Delicious Flammulina Velutipes, Also Known As The Winter Mushroom
Northern California is home to a huge number of wild edible mushrooms. Foraging for mushrooms is a fun and rewarding pastime. There are many tasty mushrooms that are ripe for the picking — the key is to know where to look and what to look for. Once the mushrooms are brought home, there are many different ways to utilize their unique textures and flavors.
Flammulina Velutipes, also known as the Winter Mushroom, is a tasty edible mushroom that can be found in Northern California. Winter Mushrooms fruit late in the season, so they are good ones to look for in the late winter and spring.
The caps of Winter Mushrooms can be flat or quite convex. They are moist and sticky when fresh and vary between orange-brown to yellowish brown. The flesh is thin and white or slightly yellowish in color.
Whenever you plan on foraging for mushrooms, certain precautions must be taken. It’s no secret that there are a lot of toxic mushrooms, so identifying an edible mushroom correctly is crucial. If you aren’t completely certain about the identification of the mushroom, do not consume.
Interestingly, most people have likely seen this mushroom for sale at the grocery store. These mushrooms are actually Enoki or Enokitake, which are extremely popular in Japanese cuisine. However, Enoki look quite different from wild Winter Mushrooms because they are cultivated in jars in the dark. By cultivating Winter Mushrooms in this environment, they grow long and thin in an attempt to seek the light. Well-loved Enoki mushrooms are the end result.
Despite being quite different in taste and appearance to Enoki mushrooms, wild Winter Mushrooms are still great for eating. They are actually said to pack more of a flavor than Enokis. You can find these saprotrophic mushrooms growing on stumps, roots, and logs of hardwoods. They also grow on living hardwoods. Winter Mushrooms tend to pop up in clusters, which is convenient for harvesting.
Aside from Winter Mushrooms, Enoki, and Enokitake, you may also hear Flammulina Velutipes referred to as Velvet Foot. This is likely because of their velvety texture. These mushrooms like the cold, which is why you can find them in abundance quite a while after the Fall. When other fungi have gone dormant, you can count on finding these mushrooms in the offseason.
As with any type of wild mushroom, Winter Mushrooms need to be cleaned up before you start cooking. This includes chopping off the bottom of the mushroom and rinsing off any dirt. It’s also a good idea to always check for insect damage. Winter Mushrooms can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. Whether you sauté them or add them to a sauce, these mushrooms are known for their great flavor.
Want to find your own? We have mushroom foraging classes all season in Marin, Sonoma, and the Santa Cruz Mountains.