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Aaron Grenchik of Great Lakes Treats finds Reishi mushrooms in the wild. Aaron’s wife and business partner, Jill Grenchik, said Reishi, along with several other mushrooms, are known for their medicinal quality.
A selection of fall mushrooms offered by Great Lakes Treats. Co-owner and mushroom educator Jill Grenchik said fall produces three to four times as many edible mushrooms as spring.
Jill Grenchik holds a bundle of black trumpet mushroom, which can be found all around northwestern Michigan throughout the fall. Other edible fall mushroom varieties include chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, honey, oyster and puffball.
Jill Grenchik holds up a giant puffball mushroom. She said puffballs are often added to mushroom soup as a thickening agent.
Aaron Grenchik of Great Lakes Treats finds Reishi mushrooms in the wild. Aaron’s wife and business partner, Jill Grenchik, said Reishi, along with several other mushrooms, are known for their medicinal quality.
A selection of fall mushrooms offered by Great Lakes Treats. Co-owner and mushroom educator Jill Grenchik said fall produces three to four times as many edible mushrooms as spring.
Jill Grenchik holds a bundle of black trumpet mushroom, which can be found all around northwestern Michigan throughout the fall. Other edible fall mushroom varieties include chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, honey, oyster and puffball.
Jill Grenchik holds up a giant puffball mushroom. She said puffballs are often added to mushroom soup as a thickening agent.
CADILLAC — The famed morel has garnered a lot of attention in northwest Michigan, but there are a myriad of fungi to be foraged throughout the fall.
There are a wide variety of mushrooms that pop up in and around Cadillac before winter wipes them out, but for the personal safety of the forager, it’s important to know which are edible and which are poisonous.
Co-owner of mushroom retailer Great Lakes Treats and mushroom educator Jill Grenchik said there are actually three to four times the amount of edible mushrooms available in fall versus spring. Those living in Wexford, Missaukee and Osceola counties could have a good chance of finding black trumpet, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, shrimp of the woods, lion’s mane, puffball, honey and oyster mushrooms right in their own communities.
When Grenchik and her husband forage, she said they look for topography that’s conducive to the types of mushrooms they’re searching for. In fall, they seek out mixed deciduous forests and concentrations of poplar and beech trees.
Some foraging hotspots are open to the public, but there have been many cases where they’ve received permission from private property owners to forage on their land after noticing its topography.
Grenchik hosts mushroom clinics at the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing center on and off throughout foraging seasons, and she sees a lot of first-time foragers in her class. Mushrooms can provide a great health benefit to consumers, or add pizzazz to a meal, but more poisonous varieties will sometimes model its edible counterparts. For that reason, Grenchik recommends that first-time foragers be prepared to do their research.
“We recommend that you start with a book. The Midwest American Mycological Information group that we were certified through has a lot of really great resources,” she said. “I’d say the 20 species that are listed there on the MAMI website are good ones to start with.”
If a forager isn’t sure what kind of mushroom they’ve come across, Grenchik said the Midwest American Mycological Information group can also connect them with an expert identifier. She said participating in one of her clinics is another good way to prepare before going out on a foraging excursion.
Spring mushrooms like the morel and the beef steak both have poisonous copycats to be on the lookout for. But there are also a few toxic autumn mushrooms on the loose right now, and their colloquial names leave no room for confusion.
“There’s one called the destroying angel mushroom, that one is common, and it’s really poisonous,” she said. “There’s one called the deadly galerina that’s pretty common.”
Another common poisonous mushroom is the jack-o-lantern, which has a unique bioluminescence. These glow in the dark fungi can be found in the northwestern region, but they’re better suited for photographs than consumption. Grenchik said jack-o-lanterns look a bit like the edible honey mushroom, so foragers should beware and ensure they’ve accurately identified its species before consuming.
Finding out whether a mushroom is poisonous should be done by referencing a reputable resource, like the MAMI guide, but Grenchik said a spore print can sometimes point foragers in the right direction.
Spore prints are done by placing the cap of a mushroom on a colored piece of paper and covering it with a bowl. Once the cap starts to sweat, Grenchik said the spore color will usually indicate a mushroom’s toxicity.
“For instance, the honey mushroom will have a completely white, like talcum powder, spore color,” she said. “Whereas, a deadly lookalike to that particular one will have a brown or rusty brown spore print.”
Aside from developing some familiarity with mushroom varieties, Grenchik also recommends that first-time foragers always find a way to mark where their vehicle is parked, cook their wild foraged mushrooms thoroughly and store their mushrooms at the right temperature to prevent foodborne illness.
If their hunting ground is particularly dense, Grenchik said foragers should bring along a map, compass and comfortable walking shoes.
The fun doesn’t end with the hunt, Grenchik said. After foraging is done, there are several ways wild mushrooms can be prepared for eating. Not all of Grenchik’s customers are vegetarian, but those who are will mainly use wild foraged mushrooms as meat replacements, because of their similarity in flavor.
Foragers might notice that there are multiple common mushroom names associated with different proteins, like shrimp of the woods, chicken of the woods, oyster and lobster of the woods. Grenchik said they were given these monikers as a result of their flavor imitation. Lion’s mane mushrooms are not named after a protein, but Grenchik said their taste is very crab-like.
“I have a really great recipe for lion’s mane faux crab cake,” she said. “And you’d honestly think you’re eating crab.”
Grenchik’s mushrooms have also been purchased for their medicinal quality. They can be used to make teas, powders and soups.
Since the pandemic, more people have been inspired to explore the outdoors and take up new agricultural hobbies, foraging included. Grenchik said the trail systems surrounding the Carl T. Johnson building are a great place to start foraging, as well as nearby forests.
Grenchik and her husband have been foraging together since 2017 before opening Great Lakes Treats in 2018. She said they do it because they love the hunt, and it appeals to their competitive nature, but it also gives them the opportunity to explore their community, as opposed to sitting behind a desk.
Prior to the pandemic, Grenchik had been running her own catering business, but when COVID slowed things down, she realized it wasn’t where her passion lies. She decided to put her culinary background to use through gathering and cooking mushrooms.
Although mushroom foraging has become Grenchik’s livelihood, she said it’s a fun and engaging hobby for anyone to adopt, and fall is a great time to start.
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