Ep. 135: Wine Forest Wild Foods - Origins and Evolution of America's Wild Mushroom Business (feat. Connie Green)

Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to chat with Connie Green founder of Wine Forest Foods and author of “The Wild Table”. Since 1979, Connie has been providing chefs like Thomas Keller, Cory Lee, Michael Mina, Traci de Jardins and many more with mushrooms of unparalleled quality. As one of the very first pioneers in the American wild mushroom business, Connie has filled a key role in educating chefs and the public about the wild foods now so widely loved in American cuisine. Over the decades, she has cultivated a network of great mushroom pickers has been woven across the West, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, and even Europe. Hand and hand with this wild life with wild mushrooms is a love and respect for the forest ecosystem from which the mushrooms flow. Connie has always preached principles of sustainability in harvesting and hopes that, in her own words, “commercial mushroom hunting can give a living back to loggers and make our forests economically more valuable in the long term left standing than converted to board feet of lumber”. What a privilege to speak with a culture creator and pioneer in wild mushroom harvesting.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Fields of Chanterelles & Beginning of Commercial Foraging   
• Putting in the Miles in the Forest   
• Scouting Habitat and Making Good Observations   
• Northern California Chanterelle Habitat   
• Ukiah, Oregon - The Town Morels Built    
• Fire & Ecological Transformation in Northern California   
• Tan Oak Destruction    
• Economic Value of Forest Fungal Productivity vs Board Feet of Lumber   
• Regional Fiefdoms of National Forest service    
• Symbiosis of Amateur and Professional Foragers   
• Foraging Sustainably, Cultivating Forage Grounds   
• Commercial Foraging Networks   
• Wild Food Regulation   
• Advice to Enter the Business of Wild Foods   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Wine Forest website: https://wineforest.com/   
• "The Wild Table": https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Table-Seasonal-Foraged-Recipes/dp/0670022268   
• Ukiah, Oregon: http://www.cityofukiahoregon.com/history.html   
• Cantherellus californicus (AKA California Golden Chanterelle): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantharellus_californicus   
• Notholithocarpus densiflorus (AKA Tan Oak): https://calscape.org/Notholithocarpus-densiflorus-()
• Morchella tomentosa (AKA Gray Morel): http://www.mushroomexpert.com/morchella_tomentosa.html   
• Craterellus tubaeformis (AKA Yellowfoot Chanterelle): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craterellus_tubaeformis