Fall brings a lot of feelings for me. The Perseid meteor showers are at the end of their show for 2024. The colder temps and the turning of the leaves and watching them drop brings a certain sadness in knowing that my weekends in the wilderness will soon be coming to an end. The sweet smells of summer are passing, the bees are prepping for winter, and I’ve started thinking about calling moose and deer hunting before snow flies.
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| Hedgehog mushrooms can be harvested late into the fall and can grow pretty large. They can be an excellent addition to the holiday gathering food table. PHOTO BY STACI WARREN |
What you use to forage is important. We have mushroom knives with brushes to help clean them as we forage. We also use canvas bags with a large, padded shoulder strap for most of our mushrooms but have found that a good cardboard box works best for larger delicate chanterelles so that they don’t break. Store your mushrooms in the refrigerator in a brown paper bag or container lined with paper towels and the vented lid. This will help preserve your harvest until you use them. Mushrooms can spoil easily so be ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work preserving, drying or freezing them.
The tasty Hedgehog mushroom (Hydnum repandum and Hydnum rufescens) is a great late season mushroom and barring a frost, can get pretty big. Hedgehog mushrooms are peach colored to orange, range in size from dime to the size of your hand depending on which variety you find and have “teeth” on the underside of the cap.
The have a wonderful hearty flavor sautéed, and I use them to make the Modern Proper’s Hungarian Mushroom Soup, one of the best tasting soups I’ve ever had or made. As with any wild mushroom, always know what you’re eating for sure, always cook it thoroughly, and eat just a small amount the first time you try a new one as some mushrooms have been known to cause intestinal distress.
If you’re interested in foraging for mushrooms, I highly recommend: Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada, authored by Mainer, David Spahr. The book is a great learning guide for beginners, and most of the mushrooms are easily identifiable in the Maine woods no matter where you reside.
The longer I forage the more I’m discovering that I can use mushrooms in more ways than I ever realized. My latest, which has taken four years to get it right the first time is Trumpet Jelly. Made with the Trumpet Soup base published a couple months ago (see https://lifestyles.thewindhameagle.com/2024/08/staci-warren-her-mainely-girl-adventures.html),
Trumpet Jelly is a much-loved addition to our family holiday gathering food table. It has a distinct savory trumpet flavor with a hint of sweetness. I serve it as you would serve pepper jelly, for example, over cream cheese and crackers on the side, but I’ve also added it to a meat dish as a condiment. If you haven’t made the soup yet, there’s still time; trumpet mushrooms are still popping up all over! Please feel to reach out to me if you have any questions.
Trumpet Jelly
1-1/2 to 2 pints of Trumpet Soup Base (no cream added)
1 package of low-sugar Sure-Jell
1-1/2 tablespoons of citric acid
1 cup of chicken stock
1 tablespoons of butter
6 cups of sugar
Pour soup base into large kettle. Add Sure-Jell, citric acid and chicken stock. Using a wooden spoon, stir and heat mixture until it comes to a boil. Add the sugar all at once and stir until sugar is melted. Your mixture will be black. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil and continue to boil for two minutes at a time checking to see if jelly will set, or until thermometer reaches 220 degrees but making sure not to burn the jelly. Remove from heat. Ladle into half pint jars. Wipe rims with warm cloth. You can now add shredded wax on top of the hot jelly before applying the lids, or just apply lids making sure rings are tight. Set aside and check for sealed covers by pressing centers. If they pop up after the jar has cooled, you’ll have to recheck the rims of the glass and then pressure cook them on high for 25 minutes. Afterward, label and date your jelly.
As winter creeps in, don’t forget to look up to the night skies for the International Space Station and more meteor showers in the coming months.
Staci Warren provides a unique woman’s perspective and column on the outdoors every month. She is a freelance writer whose blog, My Mainely Girl Adventures, is about a woman hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging and living in the Maine outdoors. She also loves camping, star gazing, wildlife watching, and hunting for fossils. She’s an active member and board member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and is a monthly columnist and feature writer for The Maine Sportsman Magazine. In her free time, she enjoys mentoring women hunters and trappers. <
Trumpet Jelly
1-1/2 to 2 pints of Trumpet Soup Base (no cream added)
1 package of low-sugar Sure-Jell
1-1/2 tablespoons of citric acid
1 cup of chicken stock
1 tablespoons of butter
6 cups of sugar
Pour soup base into large kettle. Add Sure-Jell, citric acid and chicken stock. Using a wooden spoon, stir and heat mixture until it comes to a boil. Add the sugar all at once and stir until sugar is melted. Your mixture will be black. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil and continue to boil for two minutes at a time checking to see if jelly will set, or until thermometer reaches 220 degrees but making sure not to burn the jelly. Remove from heat. Ladle into half pint jars. Wipe rims with warm cloth. You can now add shredded wax on top of the hot jelly before applying the lids, or just apply lids making sure rings are tight. Set aside and check for sealed covers by pressing centers. If they pop up after the jar has cooled, you’ll have to recheck the rims of the glass and then pressure cook them on high for 25 minutes. Afterward, label and date your jelly.
As winter creeps in, don’t forget to look up to the night skies for the International Space Station and more meteor showers in the coming months.
Staci Warren provides a unique woman’s perspective and column on the outdoors every month. She is a freelance writer whose blog, My Mainely Girl Adventures, is about a woman hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging and living in the Maine outdoors. She also loves camping, star gazing, wildlife watching, and hunting for fossils. She’s an active member and board member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and is a monthly columnist and feature writer for The Maine Sportsman Magazine. In her free time, she enjoys mentoring women hunters and trappers. <
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