Winter

What to pick under the snow?

1. Velvet shank (Flammulina velutipes):

The undisputed king of the winter forest. It's a pretty, honey-yellow or orange mushroom that grows in clusters on old trunks of broadleaf trees (willows, poplars, lindens, apple trees). Its stem is dark brown and velvety, and the cap is often covered with sticky slime (especially during a thaw). Velvet shank is a delicacy that the Japanese cultivate on an industrial scale and sell under the name "Enoki". You can pick it straight from under the snow.

2. Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus):

The familiar "store-bought" oyster mushroom is, in the wild, a late-autumn and winter mushroom. It grows in masses of gray cascades on dead trunks in November and overwinters on the wood just fine. You can "chop" it off with a knife in its frozen state all winter long.

3. Jelly ear (Auricularia auricula-judae):

A gelatinous brown mushroom that looks like a real human ear. It grows on elder branches. This mushroom is hugely popular in Asian cooking (added to soups and noodles for a crunchy texture). In winter it looks like a hard lump of ice, but once brought home it thaws into soft jelly.

Winter foraging safety

David Arora notes that winter foraging is the safest of the year.

In January or February you simply won't find a death cap, a fibrecap or a poisonous Galerina in the forest — their mycelium is dormant and their fruiting bodies rotted long ago. If you see a yellow mushroom growing in a cluster on a tree during a January thaw, it is guaranteed to be velvet shank.