later in the season. Is that because they grow higher further south where you go, or because they grow higher later in the season, or some other reason? Also, we find other boletes besides King Boletes, such as what look like Bay boletes which also are edible. Do you ever find those? And we’ve also found Chanterelles, Hedgehogs and Morels up there but less often. Do you ever find or look for those? I’ll check back for answers later today, but may not respond quickly because my day will be busy. Thanks!
Alain
@mvr: I have a few places in Colorado I look for them, depending on the year and conditions and they come out at different times. For example, one area is much more mid-state, and so is considerably moister and cooler and 9-10,000 feet and they come there mid-July. Where I went, it’s much drier in the warmer months and so the mushrooms are up high where it’s cooler and they get some moisture from cloud-rain.
Yeah, about 1,000 feet lower are what we called aspen boletes, that grow near the border/mixed-growth of aspen and pine, but not the bay – those look neat! I’ve not yet found chanterelles or morels because of timing and location, but I hope next spring to get some serious miles in, wandering around forests.
I envy you with such a cabin, what a wonderful retreat from this bad craziness.
Yutsano
@Alain: Now I need to know if these goobers are hiding out in the Cascades! The conditions sound about right.
You had me at porcini. SHEESH those suckers are expensive dried! Don’t even get me started with finding them fresh.
stinger
Nice! Your trip/hiking sounds great, even if the edible haul wasn’t what you’d hoped.
mvr
@Alain: Thanks!
Perhaps my Bay Boletes are really Aspen Boletes. I’m not a mycologist but feel sufficiently OK picking in the bolete family with a good book. We get both them and King Boletes at our elevation. The divide is just about a half mile or so to the west with the pass at 10,000 feet. Your advice will get me looking higher up in drier years. The morels (which come out in April in Nebraska where I live most of the time) are sometimes there in June a week or so after the snow withdraws from certain places. The Chanterelles sometimes show up in early August and sometimes are there into October. But when it is dry they don’t show up much. The Hedgehogs I only found once right near a favorite Chanterelle spot.
Thanks for your response!
Mark
Alain
@mvr: make sure to check back the rest of this week and next Wednesday. I’ve got more to share! I think your bay bolete is a relative to the aspen bolete. It seems more bulbous, like the king, whereas the aspen bolete is more trim, with a thinner and often taller stalk.
mvr
@Alain: Thanks! This is helping me learn what to look for and how to vary my searches.