What’s more fun than an Easter Egg Hunt? Foraging Chanterelle mushrooms in the woods in the mossy forest floor. My husband and I went sighted in our hunting rifles (and I put a hole right in the middle of my target several times!) and then went mushroom hunting under the tall timber, where thick moss grows over the stumps and logs. We’d find one sticking up here and there and discovered, if we poked around the surrounding moss, we could find several more. They were hiding this time.

We came home with over 9 pounds of mushrooms in our pillow cases, which made it fun because it looked like Santa’s bags. And when you pick mushrooms, you can’t resist making mushroom soup. I started that and broccoli soup for the kids. I’d promised them broccoli soup before finding all the mushrooms, and cheddar broccoli soup is pretty irresistible too. So I ended up with two big pots of yummy homemade soup.

Of course you have to really, really know what you’re doing if you forage wild mushrooms. We’ve learned from books (What the Rain Brings, our favorite) and my husband’s brother who is a biologist. Chanterelles are one fairly easy to identify. There are some that we can almost identify, but we won’t eat them! Almost isn’t good enough. If you take the time to learn about edible mushrooms, it can be very rewarding.