How I Got Here
My husband and I left our careers in hospitality in 2016 to literally “dig” deeper into wellness and what it means to serve people. We spent the next three years exploring farms across the country and interning with great farmers before creating SunDreams Farm on 62 acres of beautiful Bedford County, PA property. We put a lot of effort into growing things to be the best quality and nutrient density to reach our customers. While we love growing mushrooms in controlled environments for consistency and reliability, we have always loved witnessing the connections made in nature to produce the best foods and medicines.
Throughout the past decade, we have found pretty much every choice edible mushroom on our farm, aside from truffles (I’m working on creating space to grow those as well)! Although our farm has much to offer, I love making time to go and explore the rest of this beautiful county, and that’s what I’m writing about today!
Why Fall is Perfect for Foraging
Fall is the perfect time to get out into nature for foraging, fishing, hunting and hiking! In Bedford County, we care deeply for the land and respect our relationship with it. Along the Tiltrock loop, the views are serene, the moss is plush from recent rains, the smell is crisp and fresh, you enjoy the sounds of the wildlife chirping or moving about through freshly fallen leaves. In Fall, temperatures here are comfortable and the forage is abundant. There is no shortage of magic to witness here.
As a mushroom enthusiast, I love this time of year to find mushrooms. The temperatures and moisture in the air create the perfect environment for mushrooms to grow beautifully (pretty similar to the conditions we create in our controlled environment, all year). You just might have to share your findings with a few bugs and critters.
The main forage I am looking for this time of year are as follows:
- Maitake (sheepshead or Hen of the woods)
- Late season Chanterelles
- Hedgehogs
- Reishi and Turkey Tail (for tincture making)
- Chicken of the woods
- Wood Ear and Amber Jellies
- Honey Mushrooms
- Blewits
- Lions Mane
- Shrimp of the woods (a mushroom being parasitized by another mushroom)
Where to Forage for Mushrooms in Bedford County
This week, I took the opportunity to hike a few small sections of the Tiltrock loop, The Tenley Park family loop and a short jaunt on the Garlic Trail. I found an abundance of great forage both places! As I walked through the woods I set my intentions on being fully present in the space, to observe and listen. The colors of the leaves created this mesmerizing tunnel through the woods, and the mossy understory kept my feet reminded of the softness in the earth, below my feet. It also reminded me to take care as I stepped and appreciate the mycelial network working below the ground, to connect the mushrooms, plants and trees with the soil and deliver nutrients to and from. It’s quite miraculous that all those connections happen below our feet, all of the time.
I always make sure to carry with me, my National Audubon Society Field Guide to Northern American Mushrooms. There are a few APPS you can use as well, but those can be unreliable, especially google lens. iNaturalist is a great app that many professional mycologists use to help identify things. There are also a few good Facebook groups that are great in helping to identify mushrooms depending on where you are located!
Tenley Park Family Loop
At the Tenley Park family loop, there is a lovely, short, strolling trail with little incline (ideal for walking with small children and even for people who want to get outside and hike, but don’t have as much mobility as they would like).
As I began my trek at Tenley, I was immediately spotting all kinds of mushrooms. I found a very mossy section in the trail. There, I knelt down and pressed my hand into the mossy pathway and grounded myself in the space. I closed my eyes for a moment to hear and smell my surroundings. There was an American Crow making noise around me and I heard the song of a Tufted Titmouse nearby. In the distance I could hear the drum of a Northern Flicker. I heard scampering of some small critters, either squirrels or chipmunks, probably both. I could smell the rain that had just fallen moments before I arrived.
The dampness intensified the scent of Maitake, aka Sheep’s Head mushroom or Hen of the Woods. After I felt appropriately connected to my space, I opened my eyes and immediately saw a large Oak Tree. Sure enough, this tree delivered a perfect specimen of maitake, and there were several other maitake on other smaller oak trees nearby.
As I continued along the trail, mushrooms were everywhere! It was hard to go any distance because I was stopping to admire all life popping up, everywhere. I Found a few old Chicken of the woods (not suitable for harvesting at that point) on a fallen Tree. Honey Mushrooms were running rampant throughout the woods, as were Shrimp of the woods, found alongside one of it’s host mushrooms (Entoloma). They were in close proximity to the honey mushrooms, shrimp’s other host mushroom.
I found a Cauliflower Mushroom right on the trail growing out of beautiful moss and the remnants of a tree, Turkey Tail and false turkey tail were also on so many of the fallen trees. I found perfect Hedgehog mushrooms growing out of the moss. The entire trail was covered in amazing mushrooms. My time was short at this location because I ran out of daylight, I look forward to going back there throughout the year, with more time!
Garlic Trail
A few days later, I meandered on a small section of the Garlic Trail with my husband, Alex and our 5 year old daughter, Stella. We also found lots of cool mushrooms along our journey there. The Garlic Trail is a bit more steep in certain spaces and can be more slippery, as it is in close proximity to streams and creeks that run through. It is a magical space filled with tons of tiny cool mushrooms that could be easily missed if one wasn’t paying attention! Stella, had the best time finding all of the tiny mushrooms she could find! We didn’t get far in distance on that trail either, due to the abundance of life around to explore. I found a few Artist Conks, which are a type of “shelf” fungus, you can draw on and have a picture forever etched into nature!
Lions Mane was found on a small oak tree that had a large branch missing. Lions Mane tends to grow on hurt parts of trees (so don’t forget to look up when foraging), they are there to heal that space of the tree. Lion’s mane makes a powerful medicine and is also a superb edible. We found amber jellies growing on branches too high to reach and then we looked down and found a few fallen branches covered in jellies. I love to put these in broth and soups this time of year. We found a myriad of other mushrooms that I wasn’t positive on ID/ didn’t have any use for, but they were beautiful!
I typically take with me a basket for edibles and a basket for “poison” that which we don’t know, yet. We take the baskets home and do spore prints of the mushrooms we don’t know yet and try to identify them. My daughter loves making spore prints on paper! While meandering along the trail, we found evidence of another mushroom hunter, there before us, as we found stubs of Reishi on a dead cherry tree. I noted the site of those Reishi to return later for new growth! We loved foraging and strolling through the Garlic Trail, and we will definitely be searching out other spots along the Tiltrock Loop to forage for more mushroom in the future!
My google maps is littered with little stars of places I have found mushrooms in the past. Checking these sites year after year, I have found that harvesting these mushrooms doesn’t impact the next harvest! I have also learned that mushrooms will grow with the right conditions, whether you want them to or not! The spores (mushroom seeds) are dropped, usually when the mushroom emerges, so harvesting when you have found a mature specimen is not going to impact whether it grows again. There is an entire network of mycelium (mushroom roots) beneath the surface that generates new growth when conditions are right (host trees((wood)) with the right proteins or nutrients as well as temperature/humidity). This is one reason why it is important to step carefully and not to ride electronic bikes or scooters through woods (even on trails), this can disturb so much wildlife and peace in the space. At Tenley Park there is a sign that reminds us that those things are prohibited. I appreciate this reminder, as I have seen many people ripping through the woods and disrespecting the space, to gain its abundance. We must care for the spaces that care for us. There are designated trails in certain places that allow for that type of recreation and those are also very cool spaces.
To end this note about mushrooms and foraging in Fall, I want to send a reminder to find time to get lost in nature. There is healing medicine waiting for you in the forest. There, you can breathe the fresh air and witness nature’s beauty and capability to evolve, peacefully, fully connected and nourishing all it’s inhabitants. Respectfully find your presence in the space and breathe in all the depths of the creation you exist within.
Leave No Trace & Be Careful
It is important to note that one should not harvest or ingest any mushrooms that they are not positive is the edible mushroom they are looking for. There are only a few mushrooms that can actually kill you, that we know of so far, but there are many that can give you really bad stomach pains or cause other internal problems. And there are many look- alike mushrooms to choice edibles as well. So, always be sure you know what you are looking at, before you ingest! All mushrooms are safe to touch though, so definitely connect with your findings, in a gentle way!
Always remember the “Leave no Trace” principles. Use care while walking through the woods (especially if you are a mushroom hunter that goes “off trail” often). Pack out any trash from anything you carry in, and if you see litter, kindly clean it up! It is a shared responsibility of us all, to care for the lands we inhabit, especially those that give us rest and relaxation, alongside adventure.