Fresh from our Farmers: Mushrooms at the market

Two threads of recent Sonoma County history have intersected this winter at the Sebastopol Farmers Market, resulting in a beautiful array of wild mushrooms.

For several years, Jill Adams operated Crescent Moon Farm, offering the first Padron and Shishito chilies in Sonoma County, red okra that looked like little porcelain sculptures and a huge array of other gorgeous produce, including Wine Cap mushrooms, a variety of mushroom that I’d never seen before and haven’t since. Adams also made outstanding chipotle powder.

And then she moved to Maine, leaving her customers, myself included, broken-hearted.

Around the time that Crescent Moon Farm was thriving, Oyster Creek Mushroom Co. became a vendor at some of our farmers markets, offering an array of fresh wild mushrooms. The company, founded in 1989, is located in Damariscotta, Maine.

During the two years that the company sold their mushrooms here, the owner, Candice Heydon, and Jill Adams met and developed a friendship. Their paths crossed again in Maine and for the past three years Adams worked for the company.

Now Adams and her earthy magic are back and so are the mushrooms, which she is selling at the Sebastopol Farmers Market, Community Market in both Santa Rosa and Sebastopol and to local restaurants. Last week, there were black chanterelles, yellow-footed chanterelles, golden chanterelles, hedgehogs and gorgeous Hen of the Woods, also known as maitake.

As spring approaches, there may be spring porcini and morels, too.

With the right weather, wild mushrooms could remain available through May or even June, Adams says.

Why, you may ask, focus on Oyster Creek Mushroom Co. when it is located on the other side of the country? Why are they even allowed to sell at a local farmers market?

There is a dearth of wild mushrooms at our farmers markets. Locally, we don’t have enough to satisfy casual foragers, let alone commercial gatherers, especially during an extended drought. And for decades, the vast majority of wild mushrooms from the Pacific Northwest have been shipped to Europe. Oyster Creek Mushroom Co. satisfies a need that no one local can at this time. Last fall, they reapplied to some local markets and there was room in Sebastopol.

There’s more good news. Libby Batzel and Ali Levesque of Beet Generation Farm have offered Adams the position of farm manager and she has accepted. It is time for a happy dance, barefoot, in (hopefully) the rain.

Michele Anna Jordan has written 19 books to date, including the new “More Than Meatballs.” Email Jordan at catsmilk@sonic.net. You’ll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.