Foraging and Cooking Chanterelles | Mid-Summer in North Texas

It's chanterelle season in North Texas. In the right places and under the right conditions, these familiar edible mushrooms begin to appear. Once you know what to look for, an ordinary walk through the woods starts to feel more like a treasure hunt. Come along with me as I forage the woods near our home and share a few observations about learning this landscape. We came out last night and found so many chanterelles in some places we hadn't explored before. But it was nighttime and we started running out of daylight. So there are a couple places I marked to try to come back to and I'm hoping that I can find them again. Found a few here. These aren't even the ones I was looking for. But they look really good. I had a hard time finding the patch of mushrooms we had discovered the evening before. The morning was hot and it was slow going through the thick brush. I think I'm getting closer. But it is not easy out here. It's really thick. Found them. Thought I wasn't going to. Turns out we didn't mark them like we thought we did. So I've just been wandering. But I found them. I'm so sweaty. Okay, that's it. I'm done. I'm out of here. If I can find my way out now. Despite the heat and the mosquitoes and the thorns, I find foraging and learning mushrooms to be a really rewarding hobby. I started getting into looking for mushrooms maybe five years ago. I just liked being outside in the woods. I liked walking around. Looking for interesting things. And it just seemed like a good excuse to get out in the woods. Something to be looking for. Whenever I go out in the woods, it feels like I'm on a treasure hunt. Every walk is different. Sometimes I come home empty handed. Sometimes I find something I've never seen before. Once I even found a pocket knife. Which ended up becoming my favorite tool for foraging. We were on some public land in Texas. A bit south of here. Scouting for deer and I was looking for mushrooms too. And I found this pretty deep in the woods. In a dry creek bed. Sitting on some rocks. Clearly someone else had been out there and dropped it. If you lost this in Whitney, Texas, I found it. Thank you. Being in the woods also provides the opportunity to catch a glimpse of wildlife. On this visit, I startled a couple of deer. There they are. For the past few years living in Texas, I hadn't had much success finding mushrooms. Most summers are simply too hot and dry. This year though, we received much more rain than usual. And I started noticing a surprising diversity of fungi appearing in the woods near our home. We found our first chanterelle here completely by accident. Growing on the side of an embankment just a few steps from a backyard. Finding even one was exciting. It was the first chanterelle I'd seen growing in Texas. But over the next few days, we kept looking in new places. And every visit seemed to reveal another flush. By the end, we'd harvested more than two pounds. Looking back, there were several clues that suggested chanterelles might grow here. One of the first things I noticed were the tree species present in the woods. This forest behind me is dominated by oak trees. And there are a lot of mature oaks, which is really important for mushrooms like chanterelles. Because they are what's called a mycorrhizal fungus. Meaning they establish symbiotic relationships with the root networks of mature trees. Especially mature oaks, but sometimes other trees as well. I also saw an abundance of moss on the ground. A lot more than I had observed in many of the other forests I'd visited in Texas. Moss needs consistent moisture. And if a place is too dry, moss can't grow. Finally, the last clue that there could be chanterelles here is that I observed an enormous diversity of different mushroom species. Far more than I had seen in other places nearby. Seeing so many different mushroom species suggested that this forest already supported a healthy and diverse fungal community. I knew from experience that where I saw these mushrooms, I often saw chanterelles too. One of the features that I think is really unique about this property, which makes it a better habitat for chanterelles and a lot of mushrooms, is there are all these deep ravines and ridges from these washes and creek beds. And I think that what's happening is all of these deep ravines are creating sort of a, almost like a microclimate, where even when it gets really dry during the hot summer, the ravines stay very shaded and a little bit cooler and a little bit wetter where all the water is pooling. Because that's where I'm finding the most moss and where I'm finding all the chanterelles. They tend to be growing on the banks of these ravines. So that's just really interesting. Every time I come out here, these woods become a little more familiar. Places that once looked ordinary now tell a bigger story. I'm really grateful to enjoy the woods and what they have to offer. This is our full haul of chanterelles from the last few days. Probably almost two pounds here, so that's pretty good. I'll take a look at them. As you can see, these are really dirty. So they will all need to be washed. You'll often hear that you should never wash mushrooms because they'll absorb water, making them harder to brown properly. I generally agree, and if your mushrooms are relatively clean, simply brushing or wiping away the debris is probably the best approach. However, the sandy clay soils here mean that even mushrooms that look clean often have a fine layer of grit hidden in the folds. I found that a quick rinse, followed by drying them in a warm oven with the door cracked open, is the most effective way to remove the grit without leaving them soggy. Having so many mushrooms this year has given me the opportunity to try a few different ways of preparing them, including in cream sauce over smoked venison, in risotto, in pasta, and in these little galettes with ricotta cheese, caramelized onions, and thyme. Summer in Texas is just getting started, and chanterelle season isn't over yet. I'm looking forward to see what else I'll learn as the seasons continue to change. I hope you enjoyed this video, and if you're interested in learning more about where and how to find chanterelles, or maybe some of the recipes that I've created, please let me know in the comments.