Origins and Evolution of America's Wild Mushroom Business | Connie Green

Ep. 135:

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