INKY CAPS FOR DINNER, ANYONE? Mushroom forager finds delicacies in Draper backyard ARTICLE LINNEA LUNDGREN
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n a warm September afternoon, George “You cut them up like steaks, fix them like steaks Simmons is out and about, holding a and they taste like steaks,” he says. Another is
steak knife in one hand and bracing a blue the hedgehog, with a spiny exterior and peppery cane in the other. He eyes his neighbor’s lush taste. He’s found “a few” golden-colored chantelawn, not in admiration, but in pursuit of fungi. relles, but they are an elusive delicacy. He’s on the hunt for inky caps.
Down at 6,000 feet, in Draper’s Suncrest
Right now, conditions aren’t ideal for find- neighborhood where he lives, mushrooms ing this common Utah mushroom—or any aren’t as plentiful, but they are here if you for that matter.
know where to find them, especially the inky
“A wet spring and a wet fall are ideal,” he says. caps or Coprinoid mushrooms. Lower down But, mushrooms persevere despite the dryness, in elevation, he’ll search Draper City Park as and he finally spots a single inky cap specimen in well as the cemetery for them, but he coma shady, moist spot, overly ripe and thus inedible. plains that with all the lawn spraying, they Nonetheless, he braces himself with the cane, develop a “contaminated taste.” bends over and digs it up with the knife, stem and all, in order to properly identify it.
Despite whipping off defining details and Latin names for every mushroom, Simmons
“You need about 10 of these for a serving. claims he isn’t “too involved in the science of They shrink when you cook them,” he says. At mushrooms.” He relies on books, his “fungal their peak of ripeness, inky caps are an excellent file” full of news clippings, expert mycologist eating mushroom, one that blends well with identification, and common sense to deterother foods and into soups. When they decom- mine which mushrooms are edible. He’ll err pose, they liquify into a black inky substance. Mushroom-foraging has been more than
on the side of caution when he has to. A friend once gave him mushrooms called
a hobby for Simmons. In 1941, when George gyromitra that resemble little brown brains. was two years old and his dad was at war, his “I had one book that said they were edible, mother had to raise eight children on her own another book that said to watch out,” he with little money for food. Their grocery store recalls. “By the time I read both books on the was often a cow pasture in California’s San same mushroom, I threw the mushrooms Joaquin Valley where “meadow mushrooms” out. I am colorblind and one of the things grew in abundance year-round.
was that if it was dark brown it was one kind,
“As soon as I was able to walk, I’d go out if it is light brown it was the other. I couldn’t collecting mushrooms,” he says. Plentiful and tell if it was dark or light brown.” topping out at four pounds, the meadow mush-
Few mushrooms are instant death, but
rooms could feed the family for free. His mom many will “really mess with your digestive fried them in oleo (margarine) and he loved them tract,” he notes. “If it’s gonna make you sick, at first bite. “They’re still my favorites,” he says. Later in life when he moved to Utah, he was
it’s not worth the risk.” Utah has over 100 varieties of mushrooms
one of the first to join the Mushroom Society of and new ones are still popping up. Should a Utah, (“A bunch of outdoorsy, cerebral types,” mushroom forager locate a new variety, that says his wife Norma) and enjoyed many mushroom will be named after the forager. mushroom-hunting excursions to the Uinta Simmons says new specimens have been Mountains, followed by a mushroom-centric found in Lehi, as well as underwater microdinner in the Francis Town Hall.
scopic fungi discovered in the Great Salt Lake.
He’s found choice specimens in the high The latter elicits a ho-hum response from him. country, including favorites like the porcini or
“In my situation,” he says, “if I can’t eat it,
king bolete, usually found above 8,000 feet. I am not interested.” 24
Draper Lifestyle | November 2017