Shaggy Mane Mushrooms
While traveling through remote parts of Alaskan Highway in Canada back in 1995, we happened upon a lady harvesting something and placing it in a large basket. To satisfy my curiosity, we parked our motorhome along the highway and joined the lady out in the tundra and shrubbery. As we approached her, I noticed that her large basket was filling with white, elongate mushrooms.
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| Shaggy Mane Mushrooms |
“What are they?” I asked.
“Well, they are Shaggy Mane Mushrooms,” she replied.
“How do you know they are safe to eat?” I asked.
“I’ve been eating them all my life and they have not hurt me yet,” she said.
“Do you mind if we join you in harvesting some?” I asked.
“Help yourself,” she said. “As you can see there are plenty of them here for everybody.”
The mushrooms were easy to find. They grew mostly in piles of moose dung. Apparently, the moose were very abundant in the area, but we could not see any of them nearby.
We gathered about a gallon of them and then thought to ask the lady how to cook them. “Well first, you need to blanch them in boiling water for a few seconds to stop the maturation. Otherwise, they turn black and the flavor is affected. They are good in stews and soups and have something of a fishy flavor. Some folks claim that it’s not good to eat them with alcohol so go easy on the “juice.”
We thanked the lady for her help and returned to the motorhome with our treasure. We blanched them and then cooked up a batch. We both thought they were quite tasty. but maybe best of all, they did not kill us. We have often been warned of the dangers of mushroom mis-identifications resulting in human poisoning, so had never tried wild mushrooms. Now, here we were out eating off the land. It was fun!
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