ottawa foodies

Hi:

Does anyone know where they sell "real" wild mushrooms and other exotic varieties, fresh, in Ottawa/Gatineau? I'm thinking fresh porcini, chanterelles, morels, etc. and not just portobello and oyster from the grocery store.

I picked up a nice bag of chanterelles last summer -- I think it was from the Bryson Farms stand at the Parkdale Market. (Before they moved to the Lansdowne Market.)

Chanterelles are interesting in that they were only recently able to cultivate them. Up until 5 or so years ago, they were only available collected from the wild. They're still quite pricey of course but oh so delicious!

In the dead of winter, I think I've seen fresh exotic mushrooms at Farm Boy but I could be wrong. Plenty of dried ones of course...

Of course, I forgot that it's the middle of winter, duh.

But what about truffles? They are in season in Provence now, are they not? Any local sources of (reasonable)?

Herb and Spice on Wellington carries both fresh morels and porcini when they are in season, as well as chantrelles most of the time - no idea if they're "real wild" or if they're farmed. The fruit/veg store in the byward market also often has unusual mushroom varieties.

FOOD IS HOT has a good point. I don't know if they are "real wild" either. I just meant that many "wild mushroom" recipes call for the known/cultivated portobello, cremini,oyster, etc. and call them "wild".

I guess the cookbooks like Patricia Wells' "The Provence Cookbook", and so on, make me long for produce we don't really have access to up here. I would love to see local cultivation of these types of mushrooms, (and other things) if the climate/environment allows it.

The Bryson Farms tip is good. I'll look for them in summer.

Thanks.

I second the Herb and Spice recommendation. The one located in the West end near Tunney's Pasture had some wild mushrooms from Oregon the last time I was there, about a week ago. They had some really unique wild ones I've never seen before, almost blue'ish coloured, not the common chanterelle, morel, porcini varieties you can spot in your standard grocery store from time to time.

I see them all the time at the Byward Fruit Market. They are generally pretty good with the "lineage" of their products, although they are quite expensive. I bought some from them this time last year for a Valentine's dinner (from the LCBO magazine Winter 2006) Roasted Veal Chops with Mushroom sauce and truffle oil. The mushrooms were delicious.

Typically, morels don't cultivate very well, and are most likely wild if you can find them. Last ones I saw was a surprise one that was growing in my backyard, which I harvested and gave to a foodie friend...

hee hee.. yeah, wouldn't want to eat it yourself! It might be poisonous! ;-)

No kidding Fresh Foodie.. it was a real morel... not a false morel, and not at all poisonous. The two kinds actually don't look that similar, and if you've seen pictures of both, you can't mistake them.

Speaking of exotic mushrooms, I feel compelled to tell a little story....2 summers ago, I did the Chilkoot Trail...4 day hike which starts in Skagway/Dyea, Alaska and ends up at Lake Bennet, Yukon (amazing if anyone has ever thought of doing it!!) Anyways, the first part of the hike is through a tropical like forest (strange I know in Alaska of all places) and the mushrooms we saw growing in there were so out of this world, I had never seen anything like it! Every single colour of the rainbow...we even passed a couple people who lived nearby and just go into the forest to get some mushrooms for their dinner! I wish I would have had a digital camera then to show everybody...

I built hiking trails in the BC rainforests one summer - the mushrooms were crazy neon, like NEON, orange. Probably poisonous as all heck though....

I am so jealous. The coolest colours I've seen were of stalagtites/mites in Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.. although some of them were sort of mushroom shaped... a little hard on the teeth though...