Wild Harvest Life - Winter Family in PNW

Prince’s pine (Chimaphila umbellata) growing naturally on the forest floor in Washington, where its pink flowers stood out among the moss and evergreen foliage. I went into the forest that day looking for something completely different. Mushrooms. Before mushroom season really begins, I like to scout different areas and pay attention to what is happening in the forest—what kinds of trees are growing there, how much moisture remains in the ground, what plants cover the forest floor, and whether the habitat looks promising for mushrooms later in the season. That was exactly what I was doing when something small and pink suddenly caught my attention. Among all the greens and browns of the forest floor, these tiny flowers stood out immediately. I stopped walking. The flowers were not large at all, but they were surprisingly noticeable. Their soft pink color looked almost luminous against the darker forest floor. I took out my camera and began filming them, but even while I was recording I ...

 I knew I had seen this plant somewhere before. It was growing on our mountain property in Washington State, surrounded by ferns and other familiar forest plants. The plant was already tall and fully mature. Its flowers had faded, leaving large, branching tan plumes above the green foliage. The leaves were what made me stop. They were divided into many long leaflets with serrated edges and sharply pointed tips. When I looked more closely, the stems appeared smooth without any obvious hairs. I stood there wondering: What is this plant? Because the flowers were already gone, I did not recognize it immediately. Then suddenly, something clicked. This plant appeared to be goat’s beard, Aruncus dioicus —a plant closely connected with the famous Korean spring vegetable known as nun-gae-seungma or samnamul . I could hardly believe it. A plant that is cultivated and sold as a treasured spring vegetable in Korea had been quietly growing here on our own mountain in America. I was...

My husband and I absolutely love matsutake mushrooms. Whenever we walk through a forest where matsutake might grow, we are not looking only for mushrooms. We also pay attention to the trees, the soil, and the smaller plants covering the forest floor. Sometimes we see thick carpets of green moss. Beargrass may be growing beneath the conifers, and patches of salal may appear nearby. None of these things can guarantee that matsutake mushrooms are present. Forest habitats are complex, and mushrooms do not appear simply because one particular plant is growing there. But there is one unusual forest plant that matsutake hunters often notice more carefully. Fresh candysticks rising together from the summer forest floor in the Pacific Northwest. It is called candystick , or Allotropa virgata . And whenever we find it, our matsutake hopes become a little stronger. A Summer Search We Had Not Expected Matsutake hunting has always felt like an autumn activity to us. I think of cool mornings, damp f...

Whenever we drive higher into the mountains to look for mushrooms, there is one plant that seems to appear everywhere once we reach around 2,000 feet. Its broad green leaves spread across the forest floor, sometimes forming such large colonies that it is difficult to see where one plant ends and another begins. This is vanilla leaf ( Achlys triphylla ) . The name may sound as though it belongs in the kitchen, but this is not a wild edible plant that I harvest. Instead, it is a native forest plant with an unexpected secret hidden in its dried leaves. A dense colony of vanilla leaf spreading across the mountain forest floor, with its distinctive three-part leaves and upright fruiting spikes. What I Was Hoping to Find in the Mountains Whenever I explore the cooler mountain forests, I secretly hope I might discover plants that remind me of Korean mountain greens. I would love to find something resembling Japanese butterbur ( Petasites japonicus ) or the large-leaved mountain green Parasen...