(gentle upbeat music) - [Jennifer] When I am picking wild mushrooms, I get a feeling like I'm going back to some kind of primal roots.

- For me, it makes me feel like my problems are very insignificant.

(gentle upbeat music) - chanterelles are probably one of my all-time favorite mushrooms to cook with.

(gentle upbeat music) (mushroom sizzling) - What I love is that I can drive an hour and just pick them out of the woods.

(ambient music) It's called mushroom hunting, not mushroom catching.

(gentle upbeat music) This is exactly what you want.

This is like an old growth forest.

This duff and moss is just perfect.

- [Crystal] Duncan, Ari, and Fieval are searching for a hidden treasure, the Pacific golden chanterelle, one of the most majestic and delicious wild mushrooms in the Northwest.

You can only find them fresh at a certain time of year.

- My glasses are so fogged, I can't see anything.

- [Crystal] If you can find them at all.

(upbeat music) - This is what you don't want.

(upbeat music) There's a stopping point right here.

A real chanterelle will have it all the way down the stem.

Plus the hollow STEM, that's a dead giveaway.

It's a false chanterelle.

If you're not 100% sure of what it is, but they can be like a poisonous mushroom, don't even touch it.

(gentle upbeat music) Not a chanterelle.

- [Crystal] For newcomers, Chanterelles can be a gateway mushroom, an introduction to the wider world of fungi foraging, a thriving scene in the Northwest.

Once a year, many in the foraging community gather at the Mount Pisgah Mushroom Festival, where novices and experts alike celebrate the fall bounty and all things mushroomy.

(gentle upbeat music) (people chattering) - It's about 30 degrees out here at the Mt.

Pisgah Arboretum.

We're here for the Annual Mushroom Festival.

(gentle upbeat music) In addition to about 300 or 400 species of mushrooms on display, we also have lots of yummy mushroom soup and food.

(mushroom sizzling) - Look at that steam rising up.

Is that starting to smell good?

(mushroom sizzling) People who don't like mushrooms mostly don't like the texture, and I say, "Well, let me cook you a chanterelle," done beautifully like this.

So I think these are all pretty done.

Okay, who would like to be our first taster?

- [Children] Me.

- [Melanie] Awesome, okay.

All you three?

Okay, we'll pass those around.

There's plenty.

There you go, love.

(people chattering) Did you taste yours?

- [Child] Yummy.

- Is it good?

- [Child] Yummy.

- Oh, I'm so happy to hear that.

For the novice mushroom explorer, I suggest coming to a show just like this so you can see for yourself every feature of a mushroom is underneath it.

Everything about it is it trying to identify itself to you.

The experienced forger will know the difference because they've looked at hundreds and hundreds of chanterelles, and they learn that.

Foraging is really about being very present.

(gentle upbeat music) - I mean, it's more about just being out in the woods, for me anyway.

(gentle upbeat music) Nope.

A russula, also known as the shrimp mushroom.

They're edible, they just don't taste good.

- [Crystal] Our forgers have been searching for hours with no luck.

They could be in for a long day, but they are finding plenty of other less appetizing species of Northwest fungi.

- The lore behind that mushroom is incredible.

From Santa Claus to "Super Mario."

That is cool shot, man.

(ambient music) - [Crystal] Mushrooms are just the visible portion of a much larger organism.

Chanterelles, like all mushrooms, live most of the year underground as a network of branching threads called mycelia, feeding on all the woody stuff trees drop.

(ambient music) When the rains come each fall, they push their fruit up through the forest floor to spread spores and reproduce.

You're likely to find them in clusters if you can just find that first one.

(ambient music) Since chanterelles are so elusive and so cherished, this does lead to an obvious question: Why don't we just cultivate them like we do with other mushrooms?

(pensive music) - We grow mushrooms indoors year round.

We control for humidity, temperature, oxygen, and light.

So we start with hardwood sawdust, and we're essentially making artificial logs.

We inoculate them with mushroom mycelium for the type of mushroom we want to grow.

(pensive music) The mushroom colonizes the sawdust, and they fruit for about three months in the grow room.

(pensive music) You know, they almost feel like you've reared them.

You know, you created the substrate for them to grow on, give them the perfect environment, and the fruit of your labor of love.

(ambient music) Mushrooms like lion's mane, maitake, beech, those things weren't very popular, and I wanted to grow them because I thought they were delicious, beautiful, and I wanted to get those out on the market.

It's such a dynamic field to be part of, and I just love the industry and the science behind them.

I love everything about mushrooms.

(mellow music) Chanterelle's grow in relation with other plants, which is a complex system that happens under the ground.

So we haven't been able to recreate that indoors in a cultivated setting yet.

(pensive music) - [Crystal] Since they grow in symbiosis with Douglas fir trees, it means that in order to have chanterelles, you need a forest, along with some expertise, perseverance, and a bit of luck.

- [Duncan] We're so blessed to be here in the Pacific Northwest.

It's like this abundant wonderland is all around us and we actually are a part of that ecosystem.

As long as you clip your mushrooms properly, you can come back to the same spot every year, as long as nobody gets there first.

Oh, I think I see something.

(ambient music) Yeah!

Oh my God, they're everywhere.

- [Ari] Mother load.

- [Duncan] Yeah, once you find one, you'll find a ring.

Dude.

- [Ari] Beautiful.

- [Duncan] They're just massive.

(pensive music) That is quite the cone.

(pensive music) - [Ari] This is the spot.

- [Duncan] Cheers.

- [Ari] Cheers.

Yeah.

(pensive music) - [Ari] Time to cook.

(mellow music) (pavement crackling) (gentle upbeat music) - This is The Davis Restaurant.

I'm the chef here.

Duncan's one of the cooks here with me.

- We have a lot of fun here.

We cook great food.

We're a great team.

- You know, just like with all other vegetables and fruits, Chanterelles are like, they come and they kind of all come at once, and you have a short period of time to kind of get them and utilize them.

There's that, you know, minute of fall when they're so beautiful, and they have that earthy smell and that really rich mushroom odor that's so... You know, it's what you want, and it's like this beautiful moment, you know, and it's going to be gone.

(mushroom sizzling) - What you're looking for is that golden brown, like this is just releasing moisture, releasing moisture, releasing moisture, and then it's actually going back in them and concentrating.

A little bit of salt helps, too.

Helps them bleed some of their moisture.

And then you add your aromatics, like I usually do garlic, shallot, thyme, maybe some rosemary.

- And when you cook them, they smell like the woods.

- Like the earth, the forest floor, a little bit of sweetness.

(mushroom sizzling) They're meaty, almost kind of get the chew... Like a like chicken or something.

I mean, I think it's better than chicken, but, you know.

(Duncan laughing) (gentle upbeat music) (mushroom sizzling) We're going to do a little crostini with a poached egg and chanterelle.

(gentle upbeat music) - You know, there's a few of those wild mushrooms here, but that one is very special and part of this place.

- [Duncan] Micro greens.

We're just very lucky to live where we live.

Just feel really humbled and blessed to be surrounded by beautiful nature.

- Mushrooms help keep our forest healthy and trees help the mushrooms grow, so it's a symbiotic relationship, it benefits both.

- [Crystal] With a bit of care, it's a relationship that benefits the fungus, the forest, the forager, and the foodie.

(gentle upbeat music)