t o n x . o r g

Recent rains here in Seattle are bringing up another flush of one of my favorite mushrooms, Agaricus augustus - also known as “the prince”. I’ve stumbled across many of them this summer just around my neighborhood. Much of the time insects have found them first and they are infested with larvae. Sometimes though I get lucky.


They are related to the blander, common button/portobello mushroom Agaricus Bisporus, but have a less chalky texture and a strong almond-like flavor. People who see me harvesting these things from alongside apartment buildings or (in a recent case) from in front of a cafe on a busy street are often a little freaked out. Most people tend to be mycophobes when faced with these alien delicacies. Though I get similar reactions when I sample from any of the many wild plum, apple, pear, cherry or fig trees I stumble across.

Since moving to the northwest I’ve become increasingly obsessed with tasting all the weird mushrooms and wild plants I encounter, careful to avoid the few known to be actually poisonous. Every novel flower I encounter I’m likely to smell. I suppose its a justifiable workout for my palate now that part of my livelyhood is based on my sense of taste and smell.

Several characteristics distinguish it from other local wild agaricus: the golden tone of the slightly scaled cap, creamy white gills becoming brown, brown spores and especially its sweet almond smell. More information and photos can be found here. Never eat anything you are not sure about. I’ve been into mushrooms for a few years and my sense of mushroom taxonomy is much more refined now than it was just a few years ago when I was still discarding many rare and wonderful specimens for lack of skill. So far I’ve done nothing beyond sauteeing them in butter and olive oil with a dash of salt, and thats really all thats needed with something this flavorful. Sadly this mushroom isn’t cultivated commercially, though a similarly flavored mushroom called the Himematsutake or almond portobello (Agaricus brasiliensis) is grown in Brazil and Japan. Paul Stamets’ Fungi Perfecti sells an indoor grow kit for these.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2004 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Mycology, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.