Newfoundland gold: A fun guide to picking chanterelle mushrooms

I'm an enthusiastic forager of wild Newfoundland foods and none are as precious to me as the golden chanterelle.

The bright, sunshine-coloured mushrooms have solid flesh that smells sweetly of apricots. When it's time, they peep out from the moss in sprawling patches throughout the woods in Newfoundland.

And folks, now is the time. It is officially chanterelle season.

Mushroom hunting is a special part of living in modern Newfoundland, but it isn't a traditional Newfoundland activity. 

While Newfoundlanders have long eaten dandelion salads and engaged in a variety of early spring foraging, wild mushrooms were considered poisonous — left in the ground to rot. 

Consequently, early settlers really missed out.

Chanterelles have an amazing flavour profile: nutty and peppery, they pair beautifully with garlic and freshly grated parmesan. 

I like chanterelles best in quiche or tarts, but there's an endless variety of things you can do with them.

There's also a variety of things you shouldn't do with them. I've been spending whole days in the woods lately picking chanterelles, and I've seen an alarming amount of bad foraging etiquette. 

So I sat down with long-term forager and mycophile Bill Bryden to ask him how to pick chanterelles responsibly.

Know your 'shroom

Correct identification is key!

The golden chanterelle shares the forest with lookalikes, which can cause extreme gastric discomfort.

There are dozens of poisonous mushrooms on the Avalon, so if you're interested in mushroom hunting, understand that it's a subject you should learn patiently.

Gain experience by attending a mushroom foray with an expert, take a walk with a forager, buy some books, attend lectures — and don't pick to eat or share until you've truly learned the subject.

Keep your patch a secret

Find your own chanterelle patch and keep it to yourself.

Chanterelle patches in Newfoundland are very old, and slow to produce.

"If you see evidence that others are harvesting a patch, find another place because one of the largest threats to any mushroom patch — but especially golden chanterelles — is damage from trampling," Bryden said.

Trampling damages the mycelium — the roots of the organism we see as a mushroom — and the critical moss layer that allows the soil to dry quickly, he said.

It also crushes the tiny, unseen mushrooms still hiding under the moss.

Picking and trampling someone else's patch is poor etiquette, and it's not a sustainable harvesting practice.

Leave the little ones

Leave some or most of the tiny little chanterelle nubbins in the ground.

Yes, it's so exciting to find chanterelles. Yes, they taste delicious. But harvesting an entire patch of baby chanterelles is a bad idea.

Mushrooms reproduce by releasing spores and the baby mushrooms haven't yet released theirs. If you want to stumble upon chanterelle patches in the future, you've got to let the young ones grow.

Share with the animals

Although it seems obvious to me now, Bryden shocked me when he said that every living thing in the bogs and barrens of Newfoundland eats a tremendous amount of mushrooms.

He argued that, directly or indirectly, mushrooms are one of the most important organisms in the wild Newfoundland food chain.

• Read more from Chef Andie Bulman

Respect and understand the important place mushrooms have in our ecosystem and please share!

Take only what you need

There are a lot of mushroom hunters out there filling garbage bags with these gorgeous, golden treats. I've stumbled on people taking selfies with their mushrooms before discarding the entire lot they've just picked. This drives me crazy.

Hunting for chanterelles isn't something that someone should do just for a great Instagram post. 

Unless you're a professional forager, you should only pick what you'll actually use.

For me, I'm happy with a few pints for pickling and a handful for quiches, scrambled eggs and soups. 

Here's one of my favourite soup recipes to try after a day of ethical, sustainable chanterelle picking.

Golden chanterelle soup

This is an incredibly rich soup, so a small portion goes a long way. If you're into it, garlic is a beautiful addition to this soup — especially if you roast it. Just add it to the mix before you purée.

You can make a vegan version using coconut oil instead of butter and coconut milk instead of cream. I like to add navy beans into the mix before I purée, for added protein and improved texture.

Ingredients (served four):

• 1 pound of chanterelles
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• ½ of a finely chopped Spanish Onion
• ¼ cup of chopped parsley
• ½ cup of chopped dill
• 2 tablespoons of flour (can be omitted if you're gluten-free)
• 3 cups of vegetable broth
• ½ cup of heavy cream
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground pepper (this is key!)

Instructions

Pick over the chanterelles and give them a good cleaning with a mushroom brush — a pastry brush will do in a pinch. A paper towel can also be helpful here.

I don't recommend washing chanterelles in water, as they tend to lose flavour, go limp and generally become less appealing. A little forest debris won't hurt you!

 Once your chanterelles are cleaned, chop them finely.

Next, you'll melt your butter in a saucepan over medium heat, add the mushrooms, finely chopped onion, parsley and dill.

After several minutes of sautéeing, salt your mushrooms and onions. Lots of people will just season their soups at the end, but you want to layer your seasoning.

Sautée everything until the moisture released by the mushrooms evaporates. This will take about ten minutes.

Sprinkle in your flour. Stir for another few minutes and then add your broth gradually, whisking as you go.

Raise the heat to a boil, the lower the heat to a simmer for twenty minutes.

Stir in the cream, taking care not to let the soup boil. Purée the whole thing in a blender.

Season with salt and pepper. Shave some fresh parmesan on to the top of the soup as a garnish.

I also like to garnish with a few leftover sautéed chanterelles and some more fill and parsley. 

Enjoy!

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador