Before the big Chanterelle fruiting, I found this Chicken of the Woods along my driveway. It was quite fresh and tender. I prefer "Chicken" to compliment other food, so a quick glance through the refrigerator shelves was made. How would leftover french fries and "Chicken" be? It was a very tasty breakfast.
On to the main course. In mid May we had a heavy rain. Our total was 5.5" and some areas got 8". This is just what chanterelles like, a lot of rain to get them started. There was another 2" rain about a week later. Again, just what chanterelle like. In another week, they were peeking through the leaf litter, seemingly, everywhere. For 13 of the next 14 days, I foraged in the Birkhead Wilderness and here at home. I was averaging about 2 pounds a day most of the time. I did hit 7 pounds on the most prolific forage. With a grand total in the 30 pound range, we were eating mushrooms everyday and cooking and freezing every day. I gave away 6 pounds to our friends - The Pandivas. Yes the wives organized a group and called themselves the the pandivas, short for Pandemic Divas.
Cleaning lasts for a while when you forage this many. I try to clean the mushrooms as much as possible when I pick them. A little dirt will get on many in the basket. Also, don't wash with water. They soak up water like a sponge. I prefer then as dry as possible but obviously you have to pick them full of moisture sometimes. I've read the water content can vary from 60-90%.
A fruiting season this robust does not happen often. I have only experienced this once before. Summer 4 years ago was the rainiest ever.
With this many, I tried a new recipe for chanterelle paté. It turned out quite rich, since paté is a lot of butter. However, it worked real well with pasta.
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