Cantharellus cinnabarinus
Red Chanterelle
This is probably a mushroom species that most people will not make a special trip to pick. They are just so small and dainty. However, the size should not dissuade you from gathering these if you are already out-and-about picking other varieties.
Flavor is delicate. Cleaning is easy. And there is no chopping up required. Additionally, you will rarely, if ever, find these with larvae riddled worm holes.
Red Chanterelles have caps that get about as big as a dime. You'll need a lot to get any for a meal. However, when the weather conditions are right you can find these in abundance in the moss along creek banks.
This is a native trout stream with miles of moss covered banks on both sides.
Picking along the bank is real peaceful and often, during the season these grow - July to September - you may also run across Hedgehogs, Golden Chanterelles, Horn of Plenty and Boletus' growing nearby.
Cinnabar chanterelles have the classic chanterelle gill-like ridges. Just a bit more sharply defined rather than blunt. You will however be able to tell the veining between the gill-like ridges. That veining needs to be there to be certain that it is the correct mushroom you are picking.
Note the upswept little specimen on the lower right of the photo above ( Click the photo for close-up ). It's a good example of the veining between the gill-like ridges. You should be able to see a bit of veining like that in those you pick.
They have the name cinnabar because the mushroom has a cinnabar-like hue when fresh. The color cinnabar is a color almost in mid-range between red and brown - with a hint of pinkishness thrown in.
In the picture above you can pick out the pinkishness in the gill-like surfaces on some of those laying in the moss.
The stems are thin. They have the color of the caps on the upper parts. The lowest part of the stem is very light cream colored or whitish.
Along with the paper bags I keep in my daypack when going on a foray I also keep a couple of styrofoam coffee cups, with lids, in case I run across smaller chanterelles to pick.
Often times I can fill a 20 oz. coffee cup with some sort of small chanterelles ( black trumpets, horn of plenty, winter chanterelles, funnel chanterelles, etc ).
It's a great bonus finding these.
I love them in scrambled eggs Sunday morning.
Cantharellus cinnabarinus - A/K/A - Red Chanterelle, Cinnabar Chanterelle.
DATE - July through August 13 give or take a week at either end.
FOUND - 'Near Kregar, Pa. - close to Camp Run. Also along the mossy creek banks at Laurel Hill State Park and Kooser State Park.
Open woods with an abundance of oak, beech trees. Especially wet mossy places along streams and brooks.
Weather conditions are usually wet or damp where the streams / creeks are, even in hot summers, so the growing conditions are usually right for these Red Chanterelles.
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