The Mushroom Lady

Bobcats and mountain lions have returned to the woods where mycologist Connie Green hunts, so she always keeps the blade of her picking knife open. She lives on the side of a mountain overlooking the Napa Valley, and in winter she prowls its hills hunting wild mushrooms for the restaurant. When she sees a fat chanterelle pushing out of damp leaves beside her driveway, she drops to the ground and caresses the great golden fungus—the “workhorse” of wild mushrooms. Connie often hunts at night, the best time to forage, especially for the black trumpet; its spore-bearing layer, she explains, gives off a phosphorescent glow in the beam of a flashlight.