CHANTARELL MUSHROOM SPORES ( Cantharellus cibarius) - DELICIOUS / EDIBLE

This pleasantly aromatic fleshy wild mushroom shines like an exotic golden flower when seen from a distance against the drab autumn forest background. Also known as "golden chanterelle" and "egg mushroom," it has a magical appeal for most culinary experts in Europe, United States, and Asia.

Europeans and easterners claim that their varieties are tastier than those from the West Coast and suggest that flavor is more important than thumb size. It has been a rewarding experience to try to resolve this argument. 

Chanterelles seem to be worth their weight in gold. They are golden looking, golden tasting, and golden priced. The cap is fleshy, with wavy, rounded cap margins tapering downward to meet the stem. The gills are not the usual thin straight panels hanging from the lower surface of the cap, as we see in the common store mushroom. Instead, the ridges are rounded, blunt, shallow, and widely spaced. At the edge of the cap they are forked and interconnected. The chanterelle's aroma is variously described as apricot- or peachlike. It is unmistakably different and identifiable.

Chanterelles will reappear in the same places year after year if carefully harvested so as not to disturb the ground in which the mycelium (the vegetative part of the mushroom) grows. There are yearly variations--some years more mushrooms, some less.