Among the Mushrooms: Foraging Reflections in Northern Virginia
Among the Mushrooms: Foraging Reflections in Northern Virginia
A walk through the woods in Sterling, Virginia, where mushrooms emerge, deer graze, and the season shifts. Lessons on noticing, patience, and beginning the foraging journey.
There’s a sweet spot in the year when summer finally lets go of its sticky grip and fall begins to whisper through the trees. That’s where we are now. The air in Sterling is cooler, the bugs have calmed down, and the light sneaks in through the canopy at just the right angle — golden, angled, and alive.
I walked the woods today and was reminded again why I keep coming back to the same trails, season after season. Every pass shows me something new. The leaves shift, the sounds change, and lately the forest floor has started bursting with mushrooms.
“A white-tailed deer grazing in the clearing, at home in this cathedral of trees.”
Clusters of honey-brown caps pushed up from fallen logs, shelves of pale white fungi etched themselves into decaying trunks, and smaller groups of rust-orange mushrooms crowded near the base of old stumps. To me, each one felt like a signal that fall was on the way.
“Clusters of honey-brown mushrooms on a fallen log. Likely Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria) — sometimes eaten, but tricky and upsetting for many.”
Learning to Forage (Slowly)
I’ve been curious about foraging, and mushrooms are the most obvious invitation. But the deeper I go, the more I learn that foraging is less about eating and more about noticing.
Here in Northern Virginia, the late summer into fall season brings out mushrooms like:
Honey Mushrooms – what I found in clusters on decaying wood. Some people eat them, but they must be cooked thoroughly and have poisonous lookalikes.
Jack-o’-Lantern Mushrooms – bright orange clusters, sometimes glowing faintly at night. Beautiful but poisonous.
Turkey Tail – the thin white and multicolored shelves I saw on a fallen log, not food but valued in teas and remedies.
Oysters, Chicken of the Woods, and Chanterelles – the prized edibles in Virginia, but only if you know what you’re doing.
“White shelf fungi, likely Turkey Tail relatives (Trametes). Not for eating, but known to be used in teas and folk medicine.”
“Rust-orange clusters at a tree base — could be Jack-o’-Lanterns or Galerina, both toxic.”
Even the decaying clusters have a story.
“A cluster of older mushrooms breaking down into the soil. Possibly Armillaria or Hypholoma — either way, inedible at this stage.”
What strikes me is how the deer doesn’t need a guidebook. It just knows. For us humans, wisdom means patience: joining local forays, carrying a field guide, learning season after season.
Admire First, Eat Later
The best advice for beginners is simple: admire, don’t eat. At least not right away. The forest will still feed you, just in a different way — with beauty, curiosity, and connection. Over time, you start to see the same logs sprouting new growth, the same clearings shifting with light, the same animals moving through their patterns.
And maybe, one day, the knowledge will come. But for now, it’s enough just to walk, to notice, and to be reminded that abundance doesn’t always mean taking. Sometimes it means seeing.
“Sometimes it’s enough just to notice.”
🍄 Northern Virginia Forager’s Calendar
Spring (March – May)
Morels (Morchella spp.) – The crown jewel. Look near tulip poplars, dying elms, and old apple orchards.
Dryad’s Saddle (Cerioporus squamosus) – Large, patterned brackets on dead wood. Edible when very young, but often tough.
Oysters (Pleurotus spp.) – Pale clusters on dead hardwoods, especially after spring rains.
Summer (June – August)
Rooting Shank (Xerula/Oudemansiella radicata) – Tall, slender mushrooms with deep roots into soil/wood.
Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) – Bright orange/yellow shelves on oaks. Edible when young and tender.
Russulas (many species) – Brittle, colorful caps. Some edible, some acrid or toxic.
Boletes – Mushrooms with pores instead of gills, often under oaks and pines. Some prized edibles (like King Bolete), but others are inedible.
Fall (September – November)
Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria spp.) – Large clusters on stumps/roots. Sometimes eaten, but tricky.
Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) – Thin, colorful shelves. Not food, but used in teas.
Winter (December – February)
Turkey Tail & other Polypores – These tough bracket fungi persist through winter.
Oysters (cold flushes) – Sometimes appear in mild winter spells.
Velvet Foot (Flammulina velutipes) – Small brownish mushrooms with dark “velvet” stems, growing on wood in freezing weather. The cultivated version is the enoki.
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