The fungus among us

When Tim Pfitzer forages for mushrooms, occasionally in the wooded land outside of Oak Mountain State Park and around Mt Laurel, he usually carries a large five-gallon bucket.

“A lot of people view foraging with a very romantic notion, and they carry wicker baskets out into the woods, which I think is so neat,” he said, but he’s not like that. “I carry tools with me.”

When he forages, Pfitzer usually keeps an extension ladder in his vehicle and carries scales, bags, scissors, knives and other tools.

“I do this very seriously. When I go collect, it’s a 12-hour day of hiking and picking and hauling out,” he said.

Pfitzer, a forager who frequents spots throughout the Southeast, said the hardwood trees that grow along the 280 area make it possible for locals to find a variety of edible mushrooms if they take some time to search. 

“All that information [of exact locations] holds a lot of value, and its value is only sustained by its secrecy,” Pfitzer said, adding that he’s spent over 15 years wandering the woods and documenting where edible mushrooms tend to grow. “… It’s also a super trendy hobby now, and it’s like an adult scavenger hunt, a lot of fun.”

When Birmingham became a homeplace to the Alabama Mushroom Society in fall 2018, he was excited that more people were interested in learning about mushrooms.

Alabama Mushroom Society President Anthoni Goodman, a Ph.D. student at UAB, said in Alabama alone, there are thousands of species of fungi, both edible and poisonous, many of which have not been properly documented or classified yet. 

Inside Oak Mountain State Park, park rules do not allow people to pick or collect mushrooms in the area, although people can freely observe or photograph many of the “great little fungi” in the huge span of land, Goodman said, but hiking the park is a great place to start practicing identifying and searching for mushrooms. Pfitzer said it took a lot of field research — “wandering aimlessly or aimfully through the woods,” he said — for years for him to realize how many locations mushrooms actually grow. 

“[Mushrooms] are things that are highly sought after by individuals, restaurants and communities. … At the end of the day, there’s this whole hidden culinary world, and I think that attracts a lot of people,” Goodman said. 

Pfitzer, who joined the Alabama Mushroom Society when it started, said even though people join the society for a variety of reasons, his main interest has to do with using fungi as food and selling his mushrooms to chefs. 

There’s a wide variety of edible mushrooms that grow in the South, from Morels and Chanterelles to oyster mushrooms and hen of the woods, all of which are “highly coveted by chefs,” Pfitzer said. 

In the same way the farm-to-table movement has become popular in recent years, so has the forest-to-table movement, with chefs and families prizing local and, in the case of mushrooms in Birmingham, indigenous ingredients right down the road. 

Previously, Pfitzer said, chefs had to order some of these mushrooms from the Pacific Northwest or even import them from collectors in Europe and China. Today, that is not the case, he said, due to more and more people discovering local mushrooms.

First and foremost, Pfitzer said he forages mushrooms to cook them regularly for his family. When he used to work in the food industry and got the opportunity to work with a roommate at Chez Fon Fon, he realized how chefs like Frank Stitt were incorporating them into dishes and paying a lot of money to buy them from locals. 

“The initial draw was being passionate about food and fine food being out of my budget. Originally, it was not to be a source of income. It was for the adventure and the hunt and what goes on my table,” Pfitzer said.

Also, he said, they are “delicious.” Eventually, as he was able to find more mushrooms  in odd, off-road spots over the years, and he was able to transition into a seafood and wild foods salesperson. Now he sells them to chefs in the greater Birmingham area.

Goodman, who also cooks with foraged mushrooms, said Chanterelle mushrooms have a kind of earthy undertone, as well as “a very distinct, very peppery smell.” People love to cook them in several different ways, including candying and pickling them, he said. 

Another highly sought-after mushroom found in the Birmingham area is the Morels, part of the Morchella species, which can be sold for upwards of $50 for a fresh pound. Pfitzer’s favorite way to cook them is “sautéed in a French style, sometimes in salads or with thyme,” he said, so that their flavors are highlighted and not buried in a flavor-heavy dish. 

He also will put them on a steak, burger or venison and occasionally stuff them, since they are a hollow mushroom. All the mushrooms he forages, he said, are also great roasted or deep-fried. When Pfitzer forages, he’s looking for about 15 to 18 different varieties of choice edible mushrooms, he said, which he finds in both small and big patches, anywhere from a handful of mushrooms to 60 pounds in a small area. There are times where he is able to collect 100 pounds of mushrooms, he said, but that usually takes all day.

“Everyone has their little honey holes, we call them, and most people are very reluctant to share their honey hole, especially for these very hard to find, highly sought-after mushrooms,” Goodman said.

“It’s about learning when and where they will be and why they will be there. Rainfall, temperature, season of the year, there’s a lot of different factors that go into it,” Pfitzer said.

Color is not always a good indicator for identification, and often rain or sun can change the look of fungi and confuse people. Goodman urges beginners to be careful about eating mushrooms, especially if they haven’t studied poisonous look-alikes. Toxicity levels can range from a bit of gastral upset, he said, to death in some of the most severe cases.

“What we always say is if you are not 100 percent confident with the identification that you have come up with yourself, then don’t eat it unless you’re buying it from a store or grower or if it has been identified by an expert that has seen the specimen,” Goodman said.

The Alabama Mushroom Society is a group of people interested in discussing and learning about the “diverse, photogenic and often quite tasty mushrooms” in the region, Goodman said, where members primarily assist each other in identifying unfamiliar fruiting bodies and sharing foraging areas, finds and recipes. 

The North American Mycological Association is the parent affiliation to the Alabama Mushroom Society, Goodman said, which connects them to additional resources and similar groups in the country. 

Foraging, Pfitzer said, can be addictive and is something his whole family has come to love.

“If you get into it, you’re going to be hooked,” he said.

Follow Pfitzer and his foraging journeys on Instagram @herbincalabama. About once a year, he announces a foraging class open to 12 people. For more information about the AlabamaMushroom Society, go to alabamamushroomsociety.org.