Foraging

You know, one of the bits of collateral damage from the Covid pandemic is that supermarkets have stopped having bins of mushrooms, so you can pick as few or as many of as many types as you need for a particular recipe.

(I developed one for wild rice that I steam with chicken stock, then sauté a mix of fungi—portobello, oyster, shitake, cremini—with some diced shallots, mix it all together and put it in the oven while I’m roasting chicken breasts marinated in orange juice, soy sauce, Dijon mustard and ginger root. Delish.)

But since the pandemic, you have to buy pre-packaged mushrooms, which starts running into some serious coin if you want a variety, not to mention you get what they pack, not the ones you want. This is the case not only in the big national and regional chains, but also in the Asian and Latino grocery stores I frequent.

(A friend who lives in the Seattle environs swears that they’re all free range there, but I have to wonder.)

So I have to say that when I came across these guys on one of my walks, I was tempted…

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