Where to buy chanterelles (or other wild mushrooms)?

[drb]

Planning to make pasta con funghi and looking for 'shrooms. Russo's has an interesting variety (I assume farmed) but foraged ones would be fun.

[SuzieCK]

Much more affordable than Formaggio's is Russo's in Watertown. Plenty of really good mushroom choices for reasonable prices. They are fresh, smellable, and delicious.

[opinionatedchef]

WF fresh pond; formaggio kitchen. love them chanterelles(better fresh). but fyi, morels are better dried. hen of the woods are around alot now.

[femmevox]

Steve Parker of Parker Farms usually has them at his farmstand this time of year. He does the Union Square Farmer's Market on Saturdays in Somerville. You can email him and ask him what he has at [e-mail]

[Spike]

any place to get hen of the woods inexpensively? (i.e., not $20/lb from WF)-:

[opinionatedchef]

sorry spike, i don't know. My Love is keen on them and he foraged ours in Medford Fells. i like them o.k. but chanterelles are my preference over all kinds. Just fyi, Strip T's has seemed to usually have Hens as most of their side dish of wild mushrooms. At $9 for a BIG bowl, it's quite the deal.
Relatively speaking, Hens are VERY common/easy to find around here, so $20 lb seems way high, but then again, it's prob. mostly about the labor. Hmmm, now that I'm thinking about it, iirc, regular folks (not just commercial accounts like Strip T's) can also buy from ST's vendor,Ben the Mushroom Man . Try him through google, or call ST's Juin and ask for Ben's contact info (fyi, his real name is not ben.go figure.) He may have a required minimum but Hens freeze REALLY well. You could also contact the Boston Mycological Society and ask them to give your contact info to anyone who might want to sell you some.

p.s. a special mushroom dinner at TWFood:

http://www.bostonchefs.com/news/2012/...

[Allstonian]

Ben Maleson's name isn't really Ben? Since when?

L'Espalier is also doing a mushroom dinner, next Wednesday, 11/14. (Featuring Ben himself.) http://www.lespalier.com/events/occas...

[BostonZest]

For those who have never had the pleasure of meeting Ben here's a bit of video and a story form the globe.
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/09/02/back_of_the_house_adventures_in_fungi/

I found him weighing truffles outside the old L'Espalier one day and bought a tiny one from him. What a fun memory. He's charming.

Penny
http://www.bostonzest.com/

[rlee21]

I was lucky enough to meet Ben and his wife a few weeks back and had a nice conversation about stinkhorns. He did introduce himself as Ben..

As for hen of the woods, I've seen cultivated maitake sold at Kam Man. Asian markets are also the best place to get abalone/king oyster mushroom, regular oyster mushrooms, shimeji, enoki, and shiitake. Also, Sakanaya has matsutake from Maine every now and then.

[Spike]

FYI, I found cultivated maitake at Market Basket of all places. Very reasonable at $2.50 for a 5" diameter head :-)

[Spike]

didn't know the Maitake's grew in Medford Fells...have hiked around there and been oblivious apparently :-)

I couldn't find Ben's contact info w/ a google search, but will try StripT's and KamMan.