Ep. 127: Culinary Mushroom Magic & Commercial Foraging Anarchy (feat. Graham Steinruck)

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with chef, forager, and biology geek Graham Steinruck. Graham has worked in the restaurant industry in with many of Colorado’s most talented chefs and was the former owner of a wild mushroom distribution company called Hunt & Gather that supplied wild harvested ingredients to chefs in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. He was also the host of a podcast called ‘A Fermented Affair’ where he discussed fermented food and drink as well as mushrooms. He served as the 2012 editor of SporesAfield, the newsletter for the Colorado Mycological Society, as well as the vice president of the club in 2011. He is a presenter and chef for the Wild Mushroom Dinner at the Telluride Mushroom Festival. Recently his recipes were featured in the cookbook ‘Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide’ and will be featured in the new ‘Fantastic Fungi Cookbook’ scheduled to be published later this year. Graham is a Colorado Department of Health and Environment Wild Mushroom Identification Expert and continues to teach courses on mushroom identification and foraging, cooking, and cultivating various culinary and medicinal fungi.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Discovering Mycology in Denver, a Formative Moment with Porcini
• Balance Between Permissive & Prohibitive Philosophies Around Commercial Foraging   
• Forest Management Practices   
• Foraging Permits – the Good and the Bad   
• Wild Mushroom Licenses   
• Liability in Commercial Foraging    
• Legal Frameworks Around Foraging   
• Advice to Find Legal, Abundant Forage Grounds   
• Making Mushrooms the Star of the Culinary Show   
• Porcini Mushroom Bisque, Chanterelle Succotash   
• Underappreciated Hawk’s Wings and Snow Fungus    
• Mollusks and Mushrooms   
• The Genius of Simple Culinary Preparations   
• Mycouprrhizal Mushroom Farm   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Graham Steinruck IG: https://www.instagram.com/instantgrahamster/   
• Myco-Uprrhizal Mushroom Farm: https://www.instagram.com/myco_uprrhizal/   
• Wild Mushrooms Cookbook and Foraging Guide: https://islanderbookshop.com/products/wild-mushrooms-a-cookbook-and-foraging-guide-by-kristen-and-trent-blizzard    
• Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook: https://bookshop.org/books/fantastic-fungi-the-community-cookbook/9781647222956    
• Psilocybe azurescens (fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_azurescens