Foraging the “Springtime Amanita” or Amanita velosa in Napa, California

Hey folks, here I am with my favorite edible mushroom, the famed #SpringtimeAmanita or #Amanitavelosa. With its thick white veil and light apricoty cap, this mushroom looks gorgeous amongst the deep crackly oak duff. Like most Amanitas it is mycorrhizal (with Live Oak). The fruiting body starts as a small egg, bursting forth through the white cottony universal veil and rising up through the grass, rocks, and duff. Like mushroom is part of Amanita section vaginata, known for the thick veil patch on the cap (that usually peels off easily), lack of a partial veil, and striations around the margin of the cap. This is my favorite edible mushroom, rating first in texture and flavor. It is a dense and meaty mushroom, raw it has the texture of a very crisp apple (it’s also one of the few mushrooms I’ve eaten raw/marinated). The flavor is sublime, the mushroom has a fair bit of sugar caramelizes during cooking, giving of buttery warm popcorn cookie vibes as it cooks, the Maillard reactions in browning kicked off amazing depth of umami - they are so good. Unfortunately there are other more sinister Amanita look alike that are deadly toxic. The Phalloidies (Death Cap - more greenish) and the Ocreata (Destroying Angel - white/ochre) contain amatoxin that irreversibly binds RNA Pol II in your liver causing tons of damage and ultimately death if goes untreated. I respect the heck out this mushroom, for its beauty, robustness, culinary value, and for the danger collecting it can represent. Always be mindful of your mushrooms and never ever eat anything you can’t 100% identify.