Wild Harvest Life - Winter Family in PNW

While walking through the forest, I noticed a small, pale mushroom emerging from the ground. At first, it looked almost like a round white egg with patches of yellow showing through its outer covering. When I returned to look more closely, the mushroom had opened into a broad cap. Its appearance had changed so much that someone seeing only one stage might not realize that the photographs showed the same mushroom at different stages of growth. Based on the features visible in these images, this appears to belong to the genus Amanita . However, because the mushroom was already damaged and its entire stem base was not visible, I am identifying it only as an Amanita species ( Amanita sp.) , not as a particular species. That distinction is important. A photograph—especially one that does not show the complete mushroom—is rarely enough to confirm an exact wild mushroom identification. This young mushroom appeared as a pale, rounded button with yellow patches. Its complete stem base was hidd...

 There are some wild plants I search for in distant forests. Others appear so close to home that I can almost forget how special they are. Pearly everlasting is one of those plants. Every summer, it grows in large patches on the hillside behind our house in Southwest Washington. Its narrow green leaves rise through the other vegetation, and above them appear clusters of small white flowers that look almost too perfect to be real. They are bright without being flashy. Soft-looking, yet strangely firm. And when sunlight touches them, the white flower clusters seem to glow against the green hillside. Pearly everlasting blooming quietly on the hillside behind my home in Southwest Washington. Is It Really a Kind of Mugwort? The English name of this plant is pearly everlasting , and its scientific name is Anaphalis margaritacea . In Korean botanical references, it is known as santteokssuk (산떡쑥) . Although its Korean name contains the word ssuk , it is not the strongly aromatic ...

Have you ever walked past a large, woody mushroom growing from an old log and wondered what it was? At first glance, this mushroom looked more like a piece of weathered wood than something living. Its upper surface was dark, firm, and marked with broad rings that seemed to record years of growth. But when I looked underneath, I found something completely different. The underside was pale and smooth, almost like a blank canvas. And that is where the story becomes interesting. A Mushroom That Looks More Like Wood Than Food Artist’s Conk belongs to the Ganoderma applanatum group , a group of perennial bracket fungi that grow from logs, stumps, and sometimes wounded living trees. The mushroom in my photograph was growing from an old log in the Pacific Northwest. Its upper surface was dark gray-brown, deeply zoned, and extremely hard. A pale growing edge was still visible around part of the mushroom. Unlike soft culinary mushrooms, Artist’s Conk is far too woody and tough to slice a...

  Oregon oxalis, also called wood sorrel, has a bright sour taste from oxalic acid, so I only enjoy a few leaves in very small amounts. Seventeen years ago, when I first came to Washington State after marrying my husband, I began learning a completely new way of seeing the land around me. We live on a 10-acre mountain property in rural Washington. Our home sits near the upper part of the property, around 1,800 feet in elevation, while my father-in-law’s home is down below. His place has more shade than ours, and maybe because of that, so many different little plants seem to grow happily around his yard. One day, many years ago, I was walking around the property with my father-in-law. As we looked at the plants growing here and there, I noticed a small three-leaf plant and said, “Oh, this must be clover.” He quietly corrected me. “This is sorrel.” Then he picked one leaf, ate it, picked another one, and handed it to me. I was a little unsure, but I trusted him and tasted it. Wow. It...

A Mountain Walk After Strange Weather My husband and I usually go mushroom hunting in the fall and winter. But this year, the weather has felt very different from what we remember. It became unusually hot for a while, and then recently, after almost a full week of rain, the temperature suddenly dropped again. So we looked at each other and thought, “Maybe we should go check the mountains.” The first mountain area we visited was over 4,300 feet in elevation. There, we found coral mushrooms — a beautiful surprise after the rain. But that was not the only thing we saw. Among the green plants on the mountain, I noticed a tall wild plant with long narrow leaves. At first, I was not completely sure what it was, so I did not harvest it. I only took photos and came back home. Later, when I looked more closely, I realized it was Fireweed . Fireweed ’s scientific name is Chamaenerion angustifolium . It is also known by older botanical names such as Chamerion angustifolium or Epilobium angustifo...

  A wild Coral mushroom growing on the forest floor in Washington State, reminding me of Korean Ssari beoseot. There are many wild mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest, but every once in a while, I find one that immediately brings back Korean food memories. This coral-shaped mushroom is one of them. In Korea, mushrooms like this are often called ssari beoseot . There are several kinds of ssari mushrooms commonly known in Korea, and among them, one of my personal favorites is the type often called cham ssari or sometimes songi ssari . Here in the United States, many people simply know mushrooms with this branching shape as coral mushrooms because they look like little pieces of ocean coral growing on the forest floor. Finding this kind of mushroom in the mountains of Washington State always surprises me a little, even though I know by now that many familiar Korean food memories can also be found here in the Pacific Northwest. A Korean Mushroom Memory Growing in America When I first ...

Fresh seaweed harvested in Washington State, ready to become Korean-style seaweed soup, salad, and cold summer soup. Some foods are not just food. Sometimes, they carry memory. Sometimes, they carry care. And sometimes, one warm bowl of soup can connect two very different worlds. For me, seaweed is one of those foods. I grew up in Korea, where seaweed is a very familiar ingredient. But I never imagined that one day, after moving to the United States, I would harvest fresh seaweed from the cold waters of Washington State and prepare it for my American husband. Life has a funny way of bringing old memories into new places. For me, seaweed did exactly that. The Seaweed Every Korean Knows In Korea, seaweed is one of the most familiar ingredients in home cooking. Many Korean families eat Korean seaweed soup on birthdays, and it is also traditionally served after childbirth. In Korean culture, seaweed soup is deeply connected to postpartum care. After a baby is born, many Korean mothers eat ...