Iowa mushroom club feasts on the fruits of its forays

It sort of sounds like the beginning of an off-color joke: "So, an English professor and a poet walk into these woods ... ." And mushroom devotees Barbara Ching and Jennifer Knox — the prof and the poet respectively — probably would be the first to laugh at it.

But this is serious(ly fun) business, mushroom hunting. Even more so the mushroom cooking and mushroom eating. The women are both enthusiastic members of the Prairie States Mushroom Club, which, "promotes scientific and educational activities related to fungi and fosters the appreciation of wild and cultivated mushrooms." They also hold positions in the North American Mycological Association.

RECIPES: 4 ways to celebrate a good mushroom hunt

On March 21, Ching, Knox and other club members, their guests and anyone at all who has $30 and loves mushrooms will gather at the Iowa Arboretum for a multicourse dinner celebrating all things fungal. There will be lots of fun guys and fun gals there. (Oh don't even bother with the eye roll. You knew it was coming.)

It started in Brooklyn

For Knox, learning that you could actually go out and find mushrooms yourself was a eureka moment. It came at Roberta's, a "hipster" restaurant in Brooklyn where she was served hen of the woods mushrooms. "I don't know if Roberta's foraged them, but when I found out foraging was a thing, I thought for sure you'd have to rent a car to do it. I never imagined you could forage in the city, much less in Prospect Park, six blocks from my apartment."

She moved to Iowa shortly thereafter and was determined to start finding her own mushrooms. "I really wanted to start mushroom hunting. I'd never done it before. So I contacted the Prairie States Mushroom Club and asked if anyone in the area knew where I could find a chicken of the woods. They referred me to Barbara, and it turned out that we were both writers and food lovers." (FYI: Hen of the woods and chicken of the woods are different mushrooms and suggesting they are the same will elicit firm and disapproving head shakes.)

Knox has been on the prowl ever since, and even survived her first Iowa morel season. "I've only been here for one season and I was blown away by how freaked out people get about morels. It's morel madness!"

Mycology and mystery

Ching, who chairs Iowa State University's English department, had a precocious fixation on mushrooms. "I always requested mushrooms for my birthday dinner — and those were the canned ones — along with angel food cake and spareribs." The canned version is no longer on the menu, but just about every other native Iowa mushroom is, along with some cultivated exotics. When she first started hunting, she said, "Morels were what I had on my mind. But I've discovered so many more."

Mushroom hunts, or forays as they're known in mycology circles, "are a good way to get outside, make friends and get to places all over the state," Ching said. The group does schedule forays year-round, but the "season" doesn't really get going until spring, and, according to Ching, fall is the best time to find fungal feasts. She carries her gathering bags at all times because you just never know.

Knox and her boyfriend will testify to that. Last September, they found an unexpected and enormous hen of the woods (aka maitake, Latin name grifola frondosa), just waiting for them to come along, in the ___________ cemetery. (Exact location redacted. Shroom stalkers are very cagey about where they find their loot.) "We were just walking and there it was," Knox said gleefully. A case of "grifola payola," she joked. Yes, there are mushroom jokes.

The unexpected is part of the charm of mushroom hunting, agreed Knox, Ching and Joe McNally, Iowa Arboretum's horticulture program manager and avid mushroom hunter. There's always an element of surprise. "We know so little about mycology," McNally said. If you're a mushroom hunter, "you get familiar with the relationships in the forest. Mushrooms are usually found associated with another species. But every year, it's different. One year you'll find them around hackberries. Then it's cherry. This year it was horsetail. And nobody fully understands why."

McNally and company are very careful when harvesting their booty. Part of responsible mushrooming is making sure you leave some behind to provide spores for next year's crop, and carrying out the ones you do harvest in mesh gathering bags designed to let spores sprinkle where they may, ensuring the next generation.

Mushrooms galore

Most of the mushrooms that will be used for the March 21 dinner are coming out of members' freezers or have been dried, the fruits of last year's labors. Honey mushrooms, shaggy manes, blewits, puffballs and of course, the mushroom that started it all for Knox, hen of the woods. Some cultivated mushrooms — enoki, for instance — will also make an appearance at the dinner courtesy of Anything but Green Gardens in Vinton.

Knox and Ching will be doing some of the cooking and will have an assist from the Cheese Shop of Des Moines, Story City Locker and Arcadia cafe and bakery in Ames. If the promise of seven courses of mushroom deliciousness isn't enough enticement, the group will also be treated to mushroom themed music by Ching's husband, composer Michael Ching.

And if you're really lucky, the two mushroom madames will model Ching's hand-knitted morel stocking caps.

Prairie States Mushroom Club spring banquet

When: March 21, 6 to 9 p.m.

Where: Iowa Arboretum, 875 Peach Ave., Madrid

Details: $30 per person; BYOB; seats are limited. Reserve your spot by March 16 by emailing PSMCrsvp@gmail.com. Payment instructions accompany email reservation confirmation.

Menu

• Puffball powder biscuit with fried royal trumpet flakes.

• Hen of the woods "sausage" atop roasted red pepper sauce.

• Lettuce wraps with enoki mushrooms, sushi rice, homemade pickled daikon, carrots and ginger, avocado and nasturtium sprouts from Lee's Greens.

• Fish stew with honey mushrooms.

• Chicken mousseline topped with poached wild mushrooms, wrapped in La Quercia prosciutto and micro-mustard green salad served with crostini topped with duxelle, chicken liver mushroom pate, mustard caviar, pea shoots and pickled mushrooms from the Cheese Shop of Des Moines.

• Roasted fresh lion's mane, cauliflower, pomegranate seeds and fried chickpeas served with yogurt raita and lamb and golden oyster mushroom sausage from Story City Locker.

• Buche de Printemps with candy cap-dusted "merengueshrooms" from Arcadia Bakery.

Prairie States Mushroom Club

Regional club forays are free and scheduled across the state year-round. A typical foray begins at 10 a.m. and last until noon, after which members examine the fungi they found in the woods. There is usually an expert on hand to identify the spoils of the hunt. PSMC often partners with county naturalists to follow a foray with an educational program. Last year's first foray was in early May. Membership dues are $15 per year. You can join and sign up for the foray email list on the PSMC website at www.iowamushroom.org.