Over the River & Through the Woods to the Sonoma Coast We Go

Sometimes it takes an outsider to introduce you to something that is right in your own backyard. In this case, two people, one from Washington and the other from Tennessee showed me a plentiful treasure known in my own Sonoma Coast this time of year, as mushrooms. We set out on a gorgeous Saturday morning, five people with muckboots, baskets, and field guides, in a search for our own gold-chanterelles.

Perfect place for finding treasuresSadly, we weren't the only people who had treasures on our minds, and though the drive was effortlessly beautiful, it became quite important to find our own secret "X" on the map. Spot one turned out to be nothing but a false alarm, and the what seemed like endless row of cars parked on the side of the road, we finally found our mile marker.

Searching for mushrooms is a very interesting task. First of course, is the finding of a good spot, not trampled and picked over. Second, is not picking up mushrooms that could kill you. Third, is not picking up the mushrooms that are going to inhibit your driving skills (amongst others) for the next few hours. Our goal was that elusive chanterelle, a wildly sought after edible mushroom, first gaining popularity in French cuisine in the 1700s. Since, they have been harvested for use in personal and professional kitchens alitke. Our hope, since the season started a few months ago, and tapers off in a few weeks, was that we would be lucky enough to find some left, or some new growth after a perfect combination of weather in the last few days.

All these pictured here, not what we were looking for, but beautiful nonetheless


After about five hours of searching, one lunch, two spots, and ten muddy feet later, we ended our treasure hunt with less gold than we had hoped, but something equally as exciting, black trumpet mushrooms.


Trumpets sounding
The black trumpet is hard to spot, as it seems to perfectly blend in with the dirt, moss, and decaying wood around it. People can literally walk over patches of it. Once we found our first batch, our eyes became more peeled then before, looking for these little guys. Once we felt as we had our fill we headed back to town.
One of  the baskets of goods
Upon returning back to town, we decided to make a homemade pizza with our bounty. The dough was almost focaccia-like, fluffy and perfectly crisped. We topped the pizza with a scrounged together pesto (the best with just basil, garlic, olive oil and walnuts), shredded some cheese (Parmesan and mozzarella), topped with some various veggies, and proudly laid those trumpet mushrooms all across the dough.

Preparing the doughSpreading the pesto
Almost gone
  One of my slices, a whole perfect black trumpet in one bite.
The meal was fabulously homemade and went perfectly with the mushrooms. It was just quite the legendary day, filled with all the treasures a girl needs.