CHARLESTON, W.Va. - It might sound hard to believe, but not everyone has been unhappy with the weather lately.
"I'm one of the few people who is like, 'Yeah! Bring on the rain!'" said Nancy Ward, president of the West Virginia Mushroom Club.
Ward, who also owns the South Hills boutique Cornucopia, knows more about mushrooms than just about anyone in the state. She goes on regular excursions to her top-secret picking spots, which have been producing even more bounty lately as oceans of rain keep falling on the area.
Yes - the rainy, dreary, junglelike weather that has been flooding basements and producing mildew in people's homes is also yielding a veritable smorgasbord of mushrooms. From golden chanterelles to morels to Bradleys, the selection is a fungiphile's dream come true.
Recently, Ward walked into Noah's Eclectic Bistro in downtown Charleston with two large baskets full of Bradley mushrooms, which go by the scientific name Lactarius corrugis. (Calling them "Bradleys" is apparently a West Virginia thing.)
She hoped bistro owner/chef Noah Miller could give them the treatment they deserved.
"All wild mushrooms, with very few exceptions, need to be cooked," she said. "The toxins need to break down."
But Bradleys in particular need to cook for a while.
"They are meaty, a braising kind of mushroom, where you cook them low and slow. They are not something you would sauté quickly," she said.
Miller was more than happy to oblige Ward's request to cook the mushrooms into a dish that could be frozen and reheated for serving at the Mushroom Club's next foray in Canaan Valley.
Miller recently spent some time on a hillside near his organic farm in Big Chimney picking chanterelles, which he plans to incorporate into his menu. He agreed that the weather lately has been ideal for producing lots of mushrooms.
He incorporated the mushrooms into dishes he prepared for a recent farm-to-table dinner at J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works in Malden. He said they would feature heavily on the restaurant's menu in the coming days.
Ward stressed caution for a first-timer hunting for chanterelles. The mushroom has an evil cousin known as a jack-o'-lantern.
"It won't kill you, but it will make you really sick," she said.
A friend recently picked a bunch of chanterelles with her daughter-in-law, who was born in Sweden, and cooked up a delicious meal for the family. Not long after, the daughter-in-law spotted more frilly yellow mushrooms growing near the house and picked them.
She had unknowingly fed the family jack-o'-lanterns. This time, the entire family was sickened for days.
"I thought, 'How could you mistake them?'" Ward said.
Then she realized what had happened: Jack-o'-lantern mushrooms don't grow in Sweden, but chanterelles do. The daughter-in-law had no idea that she should be cautious when identifying the mushrooms.
Ward said there are a few tips for telling the two apart.
"Chanterelles grow on the ground, not on wood, while jack-o'-lanterns grow on wood," Ward said. "But be aware that it could be buried wood."
Also:
n Chanterelles have a fruity smell not unlike apricot.
n Whereas chanterelles have very small, smooth gills, jack-o-lanterns have true deep gills.
"You can actually take your finger and move them," she said. "But again, be careful because when a jack-o'-lantern is very young, maybe they might look like they're not so deep."
n Jack-o'-lanterns tend to grow clustered and have longer, more pronounced stalks.
n Chanterelles tend to be lighter yellow, while a jack-o'-lantern is a darker orange.
She recommends joining the mushroom club and going foraging with experienced 'shroomers.
"Never eat one unless you absolutely know it," she said. "A new liver - or even your life - is not worth a meal."
For more information, visit www.wvmushroomclub.org.
Learn more about the club: www.facebook.com/groups/WestVirginiaMushroomClub/
Reach Billy Wolfe at life@dailymailwv.com or 304-348-4830.