This week at Amanita Haus, we interview Unkle Fungus (@unkle_fungus) to talk about his line of culinary mushrooms products, foraging tips and where to start as a beginner with wild mushrooms.
Unkle Fungus is a Pennsylvania based business and site that offers a variety of fresh foraged mushrooms, dual extract tinctures, mushroom salts, sourdough + kombucha starters, mushroom prints, and tees. Many of what he calls "added value " products have locally foraged mushrooms in them! (so cool). His business began during the pandemic when there was a local food shortage, so he turned to the woods to start delivering nutrient dense, and highly available food.
He tells our audience that a great place to start foraging is to go out into your local woods, make lots of observations, cultivate responsibly and then get on some Facebook group that's monitored by experts where you can post photos of the things you've foraged and get instant feedback on name, species, and ultimately if it's edible or poisonous. Identification and foraging books are another great resource. You might start to get familiar with fruiting cycles of certain species and get to know what you can use them for with more repetition.
He spoke about an Amanita variety called "Amanita Jacksonii" which grows near Oak and Pine Trees that can be eaten raw (who knew) and is incredibly beautiful, and tastes a bit cheesy. In the Amanita genus this is very unique, typically other Amanitas have a poisonous Ibutenic Acid that requires cooking off before consuming. He recommends a little cheese, cracker and honey combo to get the best flavour combo! Check out his video to see how pretty she is.
His advice for those looking to cook with fungi is to get creative, and make meals that make you feel like you're eating like royalty. There's several cook books he also mentions including Forager's Chef Alan Bergo.
