A basket of porcini.
I agreed to meet a man, on my own, in darkness, in a deserted carpark.
The reasons were not the ones you might think. The man was Mushroom Hunter extraordinaire Gary Goldman, and he was taking me on an early morning hunt up through the forested mountain slopes of Newlands Forest.
Gary supplies top restaurants with porcini in Cape Town and you can buy them on a mushroom stand at the Biscuit Mill every Saturday.
It was 7am, dark damp and cold, and the dog did not even want to come.
Se we met, and set off, shivering, through the darkness. “I go so early to get the prize specimens” says Gary. “You’d be surprised the numbers of people that arrive in the mornings, you really have to get there before them”.
Restaurateurs prize the porcinis in particular. They are flavoursome, with a nutty, earthy note. They are also very perishable, and you really need to keep an eye on the weather to find them. They are harvested during the Western Cape’s rainy season, but will not grow if it’s too cold. What’s needed is a spell of dry weather, followed by a spell of rain, followed by a spell of warm temperatures.
Porcini spores arrived in the Cape in the root soil of saplings brought here by early settlers from Europe. They grow best under a layer of pine
My big, fat, heavy porcini.
needles or oak leaves.South African porcini are free of worms and parasites.
So tramping through the woods, Gary has the knack of knowing where to look. Experience, I tell myself. All I can see is a brown layer of needles and pine cones and suddenly Gary whispers, “Look Clare!, there’s one!”
I adjust my eyes in the gloom. And there it is, a big fat porcini, sitting there, almost proudly, wearing its few pine needles that it pushed up in it’s skyward thrust for life.
I stared in amazement. Gary grabbed it by its brown head and gently wiggled it. It pulled easily from the loamy soil. He handed it to me. Wow, it was a heavy thing, quite dense.
I know Gary spotted it, but I felt it was mine. It felt like catching a first fish, or winning a prize at school.
It felt good.
Mine, all mine.
So here are my top tips on mushroom picking, gleaned from Gary.
1. Some mushrooms are poisonous, and you should never eat them unless they have been professionally identified. As someone once said, “There are old mushroom hunters, there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters”.
2. Get there early.
3. Get out after it’s been raining.
Mushroom HQ.
4. Don’t put your mushrooms in a plastic bag, they’ll get wet and slimy.
5. Newlands, Cecelia and Tokai Forests are the best spots.
6. Finally there is truly something amazing about picking your own porcini and bringing them home and cooking and eating them all within one hour.
Photographs courtesy of Gary Goldman.
Guided mushroom hunts by Mushroom Man Gary Goldman.
Tel:021 666 7188. Cell 073 936 2378
e.mail gary.goldman@uninet.co.za
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This is such an interesting and well-written post. Thank you. I am just over the Nek from Cecilia Forest and I had no idea mushrooms grow there in such profusion. My husband is a mushroom freak and I am going to send him on a mushroom hunt with Gary!
Hi Juno,
Thank you for your kind comments.
I am glad you are sending your husband with a pro like Gary. Some of the most innocent looking fungi can kill you. Gary’s best tips are about how to cook and prepare them. He showed me one that you scrape around the gills to make a kind of parmesan salt that is then sprinkled on the finished dish.
Very interesting stuff this, however I worry that these parts may become over picked! Don’t let too many people find your spots Gary, otherwise the little pigs may become extinct!
Clare- love the post. Very informative. I am a fungi freak – wish we could hunt truffles as well! Will definitely give the man a call for a walk in the forest.
Cheers
Batonage
All I know about hunting truffles is that you should not use a pig, as they eat them. Dogs are better. I believe there are some amazing truffles here in the Cape, out near Stellenbosch, where oak trees grow. Anyone know more??
Great stuff…I live just below Newlands and go mushroom viewing a lot but hope to run into one of the old mushroom hunters, and so haven’t tried any yet. I am super excited to go for a walk with Gary to turn my mushroom viewing into mushrom hunting.
See you all up there bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing in the morning!
Does anyone in RSA know where I can buy porcini spores? I have 2 pine trees and would like to plant some mushrooms under them. BTW I live in JHB
Hi Olga,
Why don’t you call Gary and see if he’ll send you some in the post?
[...] Here’s the post here; http://www.spill.co.za/niblets/mushroom-hunting-in-newlands-forest/1662/ [...]
[...] big fat porcini that I brought home and sliced and fried in butter and garlic. Here’s the post here; My guide on the day was Gary Goldman, who is an ace porcini hunter, and he supplies some of the [...]
Watch out for a black Southeaster! Fits the bill perfectly – dry, then rain, followed by another dry spell. Two years ago I could’ve filled up my bakkie with porchini’s after a black southeaster poured down on the pine forests above Swellendam leaving the forests literally littered with porcini’s. I find that during such a glut, the best bet is to slice them up and dry them out in the sun on any old racks you can conjure up. They last for ages once dried with a bit of dessicant in a sealed bag. The dry-rain-dry formula is also the reason why the best porc’s are often to be found with the first heavy rains of autumn. Happy hunting guys.