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Fall Foraging for Mushrooms and Razor Clams
10K views
Feb 5, 2025
Checkout this video of our recent trip to the WA Coast to harvest mushrooms and razor clams! In this video you will see the amazing cauliflower mushroom, boletes and chanterelles we harvested, but also a bit about how we try to stay safe while foraging for mushrooms (and not being experts by any means!) We cover a bit about razor clam digging, where to dig, timing tides and being prepared (or not!) for these nighttime digs. Lastly, we show you a bit of what we did with our bounty. My wife combined our chanterelles and clams into an amazing pasta sauce. No reason to stay on the couch during all this bad weather, when there's so much fresh wild food to harvest!
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0:00
[Music]
0:20
looks like a great day to be out here
0:22
razor climbing we're on mo crocs beach
0:24
and we're just getting ready about uh
0:26
two and a half hours before super low
0:28
tide
0:29
we're gonna get down there and try to
0:30
get our limit be on our way up here just
0:32
to make the trip even more worthwhile we
0:35
thought we'd pick up some uh some
0:36
mushrooms so
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it's so easy to just find some public
0:41
land get in there and start
0:44
trying to identify and learn these
0:46
different mushrooms are you can get an
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app for that we use picture mushroom
0:50
today though was like super special
0:54
because we found let's see
0:57
look at that
1:00
that is an admirable
1:02
lettuce it's like six inches across
1:05
super sweet and then look at this look
1:08
at this
1:09
look at that
1:11
this giant
1:13
giant cauliflower mushroom we are so
1:16
excited about that
1:18
wow look at the size of this cauliflower
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mushroom
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they've already harvested half of it
1:24
oh my goodness it's fantastic
1:27
look at that thing whoa
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so we cut this thing into like
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little chunks that we could
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sort through and
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clean this is just the craziest mushroom
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it's like it's more like
1:43
dealing with like a living like pasta
1:47
plant or something it is a
1:50
a mushroom and we got so much of this oh
1:53
my goodness
1:55
we are
1:56
complete
1:58
queen of the woods noobs here not sure
1:59
what we're gonna do
2:01
but uh we got a few shots at it to find
2:03
something uh tasty so um now it's time
2:06
to go get some clams though look at that
2:08
those rain clouds over there oh my
2:10
goodness the rain is just coming down
2:12
this looks like a great
2:15
great
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evening of razor clam digging
2:27
[Music]
2:32
we're hoping we get our limit before
2:34
sun goes down and uh
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we didn't really bring a lot of
2:37
headlamps we kind of
2:39
missed that um
2:41
usually bring a headlamp
2:44
for everyone
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right there right there right there
2:50
where my finger is right there
2:52
um
2:53
but uh
2:55
maybe too early in the tide cycle too i
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see some people standing around
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when you first walk down to the beach
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with the tides coming out you can see
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these little holes these mounds these
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are almost always sand shrimp they're
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not razor clam so
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you know if you were to sit here and dig
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these up just be wasting your time
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razor clams are lower than the tide
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cycle
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and
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so we come down here
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you getting it yet
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yeah we're a little high in the tide
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cycle still because
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it's uh
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yeah
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it's uh
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we got a lot of time still between out
3:32
there they're getting some though look
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at that
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he just got one
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five o'clock it actually should start
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start getting them
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nice
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yeah dig around the area where
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uh because there'll be more they like to
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cluster up
4:02
usually about a foot down
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we usually go about foot and a half you
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know kind of the two blink
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make sure you get them good we got one
4:14
yep yeah okay there was another one
4:16
right here right here
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oh yeah
4:20
oh it's a beautiful one it's a big one
4:22
holy cow
4:25
oh
4:27
a jumbo look at the size of that good
4:30
job
4:32
oh right here right here right here
4:33
right there
4:35
simple goodness that is such a small
4:37
detail
4:45
steve
4:46
come here
5:04
yeah
5:05
yep i knew there was one in there dude
5:07
oh look at this one yeah i just saw it
5:10
yep
5:13
perfect
5:19
there's another one
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there he is
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i'm getting it home guys
5:32
we cook with our with our catch
5:35
wait start up start over
5:45
oh my goodness
5:50
[Music]
6:03
yeah that's awesome
6:06
a little parsley yeah
6:11
oh put the bacon chopped up back in
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there yeah and the razor clam oh my
6:16
goodness and we're gonna do it over some
6:18
pasta we got pasta in this pot we got
6:20
pasta that's gonna be awesome oh man i
6:22
fogged up my water oh um there we go
6:25
it's kind of exploding
6:27
and we want to be doubly sure
6:29
what we're eating right what the
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mushrooms we find
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uh that we can eat are not gonna kill us
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so
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uh i like to use two or three different
6:39
approaches to make sure
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that uh
6:42
that
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you know we have good results there so
6:44
here we go let's start with um
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this app right here picture mushroom
6:49
um
6:50
this is a
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you have to pay for this app i don't get
6:54
anything for promoting it but i just
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want to show you real quick how easy
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this is
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so
7:00
it first we want a side view of it right
7:03
of our uh
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of our mushroom
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picked this yesterday just been uh
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drying them out a little bit and then we
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want a bottom view
7:12
okay
7:16
here we go
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i got two views now it's it's trying to
7:19
identify it
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okay
7:22
here we go waiting for a moment
7:25
identifying almost there
7:28
golden chanterelle i know that golden
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chanterelles can be eaten
7:34
and
7:34
that is awesome golden sham trail is one
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of the top culinary mushrooms in the
7:39
world the love for its aroma
7:41
mmm smells apricotty yummy very good all
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right
7:46
but
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that's not enough right that's not
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enough
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to make sure we have a good result so i
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like to go over to
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facebook as well
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and i like to go over to pnw mushroom
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foraging
8:00
identification
8:02
there we go so so i put this uh
8:05
cauliflower mushroom i already verified
8:06
it with the app
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but i want to put it on this pnw
8:10
mushroom forging and identification
8:12
page because i'm not super familiar with
8:15
the
8:16
uh the species of mushroom so i want to
8:18
put it there and i got all these
8:20
mushroom experts who are willing to
8:22
comment and let me know
8:23
and give me any concerns that i might
8:25
have
8:27
now i know this is i've picked a lot of
8:29
chanterelles i know this is a
8:30
chanterelle so i may just use
8:32
the uh the the mushroom identification
8:35
app as my towel but for new specimens i
8:38
want to be doubly sure all right so in
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addition to using app and facebook you
8:44
really want to have probably a third
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strategy too which is what a lot of
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mushroom experts will tell you uh just
8:50
eat a little bit of it right only a
8:52
small bit of it wait 24 hours
8:55
uh if you've got a positive id on
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facebook uh from some experts you got
9:00
positive id uh from your picture uh
9:03
mushroom app and uh and you want to just
9:06
go in a little bit that's a safer way
9:09
than cooking like your favorite meal
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thinking oh this is a great mushroom and
9:13
then you've eaten a ton of it and
9:15
maybe uh maybe you had them in the
9:17
hospital or worse so
9:18
just some thoughts about for newbie
9:20
foragers how to get started
9:22
uh i i spent way too long
9:25
not picking chanterelles uh and enjoying
9:28
these things because i was afraid of uh
9:30
you know getting sick or something and i
9:32
didn't know it was this easy so
9:35
you know gotta use good judgment
9:37
and uh but but you can do it and it's a
9:40
it's an awesome rewarding experience for
9:43
you and the whole family
9:45
getting some mushrooms bringing them
9:46
back cooking them up and having a great
9:49
meal
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[Music]
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