Tim Andrus Stalks the Wild Mushroom

Tim Andrus displays the chanterelle mushrooms he found recently while hiking in area woods.

“We hunted in North Florida together, but the fungal diversity there is minimal compared to Virginia,” Andrus said. “Once we moved here, it has become almost an obsession. In 2021, we went out 48 times, nearly once a week. We both enjoy eating them a lot, but going out hunting for mushrooms – what could be more fun?”

As a child, Andrus was fascinated by nature and by the categories of organisms.

“I started off as a kid with reptiles and amphibians,” Andrus said. “And over time, I became interested in plants, trees, angiosperms, flowering plants, insects, fungi, birds – just everything that is alive.”

His fascination with fungi started about 30 years ago.

“I was always into wild foraging,” he said. “As I started seeing mushrooms around, I wondered, ‘Is that edible?’ I purchased a field guide on mushrooms, and in the evenings I would sit around and peruse through it.”

One day, while he was riding his bicycle in his neighborhood, he saw a bright orange mushroom at the base of an oak tree, which he thought was a chicken mushroom.

“I went home and I got my book, brought it back, looked at the picture and I thought, ‘This has got to be that mushroom,’” he said. “So I took a little piece of it home and put it in my pan and I cooked it up and it was horrible – all fibrous and yucky. Looking back, years later, I realized that was indeed a chicken mushroom, but it was way past its prime.

“I have harvested chicken mushrooms many, many times since, and I will say they taste more like chicken than chicken.”

Andrus keeps track of all the mushrooms he encounters, a list that has grown greatly since moving to Virginia. He catalogued only eight varieties in Florida, but is up to more than 50 here.

“It is in my nature to document things,” he said. “I have a whole species list and I am hoping to add something to that this year. It’s one of the reasons I really like this region. The biodiversity of all the fungi is very high and that is really a lot of fun. And the plant diversity here is also off the charts.”

On his hunts, he has nabbed, among others: chanterelles, funnel-shaped and among the most popular wild mushroom; lactarius mushrooms that ooze a milky substance when cut; lactarious indigo that bleeds blue if sliced; and lactarius Corregidor mushrooms with a meaty top that turns chocolate brown when cooked.

Andrus doesn’t pursue particular mushrooms, gathering whatever crosses his path. But he does keep a running tally of their value on the open market.

“Some of these that we find are just so connoisseur-grade quality, you can’t buy them in the store and you be very lucky to find these in any kind of restaurant anywhere,” he said.

Andrus has tried to cultivate his mushrooms, with mixed success. He inoculated some wood chips on his property, but nothing happened for three years.

Tim Andrus slices open one of his wild harvested mushrooms to study its interior.

“One day after some heavy rains, I happened to look out the back window and the entire area was covered with these wine cap stropharia,” he said.

He and his wife picked several pounds of them, gave some to friends and froze the rest. “That was a surprise because I had given up on those wine caps,” he said.

While mushroom hunting can be challenging, preparing them for dinner isn’t much of a trick, Andrus said.

“Cooking wild mushrooms is all the same,” Andrus said. “Get a pan, heat up some butter, throw in some chopped garlic and mushrooms. That is it. From there you could have it as a side dish. Sometimes we have so much we could have half of our plate filled with wild mushrooms. And they are good with noodles; make stir-fries out of them, sauté a bunch of veggies and throw some mushrooms in there.”

And after a successful hunt and a tasty meal, Andus and his wife start planning their next outing. Maybe his next find will be on Grounds, or maybe on a meandering hike through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“It has become part of our whole life get out there and see what’s there,” he said. “It is a good excuse to get out into the woods. We always sleep well when we get home, always pretty tired, but it is worth it every time. I never get tired of hiking. It is a lot of fun for us.”