For a farm, offering a u-pick option has many benefits. First, it reduces labor, cost, and overhead for the farmers. Second, it eliminates the need for storing and transporting produce to be sold at a market or grocery store, while also providing it in its freshest form to customers. Finally, it allows farmers to set harvest hours and u-pick appointments that are most beneficial to growing things and to the business side of the operation.

For you, the customer, making a trip to a u-pick farm can save you money per pound, keep your dollars in your community, afford you a look at how a farmer operates, and give you and your family the opportunity to handle your food for part of its journey from the farm to your table.

Green Bluff in Spokane County, one of the most well-known u-pick spots in the Inland Northwest, is prolific with growers that offer everything from vegetables to apples to pumpkins.

However, there are plenty of other opportunities to pick your own food. Utecht Produce in Spokane Valley allows customers to come and pick okra, tomatoes, green beans, and more, by appointment only.

Carver Farms in Newman Lake, Wash., provides a u-pick harvest schedule and prices on their website. Riley Creek Blueberry Farm in Laclede, Idaho, is well known for their blueberry fields, but they also grow blackberries and raspberries.

Red Canoe Blueberry Farm in Hauser, Idaho, also has a u-pick field and lets you pick Washington cherries in season.

Whichever you choose, your u-pick day will be an adventure to savor.

Originally published in the July 2019 issue.

Visit the OTO archives for more stories about farmers’ markets.

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When one notices a tree, most often the tree isn’t being seen. Your brain recognizes basic features that imply tree, labels it, and move on. It’s a form of efficiency our species uses to navigate the world. Having grown up in a Zen monastery, I was taught a core principle called “Beginners Mind,” which is synonymous with having child-like eyes and no preconceived ideas. It’s why traveling is so appealing; we have to process new data, and this engaged observation reveals the nuances of life. It enhances the perception of beauty, novelty, and magic.

This absorbent approach to exploring nature is what spurred this column, Leaf, Root, Fungi, Fruit, to inspire folks to engage their natural surroundings. I wanted people to taste and smell and feel the life around them—to name it, which helps one see it.

Although LRFF’s lifespan is ending, this has been an invigorating and humbling opportunity to cultivate connection with our flora and fungi. Moving forward, I hope to create new endeavors, some written.

In parting, here are a few suggested tools to pursue your outdoor foraging passions. See you on trail, ciao!

Blog: Forager Chef

This is my favorite foraging blog. Created by Chef Alan Bergo, it’s pithy, fun, adventurous, and approaches food as an art form. However, he lives in Minnesota so not everything applies to the Northwest.

Plant Field Guide: “Plants of the Southern Interior British Columbia and the Inland Northwest”

This is a fantastic resource for learning plants of our region. It’s not comprehensive enough, although nothing is. However, it is clear, filled with photos, discusses potential look a-likes, and gives ethnobotanical information on most entries, i.e. food, medicine, and crafts.

Ethnobotanist Author: Nancy Turner

“Food Plants of Interior First Peoples,” is limited to a digestible 150 species. On the other spectrum of Turners work, Ancient Pathways is an academic-sized reference guide. She is one of our defining curators of native plant knowledge, and her books are treasures.

Websites

• Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest is a synoptic key. This means you put in whatever traits are available and get all possibilities, a much less grueling process than a typical field guide, which uses dichotomous keys. The software is a work in progress but offers a more educational and efficient system of identification.
• MushroomExpert.com is the most thorough site for mushrooms and gives lengthy and thorough explanations. Its one unforgivable failing is the absence of information on edibility and toxins.
• Northern Bushcraft lists a selection of wild foods from Canada that largely overlaps the Inland Northwest. The descriptions are brief but helpful and the site is a good place to get started without being overwhelmed. //

Kelly likes scrambling up rocky hillsides, gliding through the trees on powder, and studying life forms in all their evolving niches. He signs off in December from the wild edible column Leaf Root Fungi Fruit to embark upon new subjects.

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This is how I feel about shaggy parasols, a large, omnipresent, and delicious mushroom growing wild and vigorously in our gardens and lawns. One would think, based on the trendiness of foraging, homesteading, and cooking fresh local ingredients, that our community would be aware of such a resource. But we are not, in spite of them surrounding us from late spring to early fall. Like when you buy a car and suddenly the brand seems everywhere, learn this species and you will begin finding it.

Shaggy parasols are the common name of three similar and safe species in the genus of Chlorophyllum: one east of the Cascades, Chlorophyllum rachodes, and the west side sports the other two. Like many urban mushrooms, they are saprophytes, helping break down organic matter in the soil. In the forest, more fungi are in a mutually beneficial relationship with trees. Shaggy parasols usually grow in scattered groups but can also be found individually or in a ring. They generally return once or twice a year to the same area.

If you come across a portabella-sized white mushroom in your yard with thick scales on the cap, a ring on the stem and bulbous base, it’s probably C. rachodes. To be sure, cut the stem in half and, in addition to being hollow, it will quickly turn carrot orange. There is one poisonous member in the group, but conveniently it lives outside the Pacific Northwest.

Shaggy parasols are similar in flavor to portabellas but are more concentrated, with a nutty mineral character, making them perfect for classic mushroom dishes from pizza to pasta to stroganoff.

Half of the calls I receive to identify fungi during the warmer months are asking about C. rachodes. If your yard is a healthy ecosystem rich with mulch and plants and free of fungicides, this backyard treasure will most likely show up. It’s virtually a weed, and weeds—along with insects and invasive species—should be staples of our diet so we can continue to multiply without obliterating the natural world.

Identifying Attributes: Large white cap with shaggy darker scales on top and gills that don’t attach to the stipe. A smooth, ringed, orange-staining (the key to easy recognition) hollow stem rises from a bulbous base.

Look-alikes: No other big white mushrooms in the city will stain carrot orange when cut.

Culinary Attributes: Delicious, rich mushroom flavor that is comparable to a portabella but more potent. Goes great in stuffings, with grains, and grilled on a sandwich. The stems are fibrous and better diced or minced before cooking.

Wine Pairings: Red Burgundy (produced in France). //

Kelly Chadwick is a snowboarder, hiker, bicyclist, and occasional backpacker. His last article for Out There highlighted spring kings.

[Feature photo: Shaggy Parasols // Kelly Chadwick]

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If you were in a fairy tale in the most picturesque woods with mirror pools, fairies, gnomes, and talking animals, and came across a clump of alluring rotund cartoon looking mushrooms, they would be kings. Encountering them is intoxicating, resulting in an annual yearning that may haunt you forever.

Spring kings also have the benefit of coming up in a particularly beautiful time of year and inhabit pristine mid to older-growth mixed stands of montane white fir, pine, and hemlock. If the trees are well-spaced yet still shading out the sun, with huckleberries and bear grass filling the understory, you are in the right place. They frequent our local mountains, and I’ve seen them in the woods around Deer Park, in the Idaho Panhandle from Priest River to the Canadian border, and along the I-5 Corridor from Coeur d’Alene to St. Regis. They are beacons of a healthy ecosystem. This adds to their majesty but also makes them a valuable advocate of forest preservation. Hopefully the more people who want them, the more our forests will be valued beyond just timber.

Boletus rex-verus is eminently identifiable and therefore perfect for beginners. They are one of the few boletes (mushrooms with a spongy spore bearing surface opposed to gills) that have a brick reddish brown cap. Other features are the round robust density, white pores when young, and an overlay of an interwoven raised pattern on the top of the club-shaped stem, called reticulations. They are adored by many mammals and insects, so it’s not uncommon to find them with teeth marks. To avoid unsavory members of this family, cut or break a piece off and make sure it doesn’t stain blue. That will narrow your possibilities down to only edible species.

Hunting mushrooms can be a discouraging hobby highlighted with occasional eureka moments. Spring kings epitomize this. To avoid the resulting frustration and suffering, I suggest hiking casually in season through their habitat but not actually hunting for them. That way, one day they will miraculously appear before you—a celebration of earth and art and magic and feasting—and you will be ready.

Identifying Attributes: Prominently round and fecund. Brick red, lumpy cap over fine pores. They usually grow scattered or in little clumps in ideal montane forests.

Look-alikes:  There are countless other boletes, but nothing similar that is dangerous if you are careful with your identification. To be safe, eliminate all blue staining specimens of this family, and you will only run the risk of a less delicious feast.

Culinary Attributes: The firmness is fleeting so pick when young or use mature specimens dried and ground as a flavoring in soups and sauces. Fresh porcini are perfect grilled or with polenta.

Wine Pairings: One of the few wild foods complimented by chardonnay. //

[Feature photo “a statuesque Boletus rex-verus showing lighter colors of a dryer spring” by Kelly Chadwick.]

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I called my pal Rick, a farmer, for direction on what to do next. I was standing before a dead ruffed grouse. He told me to stand on the wings and pull out the torso. I argued that one should use all parts of the bird, but he overcame my idealism. I put the bird in the fridge to rest a few days, as instructed. That Friday my girlfriend and I sat down to sample this delicate creature. She is a vegetarian but considered the sacrifice dignified enough to make an exception. It was seared in coconut oil and Celtic salt and served with aged white burgundy. We thanked the bird for its life and the earth for the salad, sprouted broccoli, and Central Food bread. Tasting the first bite, our eyes widened. The fowl was remarkable in flavor and texture.

In the 90’s, I was developing a wholesale wild mushroom business. Our primary forager was a man named Doc who lived by Priest Lake and survived off trapping, huckleberries, and mushrooms. When large animals were hit on the highway, the game warden would get word to him. One year, after a moose collided with a truck, Doc gave me a shoulder, the best meat I’d ever had.

Another acquaintance, Jimmy, who grew up hunting, eventually decided road kill was a more respectful way to get his wild game. He lived on a rural highway near a body of water. Every weekday morning, friends headed to work going both directions would alert him to any fresh kills. Over the years he harvested and shared an enormous amount of venison this way.

Often the meat is too damaged to salvage, bruising quickly and soaking up stress hormones if the animal takes time to die. However, Jimmy emphasizes, “If a rib punctures the lung, they bleed out naturally, or a head hit can do less damage than a 30 caliber.” One time he drove by the river in winter as a buck broke through the ice and struggled to get free. “I’m a killer, but don’t like to see animals suffer.” He went into the water and wrestled the panicked deer out, but it died of exhaustion by the time they reached shore. As he dragged the carcass up to the highway knee deep in snow, a state trooper pulled over and said, “You are breaking the law.” “Yes I am.” Jimmy responded in a characteristically humble way. “I would be breaking a bigger law if I let the deer stay out there and die.” The officer smiled and left.

Laws in Washington have recently changed. As of July 2016, one can harvest road kill legally in our state as long as the entire mess is cleaned up and the animal isn’t killed on purpose. Anyone who takes possession of a deer or elk carcass must also obtain a free, printable permit from Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife within 24 hours and keep a hardcopy of the signed and dated permit with the meat. I also checked in with WDFW and was informed it’s not allowed to kill an animal because it’s wounded. Afraid of rotten meet?  Worry not. You’ll know if it’s rotten, say the seasoned collectors. Smell the meat, make sure there are no old wounds, and cut out bruised areas.

Another examples of opportunistic hunting are snails.  Have you ever considered collecting snails from our regions lakes? In spite of their being large, juicy and prolific, few folks eat them. They will be my next foraging experiment. //

Kelly Chadwick grew up wandering the outdoors, which led to a lifelong passion for the natural sciences. He wrote about fairy clubs in October.

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In the family of club fungi, Clavariaceae, the superlative species to hunt is Clavariadelphus truncatus, the coral club. It should be called the giant fairy club, but that name was taken, oddly, by a smaller club. C. truncatus grows in small groups and is easily recognized by its truncated form. Truncated means it’s club-shaped with a flattened top. They have a steep downward taper; a lumpy, wrinkled surface; and resemblance to a baby chanterelle with a more ochre hue. They are roughly the size of a thumb.

There are delicious and distinctive wild edibles that haven’t yet entered our food stream consciousness, many of which are fungi. Coral Clubs are one of them. They have the rare quality of being complete in flavor and in no need of sauces or spices. They taste like sweet teriyaki chicken with a suppler texture. The sweetness is apparent when fresh, which definitively separates it from other bitter tasting clubs, along with almost all fungi.

In some textbooks Clavariadelphus is listed as inedible or no info provided. Even among the most avid foragers, few gather this gem. Fairy clubs are fleeting and labor intensive to collect, unlike large durable genera such as chanterelles and matsutake. They start coming up well into autumn, and then the first frost renders them watery and mushy. As with garden tomatoes, wild berries, sardines, and shaggy manes, clubs are built with short windows of ripeness. Even when the timing is perfect, insects may have hollowed them out. Don’t be discouraged. Foraging is about discovering nature’s nuances. People dream about treasure, buy metal detectors, shop at antique stores and garage sales. The original treasure was food.

Identifying Attributes: Various colored obelisks rising a couple inches above the needles in random patterns of delicate dissemination.

Look-alikes:  Earth tongues have a similar stature but are tougher and with mostly darker hues of green and black in the shape of elongated spades.  They are also edible.

Culinary Attributes: A sweet and firmly spongy delicacy. Cook in coconut oil with a little salt and add as a garnish. Purported to be donut-like when lightly battered and dusted with sugar.

 Wine Pairings: Austrian Riesling is complex and smells sweet yet is dry and won’t mask the personality of clubs. //

Kelly Chadwick grew up wandering the outdoors, which led to a lifelong passion for the natural sciences. He wrote about inky caps in August.

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Inky caps are the most pervasive summer fungi in our urban environment. Inky caps are identified by four unmistakable characteristics: growth in often dense clusters, auto digestion into a slimy black ink, oval shape when young, and super-wide, packed gills that are like pages in a book. They come up late spring to early fall in lawns and yards, arising in prolific clusters. They are a “safe genus” since all members are edible and easily recognized. However, two important caveats must be applied.

The first is bioaccumulation, a term for the concentration of substances, usually toxic ones, in living things. Mushrooms are adept at extracting toxins and heavy metals from the soil, and some inky caps are being studied for this use. So, be cautious of inky caps near heavily-trafficked, industrial, and contaminated locations. Secondly, inky caps are infamously contra indicative with alcohol due to a mycotoxin, coprine, that triggers Antabuse-like sickness. I do have a fearless friend who tested it out and reported an agreeable intoxication, but it’s generally not a pleasant experience. The species we know of in this group that dependably reacts with alcohol is the inky cap coprinopsis atramentaria.

There are three inky caps substantial enough to eat that frequent our landscapes. Mica caps are tawny colored, the size of a date, and adorned with shiny specs on top. The inky cap is grey and the size of an egg. Shaggy manes are the size of a duck egg—white with a shag surface—and considered one of the most recognizable of all mushrooms. The texture and flavor are similar to oysters, including the mineral edge in the palate.

An interesting side note on shaggy manes is that, in spite of sharing the distinctive and unique qualities of the group, they evolved from an unrelated lineage—the button mushroom. This tendency in nature is called convergent species and has led me to see life differently— not made of specific organisms, but as spaces in our world being filled. Life is evolving into limitless potential niches of expression and, if the niche works well, multiple species will evolve into nearly the same one.

Identifying Attributes: Inky caps grow in bouquets of oval-shaped mushrooms in grass and gardens on white stalks, often above decomposing roots and stumps. In the case of shaggy manes, they can be found on dirt roads and the edges of paths and yards. Thin gills are pressed together with a notably deep blade. Black slime is a key feature for identification, but there will be specimens at different stages of maturity so you can still find fresh ones in the collection.

Cautionary Points: Accurately learn the genus before harvesting. They are best sampled in small quantities if in the city. Avoid alcohol with, or for a couple days after, eating Coprinopsis atramentaria (the medium-large grey variety).

Culinary Attributes:

Inky caps cook faster than many mushrooms. They have a soft texture and refined mineral profile somewhere between seafood and vegetable. Use them in lighter sauces or their virtues will be lost. //

Kelly Chadwick wrote about the Ballhead Waterleaf in June.

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Ballhead waterleaf, Hydrophyllum capitatum, grows spring till early summer in shadier spots on rocky, moist soils from the foothills to tree line. In more arid locations, look under rock outcroppings or near taller foliage. Sometimes a single plant sits above a path. Other times they verge on being a weed. My stepfather’s “lawn” in Tum Tum sports them like dandelions.

This herb is easily recognized due to its long, pinnately-lobed leaves (pinnate means the leaf looks like several leaves coming off a central rib) and single globose lavender flower, almost like a little thistle head sitting low in the center of the arching stems. The roots branch into a cluster of small fingers and are the preferred part to eat—crunchy and a bit earthy. The sweet carrot-tasting leaves can be eaten raw or cooked but are best when young. If collecting the flower, wait until it is fully opened to avoid unsavory furriness. It is neutral in flavor and texture, so use as a garnish or entertainment while hiking.

According to ethnobotanist Nancy Turner, a number of tribes in the region collected the roots. Nowadays, tubers, corms, and rhizomes are referenced in books of foraging, but few bother to harvest them. Leaves, flowers, and berries are pluckable. Roots must be dug out, often in rocky soil requiring a stick or, ideally, shovel. In addition, it’s hard for us nature lovers to kill the whole plant for one morsel. The charming verdant waterleaf most definitely fits this category and could be decimated if singled out by the beast of human consumption. However, by sampling occasionally, one can get acquainted with a plant and not dishonor the species.

Identifying Attributes: The finely hairy—almost pinnate leaves—and low, globose flower are fairly distinct but to correctly identify, look at the picture in OTM and when you find it in the wild, double check with a knowledgeable person.

Cautionary Points: Though Hydrophyllum has no dangerous close look-alikes, plants can be difficult to identify from written description and should be verified by an expert.

 Culinary Attributes: All parts are edible. The blossom is a perfect little garnish. The root is savory and has substance. Leaves taste more appealing and sweeter than the flower and stems, which are mild and reminiscent of alfalfa.

Wine Pairings: Washington dry Cabernet Franc Rose is refreshing yet refined with vegetal notes that will tolerate raw flavors. Amavi makes a good one. //

Kelly Chadwick is an arborist and owner of Spirit Pruners. He wrote about the Snowbank Mushroom in April.

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This year I’m anticipating a good harvest of snowbank mushrooms, colloquially called calves’ brains. Our epic winter and deep snowpack are the conditions they love. Generally, fruitings are sparse and you’re lucky if you find more than a few. Occasionally they come up in great numbers, a wondrous experience that sets you up for years of disappointing harvests. This is what happened to me at the age of 19 hiking with my mother and her wolf hybrids in Chewelah. We were on a burnt hill scouting for morels when the dogs chased a deer that broke its leg in a panicked flight. I followed it along the slope, until it fumbled and got stuck under a fallen log. Pulling out a pocket knife, I said goodbye to the deer, which had become calm in resignation, and cut its throat. It was the only time I’d killed another large mammal. As the blood drained, an indescribable presence of death and transformation enveloped us. The deer slipped away to the spirit realm. When I sat up, the hill was covered in giant walnut looking mushrooms.

The snowbank mushroom is easily recognized from other members of the family. It has a brain-like appearance and the color is a distinctive tawny that can have reddish tints. There is a thin lip of a cap that surrounds the stout base, though the distinction between what is cap and stem is hazy. When cut in half it is formed of convoluted walls folded about in the interior. The texture is brittle unlike other members of the family and, as with Russulas, good for tossing at fellow foragers to slow them down. The resulting impact is a satisfying explosion.

The appeal of mushrooming is often equated to adult Easter egg hunting, and spring is the time this is most true. There are fewer to be found, but many are large, edible and striking, such as the snowbank mushroom. Talking to old timers here, “calves’ brains” are one of the few fungi that have been collected since the pioneering days. They grow around rotting wood, burns, or near melting snowbanks. They are prone to attack by insects, so check the bottom for activity when picking.

Identifying Attributes: Lobed and brain like with a stocky, thick stem wrapped in a tawny cap. Brittle and crumbly. Growing in morel habitat as the snow recedes.

Cautionary Points:  Cook well in an open pan with good ventilation to render edible. Poisonous look-alikes have a distinct stem and in some cases a saddle-shaped cap.

Culinary Attributes: Milder in flavor and softer in texture than morels and thus more universal in application. Particularly good in eggs or on bruschetta.//

Kelly Chadwick is an arborist and owner of Spirit Pruners. He wrote about edible inner bark in March.

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