Woods are flush with food

With the abundance of rain this spring comes an abundance of mushrooms littered throughout the Palouse, ripe for the taking.

Larry Kirkland, a retired environmental engineer at the University of Idaho, has been foraging for 40 years, most of which has been on the Palouse. Kirkland said he has long been passionate about the environment, having run a commercial recycling center and was involved in starting all recycling centers in the area.

In early summer, Kirkland and his fellows at the Bridge Bible Fellowship took an elders retreat to Moscow Mountain to look and identify mushrooms and found an abundance.

Kirkland said on the mountain and in town, he has seen as many as 50 mushrooms in a small area. Over the past couple of weeks, he’s picked 40 pounds of mushrooms and said he could have picked more. Kirkland said he has harvested more than he can eat.

Over the past few weeks, Kirkland has been eating mushrooms daily. His favorite thing to make with his findings is salads, Kirkland stores all his mushrooms in the fridge and chops them up finely to add to some greens. His fellow foragers like to cook and fry mushrooms into everything they make, such as mushroom omelets in the morning, salads for lunch and sautéed mushrooms with dinner.

The most common edible mushrooms in Moscow are varicose and agaricus mushrooms, which are edible mushrooms most often bought in grocery stores. Kirkland said anyone can find these all over town, in the lawn, under shady trees, and at the UI golf course and arboretum. Any damp, shaded place around town is bound to have mushrooms.

Kirkland is a cyclist and harvests mushrooms mostly on his comings and goings.

“While you’re riding a bike, you can watch for such things, and once I learned to cultivate the taste for it, so to speak, I knew where to look.”

Stopping on the side of the road at a shady patch of grass, Kirkland said he always has a plastic bag in hand ready to take home his lunch.

Growing up, Kirkland had a garden and took advantage of the land. He would fish, hunt and forage for meals in his early years.

“Being an environmental engineer, you’re trying to utilize what’s in the environment in a productive way,” Kirkland said. “And part of that is not to waste things.”

His parents grew up in the Depression and that frugal attitude stuck with him as he became an adult.

A benefit of foraging is cutting down on grocery costs. Kirkland said he is able to save money taking advantage of what the environment has to offer. He also has a garden and a tall ladder, which he uses to help his neighbors pick cherries in exchange for fruit.

Other than mushrooms, Moscow has other forageables to reap. It’s huckleberry season and they can be found all over Idaho. People can also find raspberries and other fruits growing locally. Moscow City Council also approved a management plan Monday for Harvest Park, a proposed edible forest on Southway Avenue. The goal of the park is to allow the public to harvest fruits and nuts from trees, shrubs and other flora that are planted at the park.

Kirkland said there isn’t much supplies needed for foraging. It’s recommended to wear comfortable shoes and clothes, and to bring a bag to store forageables in.

“The first thing you need to bring with you is the knowledge of what’s good and edible,” Kirkland said.

Never eat something that is questionable -- always know and be sure it is safe to eat. Kirkland said there aren’t a lot of dangerous mushrooms growing on the Palouse, but always find an expert to ask if it is safe to eat something you find, and do the research.

Emily Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce.