Finally, I have harvested the minuscule bloom of chanterelles that I have been nurturing all summer. These are the little gems of a rare summer flowering of the Santa Barbara County chanterelle, Cantharellus californicus.
The phenomenal season of 2010-2011 was a bumper crop for chanterelles. The harvest went well into the late spring. Oddly, I discovered a small patch of tiny buds in July in an area I had picked during the season. Between a wet, foggy summer and periodic watering on my part, I managed to tease out a few mushroom. I decided that it was time to harvest the mushrooms as they were drying out. The condition of the caps was good, although there was a little rot starting in the lower stem. I mentioned the bloom to Robert Cummings, the local mycologist at the Santa Barbara City College. Robert had been told by a fellow picker that he was harvesting summer chanterelles some 15 years ago. In my thirty years of picking in the area, this wa a first.
Tastefully,
Chef Michael Hutchings
Michael's Catering
Santa Barbara
Chanterelle in the Hand is Worth Two in the Duff
View of the Mycelium, the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments
Nacent Chanterell