Secret Tips from a Commercial Chanterelle Hunter
by Constance Green

For 13 years I've been the most silent member of MSSF because, yes, I'm one of THEM--a commercial chanterelle hunter. The pervasive condemnation of commercial hunting and periodic pirates which seek me and/or my turf, have left me with such a low a profile as anyone could have who harvest the extraordinary quantities I do.

My motive in hopping out of the closet is to correct a major misconception; that of the commercial hunter who has no respect for mushroom habitat. To the contrary, we who make a living with wild mushrooms have a vastly deeper commitment to preserving our mushroom beds than any weekend forager.

For many years several tracts of private land have been at my disposal. I am intimate with every tree. A profound reverence for this habitat is combined with the desire to care for the goose who lays these golden eggs. These forests now bear more chanterelles than existed in year one. As I hunt, there are 2 prime habitat maintenance goals: aid spore dispesal, and maintain the integrity of the "skin" protecting your mycelium. Here is a list of suggestions for truly caring for your own secret bed, learned by trial and error:

1. Baskets: always use baskets, not buckets. Every bouncing step is salting spores as you walk. When you rest, place the basket on a non bearing area under a tree drip-line.

2. Soil compaction: Apart from suicidal methods like raking, I believe soil compaction to be the biggest human danger to mushroom habitat. 90 percent of the time in chanterelle turf, there is a deer trail paralleling the drip line. Stay on this trail! I literally tip toe off the trail to do my picking. Any place you repeatedly walk will eventually stop bearing. You may also be tromping on young specimens, yet to emerge. Compaction is especially severe when the ground is wet.

3. Picking: A. Pull and twist mushrooms from the ground. Every professional hunter has suggested this. Cutting can result in the remaining stem becoming infected and endangering the mycelium. B. Pick only what you can see above ground or obvious mushrumps. Rooting around in the litter has proven to be foolish and destructive in my experience. I still think with deep regret of a single tree under which I picked 60 lbs of chanterelles. I did not "rake" but I went systematically through the litter. 12 years later that tree is still recovering. Yields have risen steadily, but still have only reached 10 lbs. If there are baby chanterelles, you can pick them later when they are a bit larger. Chanterelles grow very slowly. If you are afraid of losing them to livestock or other hunters, you may pile brush on top of them. Chanterelles like snuggling under protection. C. After picking, gently pat down and recover the hole with leaf litter or soil. This is very important.

4. Old Funky Specimens: most hunters are clever enough to toss these around to aid spore dispersal. Go one step further. Pick them, break them into tiny pieces, and place these pieces under the leaf litter. This hides evidence for other chanterelle hunters, and is a more effective way to spread spores.

5. Newts: (feels they are key players in spore dispersal)

6. Cleaning Chanterelles: (keep all the debris and return it to the woods)

7. Don't Haunt your Habitat: Chanterelles grow slowly; every three weeks is often enough.

8. The Ideal Hunt is when you have harvested your mushrooms yet tromped so lightly on the habitat that someone coming right behind you will never know its been hunted. As far as commercial hunting goes, the genie is far out of the bottle. Like it or not, legal or illegal, commercial hunting is a reality that won't go away. At best, commercial hunting can give a living back to loggers and make our forest economically more viable standing than converted to board feet of lumber. At its worst, we have fools hunting with the short-view and gun battles in the woods. Either way a realistic dialogue must begin. Im anxious for input from any kindred spirits, particularly responsible hunters. I can be reached at (707) 944-8604, 590 Wall Rd. Napa, CA 94558