State law changes open wild mushroom market in South Carolina

Woody Collins bumped his Volkswagen down a dirt road in the Seabrook area of Beaufort County, and then stopped abruptly.

“Hey, William, can you jump out and grab those ones in the ditch? I’ll get these on the other side,” he said.

The gray-haired men sprang from their vehicles and plunged into the woods, bending to gently scoop the bright-yellow golden chanterelles from the ground with two fingers.

They came back with hands full of the choice edible mushrooms, which they can sell for $15 a pound, and placed them into a basket Collins kept precariously perched on the vehicle’s roof as they drove.

Northern Beaufort County residents Collins and William Thorpe are among a small group of South Carolina residents who are “certified mushroom experts” and allowed to sell as many as 20 kinds of mushrooms that can be foraged in the state.

Until this summer, when the first class of experts graduated from a new program created after an update to state law, no one in South Carolina was allowed to sell wild mushrooms harvested in-state.

Both Collins and Thorpe admitted they had.

“We were illegal – and so was everyone else,” Thorpe said. “We just didn’t know it.”

Collins learned about mushrooms by foraging with his Russian-born grandfather in the woods that have since made way for Pigeon Point Park in Beaufort. He had been selling the chanterelles at the Port Royal Farmers Market before deciding he should try to take retirement more seriously and passed the business along to Thorpe.

EDUCATION AND DANGERS

There are more than 3,000 varieties of mushrooms growing in South Carolina.

Some are edible.

Some will make you sick.

And some will kill you.

That’s why people should not pick and eat mushrooms unless they are absolutely sure what they have, Thorpe said. All mushrooms should be cooked before eating, he warned.

The 20 species of mushrooms approved for foraging in South Carolina were selected because they are easier to identify, and there is already a market for selling them, according to S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Controls officials.

So far, Mushroom Mountain, a company in Easley, is the only organization with DHEC approval to provide certification classes.

“We learned just enough from that class to be dangerous,” Thorpe said, only half joking.

Every batch Thorpe and Collins sell has their phone number on it, and they are personally responsible for the safety of the fungi. They also must keep a diary of when and where they are picking, and produce it on the spot if asked by a wildlife official, they said.

It’s serious business.

“It should be, because you can kill people,” Thorpe said.

Beginners interested in mushrooms should find a club or classes, they said. Mountain Mushroom has a variety of courses, from beginner to expert. The foraging classes began just this summer and have room for 30 people each.

HOW IT WORKS

There are rules – legal and of thumb – on where to pick. Regulations allow foraging in national and state forests and on private property, with permission from the owners.

Woody says mushrooms also never should be harvested near busy roads or other potentially contaminated areas, because mushrooms are sensitive and absorb substances around them.

Thick boots, jeans, long-sleeved shirts and hats are necessities to protect against snakes, ticks, mosquitoes and spiders. While chanterelles sometimes carpet the forest in gold, the men said they sometimes tromp through hot, steamy woods for hours to find a few pounds.

Collins showed how to identify the mushrooms based on their color inside and out, size, shape, gills, smell, and how they bruise when pressed. Spore prints, which they would do at home, are also used in identification.

Along with chanterelles, Collins and Thorpe identified a number of other mushrooms, edible and inedible, including some brilliant red-orange death angels.

“Pretty ain’t it?” Collins said. “But it’ll kill ya.”

EAGER BUYERS

People who pass the classes are allowed to pick 20 kinds, but not all of them grow plentifully in the Lowcountry.

Thorpe and Collins were among three Beaufort County residents in the first certification class.

The focus here, Woody says, is on the golden chanterelles. No one has successfully cultivated the mushrooms, and they require an extensive and long-established relationship with the root system of trees such as live oaks, he said.

The fragile networks of the chanterelles can be easily broken, so they’re most common in undisturbed forests and fields.

Collins said chicken of the woods, which grows on hardwood trees such as live oaks, is also good. He and his wife ate some this week that he got off a tree in his yard.

Uli Melchiorri sighs happily when talking about chanterelles.

“Brown onions in a little garlic, then you throw the mushrooms in and do a little brown sauce, and they’re absolutely delicious,” she said.

Claude and Uli’s Bistro, on Hilton Head Island, is among restaurants buying the chanterelles. The Melchiorris have previously imported the mushrooms from France at about $20 per pound, but Uli Melchiorri said there’s no comparison to the fresh, Lowcountry ones she can now serve.

“They’re only available for a short period of time, and when they are done, they are done. They’re like the soft shell crabs,” she said.