Chicken of the Woods

A bracket on wood, not a mushroom on the ground: hunt the dead conifers, not the duff. The Oregon species (Laetiporus conifericola) takes Douglas-fir, hemlock, and spruce: standing snags from eye level to twenty feet up, big logs lying in partial sun, cut stumps five to fifteen years old, and fire-killed snags three to ten years after a burn. The overlapping orange-and-yellow shelves cluster to several pounds and glow against the forest. You'll spot one from dozens of yards. Fruiting climbs with the summer: low elevations first, up into the mountains by fall. Mark a producing log; the same wood gives for five to ten years until it's spent.

Only the young growth eats. The keeper is the outer two or three inches: soft, moist, and pliable, almost like thick suede, bright orange above and sulphur-yellow below, bleeding a little when cut. Once the flesh toward the tree turns chalky-white, stiff, or brittle, it's past: cut the suede edge and leave the rest. The conifer variety here upsets a small number of people. Cook it hard, and try a small portion your first time.

Close to unmistakable, and one of the best beginner mushrooms in the region: the shelving bracket, the smooth bright-orange top, and the pored (never gilled) sulphur-yellow underside have virtually no dangerous lookalike here. Confirm the pore surface, take it from conifer, and you're on solid ground.

Personal harvest on Oregon State Forest land (Tillamook, Clatsop) generally needs no permit; national-forest ground allows a personal daily limit. Cut the shelf, don't tear the tree.

Always cook it, never raw. Take only the young suede-soft margin and leave the woody base so the log keeps producing.

Cook it through, never raw. A hard, sustained sear in a hot cast-iron pan with plenty of fat crisps the outer edges and renders the inside tender and meaty, close to the namesake. Chalky older flesh stays rubbery no matter what; use only the young margin. Freezes well cooked.