Hunting Golden Chanterelles

Brothers Beck Nesbit (left) and Andrew Nesbit, of Watkinsville, with a pile of chanterelle mushrooms after a successful hunt in Oconee County.

My boys’ faces lit up with joy and excitement.

“Daddy, we hit the jackpot!”

Not too many things in this life rank even close to seeing such joy in the eyes of your child.

It was one of those days, one of those days every Georgia outdoorsman knows all too well. The sun was scorching only to be matched in intensity by the humidity. One of those days your F-150 reads 115 when you crank it.  One of those days where you know you need to get in the woods to do some preseason deer scouting and prep work, but you make excuses to delay it another week. You get my gist, it was mid-summer Georgia HOT! Even so, we were embracing it and loving every minute of it. Sweating through our clothes and drinking water non-stop, we were having a blast.

The Lord has blessed my family with two boys, 7 and 10 years old. Over the past couple of years, we have discovered a hidden oasis of fun to help ease the agony of those long, hot Georgia summer days. This often-overlooked hidden outdoor activity is chanterelle mushroom hunting. If you haven’t tried it yourself, you should. It can provide an amazing experience your whole family can enjoy.

If you have kids who love the outdoors and you want to help fuel their passion, or if your kids are naturally inquisitive and like to search for things, it is a must. Even if they don’t like to eat mushrooms, I’ve learned that many kids still absolutely love the experience.  Some, like mine, might even try the mushrooms out of the personal pride of knowing that they helped bring them to the table.

Chanterelle Overview: Georgia’s diverse woodlands offer a multitude of natural resources, including one of the most unique and often overlooked treasures, the chanterelle mushroom, or often referred to as a golden chanterelle. This aromatic and delicious fungus thrives in the heart of Georgia’s wilderness, and the hunt for them offers outdoor enthusiasts a unique treasure-hunting experience the whole family can enjoy. Chanterelles can be found throughout the state but are most prolific in the Piedmont Region and north Georgia mountains. Most chanterelles in Georgia are a golden variety, but there are also a few other sub-species that are equally impressive. All are easily distinguishable by their vibrant color, funnel-shaped cap and gill-like ridges on the underside. They also have a very pleasant aroma, which many describe as the sweetness of an apricot.

Chanterelles typically make their appearance during late spring, peaking in July and August, and then running through early October. Chanterelles prefer temperatures ranging from 60 to 70 degrees. Specific timing can vary depending on the region’s climate and weather conditions. To ensure a successful chanterelle hunting experience, it’s essential to keep an eye on local weather reports and mushroom forums for updates on the mushroom season’s progression. Chanterelles thrive in moist environments, so the recent weather plays a crucial role in their availability. Adequate rainfall in the weeks leading up to your hunt is essential. A rainy period followed by warm, sunny days is the perfect recipe for a successful chanterelle expedition.

General guidance on hunting for chanterelles are areas with rolling hills of mixed woodlands near streams or other water sources. It is advised to look under and around hardwoods, especially oak, beech and pine trees. Also, pay close attention to areas with rich organic soil, not soil that has been recently striped or cultivated. Keep your eyes peeled. When you see one, take a good look to pan around your surroundings. Where you find one, you will usually see many. Not only will rushing potentially cause you to overlook other mushrooms, but it is also very easy to trample on mushrooms that are better hidden or just emerging from the soil.

When you find a location with good mushrooms, make sure to make note of it. There is a good probability that you will find chanterelles in that spot or surrounding area, year after year.

Most chanterelles in Georgia are a golden variety, but there are also a few other sub-species that are equally impressive. All are easily distinguishable by their vibrant color, funnel-shaped cap and gill-like ridges on the underside. They also have a very pleasant aroma, which many describe as the sweetness of an apricot.

Based on personal experiences, here are some things that I hold to and recommend:

1. Rainfall Is Critical: I’ve determined that three to five days after a significant rainfall to be my sweet spot. Ideally, you want to go hunting when the ground is no longer saturated but is still moist from the high humidity.   

2. Hillsides And Water Runoffs: Don’t focus on low-lying, swampy, areas that are continually saturated with water. Instead, search in areas that receive significant amounts of water during heavy rain periods, but don’t stay saturated. In and around water washout paths on hills, pond runoff areas or hillsides running down to a stream are excellent places to look.

3. Ground Cover: Don’t forget to check in and around areas with low ground cover, such as Virginia creeper, ivy, small ferns and high grass, especially those growing at the foot of a hillside.

4. Vision: Scan your eyes and focus on the forest floor. Look for color or anything pushing up from the leaves/straw. Chanterelles will usually have that rich gold/orangish color (assuming the most prolific variety) but can look muted when they are drying out. Scanning your eyes at ground level sounds simple enough but is something most game hunters, especially us deer hunters, must train themselves to do. You aren’t looking for movement, and your target species is on the ground. Just like adapting your eyes to searching for deer sheds, it might take some time, but once you get zoned in, it will become second nature.

5. Fallen Trees: Don’t neglect to look around fallen (seasoned not recent) and decaying trees.

6. Hog Infested Areas: Based on my experience, if there are a lot of wild hogs in the area, there won’t be many mushrooms.

7. Hunt Wisely: Pay attention to your surroundings, and be intentional where you step. Stepping in an unnoticed stump hole or slipping on some loose soil can quickly ruin your day, as will walking right up on a snake or yellowjacket nest because you aren’t paying attention. If it is hunting season, I strongly advise that you wear orange.

8. Preparation And Supplies:  1) Bug spray and a lot of it; 2) Water and plenty of it; 3) A mushroom field guide and/or identification app; 4) A walking stick to navigate around and to knock down any spider webs.

Due to the limited number of lookalike varieties, chanterelles make a great “starter-mushroom” for anyone interested in mushroom hunting. Even so, it is vitally important to fully educate yourself and make wise decisions before consuming any wild mushroom. Use educational resources and field guides. If you aren’t sure, DON’T EAT IT! There are a multitude of varieties in Georgia that are extremely toxic and can cause severe health complications and even death.

Once you properly educate yourself and know what to look for, you will begin to easily identify chanterelles and distinguish them from their imposters. Common lookalike varieties, such as the jack o’lantern mushroom, have several identifiable contrasting characteristics, most notably their shape, smells and gills (the understanding of gills is a must for new hunters). Do some online research to search images and other articles.

Learning to spot what to avoid will help make you an even better forager. I ask my boys all the time to spot imposter mushrooms. When they find one, I ask them to describe what made them come to that conclusion. It helps to educate and reinforce their knowledge. It will bring a smile to your face when your 6-year-old says, “Daddy, that ain’t a chant-rail. I think it is one of those pumpkin mushrooms” (referring to the jack o’lantern).

One place to find chanterelles is around fallen (seasoned not recent) and decaying trees.

Harvesting, Preserving And Preparing: Once you have successfully foraged your chanterelle mushrooms, there are some important steps you should take to preserve them. To ensure quality and safety, as your first step, I highly recommend going through and re-examining all your fungi in finer detail. If something doesn’t look right or if there is any ambiguity in your mind on the mushroom identification, throw it away. Once you have re-checked your mushrooms and thrown away any misfits, now you’re ready to clean them in preparation for preserving or immediately cooking.

Before preparing them, you need to remove any dirt and debris. There are a multitude of articles online on techniques on how to properly clean your mushrooms, but the most important universal concept is that you are cleaning them, not washing them. Running your mushrooms over cold water to clean off dirt and debris is fine, but you don’t want to saturate or soak them in water. Once harvested chanterelles are saturated with water, I’ve found it almost impossible to dry them again without totally dehydrating them.

Once you have cleaned your mushrooms, allow them to dry on paper towels, drying rack or something similar. It is best to do this in an area that is cool and with low humidity. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to an hour to adequately dry.

There are a multitude of ways that you can prepare chanterelles, including sautéing, roasting, pickling, grilling and saucing. My wife’s mushroom cream sauce on pasta is my absolute favorite. If you choose to refrigerate your chanterelles, store the mushrooms in a paper bag or a plastic bowl lined with paper towels or cloth. It is important that they breathe, so it is important that you do not store them in any covered or sealed containers. Most general guidelines state that chanterelles will stay good for up to 10 days in the refrigerator. However, based on personal experience, I recommend refrigerating them for no longer than five days if you want peak freshness. The mushrooms are still fine and usable after four or five days, but the overall texture will start to deteriorate, and you also begin losing some of the tips and edges of the mushrooms to the refrigeration process.

We do a lot of our hunting on private land, but there’s no regulation against harvesting mushrooms on WMAs or USFS properties if it’s for personal use. If you’re going to try a WMA, WRD says you need a hunting license, a fishing license or a Lands Pass for access.

Well, there ya have it. Chanterelle 101 from a redneck in northeast Georgia. This summer get out in the woods and hunt you some mushrooms.  Just warning you though, you might get hooked. But then again, who really wants to sit around waiting on deer season and UGA football when there’s treasure out there to be found.

Go find it. Just save some for the rest of us!