Brad Forages for Porcini Mushrooms

(growling)

Hey guys today on It's Alive

we're out here in Washington,

the state.

And today we're gonna be doing a little

mushroom foraging.

I got my fungus friends that join me,

the wonderful Colin and Andrew

and we're gonna be going

for the high elevation porcini mushrooms.

(inhaling)

This is not something you should just go do,

jump into, go find some mushrooms in the woods

and just pop 'em in your mouth.

You can get really sick and possibly even die.

So please do your research,

make some friends,

let's have some fun baby.

To the mushroom fields Vinnie.

What Vinnie?

Oh, today on It's Alive,

we're foraging for

high-elevation porcinis Vinnie.

That's a mushroom.

Get in here.

Oh God!

(upbeat music)

(sneezing)

All right Vinnie

get in here.

Andrew boys I think we found one.

Right?

Oh yeah.

Porcini?

Looks like it.

All right so then what?

We'll try to excavate a little.

All right, then we'll just do

a little rock wiggle.

Oh deep guy.

Oh no.

Almost, yeah, this one looks like it was pretty--

And it was under the root.

Attached to the root, yeah.

Yeah, so you can see how much meat

there is left on the bottom there.

Wow.

So, still salvageable.

Oh, it smells delicious.

Yeah, nice, yeah.

Nice and firm. I love porcinis.

Now, you notice on some mushrooms

they have those fluted,

like a gill?

Gill, yep.

Now, I noticed that the porcini does not.

Yep, it has a spongy underside.

Spongy underside.

Tubes.

There's millions of little tiny tubes

that the spores are gonna come out of the cap

and drop down through those little tiny tubes.

The mushroom that we're harvesting

is just, that's not all of it, right?

Sure, oh yeah, that's just the fruit.

The whole rest of the organism

is underground, the mycelium.

[Brad] So this is like the flower of the plant.

Exactly.

Or the fungus.

Right, right, the fruit.

So essentially, this is the fungus

trying to reproduce?

Exactly.

Okay.

Yep, so the spores,

the spores are like seeds.

They're teeny-tiny, they drop,

and they're so light

that they just fly.

And that's how they--

They're in the atmosphere,

they're everywhere all around us.

We're breathing them in right now.

(foreboding music)

That's how they reproduce

in a much more distant place

than the mycelium that will grow

under the duff.

The duff?

You know, kind of colonize this.

Explain to us what the duff is.

The duff is the layer of the forest floor

between the soil and the surface.

So it's just that little bit of--

Exactly.

Pre-decomposition.

Exactly.

Duff.

Yep, yep.

Forest duff, everyone knows that.

Yep, duff.

And the mushrooms, the mycelium,

are the primary decomposer

between the living the trees.

They drop their needles

and they fall down to the ground

before they turn into nutrients

that the trees can take back up.

They're primarily consumed

by the mycelium, by the mushrooms.

And the mycelium,

that is the network underground.

Yeah, you can see,

you should be able to see

in the root here

where it was connecting

to the mycelium.

I just can't get over this smell.

It's a little earthy and mushroomy,

but it's also like a little dry-aged beefy.

Mm.

Oh wow.

Right?

I can see that.

It's got like a nutty funk to it

in the best way possible.

Yeah.

Now, where would you slice?

[Colin] I would probably

cut off that more gnarly spot

and get yourself a nice clean--

[Brad] Face?

Coin of the stalk.

You're goin' thin.

Well yeah.

Carpaccio.

A delicacy.

I gotta sell it.

(laughing)

Oh wow.

That nuttiness really comes through doesn't it?

Yeah, who wants one?

I do.

Mushrooms are awesome.

Mushrooms are awesome.

Oop, it's coming out of your check.

(cash register dings)

Boletes tend to be one of the safest

of the groups of mushrooms to eat.

But yes, it's very true,

you wanna know what you're looking for,

you wanna have completely

100% sure identification

that you're eating

what you think you're eating.

And it's a good idea to go with someone

who knows--

Who's done it before?

And knows exactly that mushroom that you're looking for.

Glad you guys are here.

(laughing)

Vinnie, let's go.

[Colin] Although I'm a completely

self-taught forager

and never really had anybody

more experienced than me teach me,

(laughing)

but--

[Andrew] Yeah, me either.

[Colin] The scariest or yeah,

the one that took me the longest

to be comfortable with is the matsutake.

What is that?

[Brad] Oh really, why?

'Cause there's a couple--

[Colin] Is it a avocado pit?

[Andrew] Oh, avocado pit.

(laughing)

[Brad] A kind of mushroom.

[Colin] That's the thing

about foraging in, yeah.

[Andrew] Yeah, you can see

a discarded orange peel.

[Colin] Yeah, oh man

orange peels are the worst.

[Brad] Ah Vin, zoom in on this one.

[Colin] Oh, that's a good one.

This is that one,

the green cap Wilson.

[Colin] The green cap Wilson?

[Brad] Yeah, very poisonous.

[Colin] Known for its bounce.

Known--

(laughing)

Great bounce

and spongy texture.

(chuckling)

Harmless.

[Colin] Quite fun, actually.

[Andrew] Dogs love it.

Hey Brad, I got another one.

Come check it out.

[Brad] All right.

Oh, big boy.

Big boy.

So this is a little beyond

where you wanna find it.

[Brad] All right.

[Colin] Ew.

[Brad] Oh wow.

[Colin] Would you wanna eat that?

No, it's slimy.

It's nasty.

It's soft.

What does eat these other than us?

Well, we'll see here real quick

that the maggots love them.

Oh, the maggots.

The squirrels love 'em, ew.

Oh wow.

Look at that.

Funkay.

(laughing)

Now, this is definitely far beyond

where I would wanna eat it.

Oh Vinnie, you gettin' in here

there's maggots crawling.

[Colin] But a little bit of maggots

doesn't really bother me, oh yeah.

But the other thing is,

is that with more mature ones like this

you can just dry 'em

and the maggots just crawl right out.

[Brad] That's a good point.

And sometimes the sponge is

the only thing that has the maggots

and you can--

[Brad] Wow.

Save the rest of it,

or maybe you can just salvage

the stalk but this is just done.

[Brad] Yeah, she's fried.

All right, well here, we'll tuck her back in.

We'll let the squirrels and maggots have that one.

[Colin] There we go.

Oh, you got one there too?

Oh.

Andrew, what you got?

[Brad] All right with the eyes.

[Colin] Nice.

[Brad] Check out the eyes on an Andrew.

[Andrew] Pretty firm.

[Brad] Nice pluck.

[Colin] Oh.

But you can feel

there's no give at all.

No, it's--

Which is a good indicator

the bugs haven't gotten to it yet?

That's what we like.

Excellent, nice little piggy,

let's throw her in the basket.

Oh, you got chanterelles?

[Andrew] Yeah dude.

[Brad] Oh.

[Colin] Oh wow, nice little cluster of 'em.

[Andrew] Cantharellus species,

chanterelle, golden chanterelle.

[Brad] Oh, look at that, beautiful.

[Colin] Give that thing a whiff.

Yeah.

[Andrew] Yeah, so.

Oh wow.

Man.

[Andrew] So, it definitely--

[Colin] Oh man, you get the--

How cool is nature?

You get the apricot?

Oh I get it.

[Andrew] That's exciting.

[Brad] They're so beautiful though.

[Colin] Yeah.

[Brad] Like I always said--

[Colin] Oh, oh, oh!

[Andrew] What do you got, what?

[Brad] Oh, mother lode, Vinnie!

[Colin] Wow.

The boys are gettin' excited.

Our fungus friends are gettin' real chippy.

[Colin] Oh man.

Just takes one little patch.

That's a nice little f'rooting.

[Andrew] Yeah, that's awesome.

[Brad] Great little f'rooting.

[Colin] You can see the variety

of age here from full size down to

you know these things are like--

Just poppin' up..

[Colin] That's like--

Or this guy.

[Colin] Come back in two weeks

and this is--

[Brad] And you're gonna have that.

[Colin] Exactly.

Yep.

And look here's some

that probably won't rotten.

[Colin] Oh, interesting.

Before we see the whole cycle here.

Washed.

[Colin] No, that's lichen.

(laughing)

Okay, yeah that's raccoon scat.

(laughing)

So I noticed, you got kind of you know

looks like I'm gonna have to get one

but I noticed you guys got these

really cool little baskets.

You know, is there a reason

you guys carry baskets

compared to like a little

I mean, other than it being super cute and all.

Is there a beneficial

to putting your mushrooms or whatever

your harvesting in there?

Compared to like a plastic bag

or something stupid.

I've certainly seen people use

plastic bags or paper bags.

But, the idea with the basket

is that you're dropping spores

along the way.

Oh little Johnny Appleseed as you go.

Exactly.

Keep your eyes open for shrumps Vinnie.

Oh I wish you guys could smell that.

I wish you could smell this whole area.

So quiet.

(inhaling)

And that air.

Oh, ma ma ma.

My favorite artist

you ask, Vince?

(solemn music)

You know I've been sayin' this for decades.

My favorite artist, Mother Nature.

Look at that.

Good luck.

You paint that.

(inspirational music)

You sculpt that, you make that,

you can't.

She's got you beat every time.

(solemn music)

You know and just like a fine Matisse painting,

it should be respected.

(intense music)

Fair enough.

(intense music)

I like that, hope Matt doesn't cut that.

Probably will.

Son of a (bleep) (bleep).

Oh.

I don't think it's the good kind Vinnie.

Look at this

I mean this is like it's on a pile

of rotting wood chips.

You know it just really focusing in

on what these creatures do.

So, I don't know where our fungus friends went.

You know they went and got lost in the woods on us

left us here to experiment.

I don't know what kind of mushroom this is.

Oh no, see huh.

See we did learn Vinnie.

Come on, get in here bud.

Now how do we know Vincent that this isn't a Porcini?

(crickets chirping)

Correct, you nailed it Vince.

Look so they have the gills

instead of the spongy spore droppers.

So this is not, ugh, this is not a Porcini.

This my friends is not a high-elevation Porcini.

It's probably poisonous as hell.

All right.

Ah, Vinnie.

Little treat for ya.

Little huckleberry.

Oh, oh what a tease.

Oh a little tart, a little sweet.

Just like us Vinnie.

You know Vinnie, I gotta tell ya.

Bringing me back to our camping days.

Feels good to get back in the woods you know.

Really ties you back into your food and

(loud growling)

you hear that?

(loud roaring)

I think our buddies are this way, Vince.

Enough chit chat let's go.

Where is he?

He's over here sounds like a grizzly bear.

[Andrew] I'm very deep.

[Brad] You gonna get out of this stick at me.

Oh, what a pretty little field.

(sighing)

(sighing)

Oh, Vince.

Vince, I think I ate the wrong mushroom.

(dreamy music)

I think it was really green.

(short beep)

[Brad] Oh, it's Two.

[Colin] Right.

[Brad] We got a twofer.

[Colin] I think that's--

[Brad] Earthy.

[Colin] I think those might be good to go.

[Brad] Yeah, they feel nice.

[Colin] Oh, you're just doing 'em both at once.

Double-fistin'.

Oh my.

[Brad] Oh mutha!

[Colin] Oh, yes.

That's it.

They're beautiful.

[Colin] Those are primo.

These were great evidence.

[Colin] Number one.

Great one.

[Colin] Number one.

Oh number. This is number one Vinnie.

[Colin] When you sell 'em commercially

there's one through five.

Those would actually be number twos.

These are number twos clearly.

Oh. It didn't want to come off easily.

Not super roomy.

[Brad] Not too bad.

[Colin] But it's soft.

[Brad] But it's soft as hell.

You can tell it's falling apart here.

It's saturated.

[Colin] That'd be one I would probably

take that home and dry it and powder it.

[Brad] Really?

[Colin] Yep, because the texture doesn't matter.

The flavor's still all there.

The flavor does not necessarily--

[Brad] Should just try it.

[Colin] Should be just fine.

Yep, exactly.

You want it?

Um, not really.

Me either.

(laughing)

(short beep)

Oh, Vinnie.

A little shrump stands for a mushroom bump.

So, look this is great.

Good eye, Brad.

Let me brush off some of the duff.

So yeah when you go to pick these

as we learned,

you wanna excavate around it a little bit

just to expose the big nubby stem.

'Cause the stem is not garbage.

So you wanna get,

oh it's soft.

Oh, bummer.

And you would rock it.

This is a little rotten at the bottom.

That's too bad.

Oh, well.

We tried, you know.

Not everything can be perfect,

especially when you're foraging.

Just glad we found some stuff.

I don't know about you Vinnie,

but I'm pretty starving.

Say we head back,

we'll get a little fire going, all right.

We got plenty of mushrooms

and I know our fungus friends bought

some really cool stuff.

I think we're gonna do a little

mushroom fried rice.

So, let's get this fire going.

Let's go check out our bounty.

Oh, who's better than us Vinnie?

(upbeat music)

So we just picked these mushrooms.

And then I realized so you notice

they grow in dirt,

they are covered in dirt.

Duff.

Duff.

You wanna kind of clean 'em off.

Is there like a trimming.

Is there anything you need to do to 'em?

I always like to try to save as much

of the mushroom as possible.

So, I basically just start whittling at it.

It's inevitable, you're gonna eat

a little but of duff.

[Brad] Sure.

And or bugs when you eat wild mushrooms.

It's par for the course.

Right.

Right, so we just went out,

got all of our mushrooms.

Brought 'em back here.

We cleaned 'em up.

Andrew brought supplies.

Tell us what are we cookin' here?

[Andrew] Yes. So we're just gonna do

like a wild mushroom fried rice.

So, we'll kind of get some color

on the mushrooms.

We'll saute some onion and pepper.

Got a little sausage.

We'll finish with the garlic

and the cilantro root.

We'll do a little egg

and then finish it off

with some of Colin's chili sauce.

[Brad] Awesome. All right.

Here Vince.

Porcini first.

Yeah, what the hell.

Mm.

Mm hmm.

Even the texture is unbelievable.

And you don't think of it with

a lot of other mushrooms,

but the stems are awesome.

Mm hmm.

Wow.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

Well you know it's good to know

who's talkin' Vince.

(laughing)

It's almost like cedary to me.

A little bit.

Yeah, I can get that.

It's funny you say cedary

because we mentioned when we were

looking for 'em that they tend

to grow in like pine forests.

Carnivorous forests.

You know I wonder if they're

a product of their environment or whatever.

Yeah.

Like most foods.

Sure.

All right Vinnie, put the camera down buddy.

Get in here and eat.

All right guys thanks for joining.

It was a lot of fun.

From being out you know

learnin' in the woods

and then goin' back and cookin' with friends,

it doesn't really get much better than that.

You know if you guys get out there

please be careful you know

the porcinis and the chantarelles

they're kind a pretty safe ones

and pretty you know pretty easy.

But there's a lot of species out there.

Make friends, get in a community.

Go out pickin' with people that know what

they're doing and pass on the knowledge.

And just be careful out there.

If you're unsure, don't eat it.

Hope you guys had fun.

Let me know things that you like

to do with mushrooms

or some other cool species that you like to eat

or where you get 'em.

We'd love to hear.

Let us know in the comments.

Big thanks to Colin and Andrew

for taking their time

and sharing their spot with me.

I won't share.

If you can figure out where this is,

well cat's out of the hat guys.

But a cat's out of the hat?

Is that, no, cat's out of the bag?

Why was the cat in the bag?

Okay, anyway.

Thanks guys.

Bon Appetit.

(Brad laughing)

Oh Vinnie, look at this.

Come on buddy, look at this stuff, huh.

Look at this place.

How cold is the water?

Oh my God, it's warmer than the air.

Vince, you gotta feel that.

Get over here.

Put the camera down.

We are going swimming.

(short beep)

Oh, oh we did stumble

across some of those Alice in Wonderland mushrooms.

Highly psychedelic,

make your stomach feel a little weird.

Lets go nibble on those Vinnie.

(short beep)

What was the name of that mountain?

Oh, we're not telling anyone.

It's ours.

(short beep)

I feel like, uh,

what was the lady?

You know, there was an old song for kids.

♪ Over the river and through the woods ♪

and she had a bag, Goldilocks.

Right, Goldilocks.

She had a red shirt on.

Didn't a wolf eat her ass or something?

Or try to.

Oh, how's that story go?

(short beep)

Hm?

What'd you say Vince?

(laughing)

Oh, I gotta tell you brother.

I reckon it's time we get outta these woods.

Get back on the bikes brother.

Time to hit the road.

Ass to grass baby.

(upbeat music)