Mendo Mushroom Fantasies
2 min readJul 8, 2023
Blithely unfamiliar with the “RV lifestyle”, I would have no reason to stop at the campground except for the hand-drawn sign in the window reading “forest mushrooms.” The reception area was filled with cheap tchotchkes, first aid supplies, firewood, charcoal, beer. But there, lined up along the front counter, glistening in the late spring sunshine, were at least a dozen glass canisters with stainless steel lids, reminiscent of the penny candy stores on Cape Cod. Only these jars weren’t filled with anything as pedestrian or mass-produced as Necco wafers or hot balls or long pipes of licorice. Instead, the tags read like a forager’s wet dream of dried forest finds: yellow foot, black trumpet, chanterelle, candy cap, turkey tail.
culinary art and antiques maven. sommelier. hunter-gatherer. fisherman. cook. writer. traveler. wanderer.