In the dark, rain-sodden forests in Quilcene, a pop of color peeks out from pine needles and ferns on the forest floor. Like a little beacon of light, a chanterelle mushroom draws the eye, with its yellow-orange wavy top and white stem. 

“What do you think about when you see that mushroom?” asks Josh Sasser, a Quilcene wild food harvester. 

Mushrooms are an important food source for Sasser, but they’re also a little bit of magic – a sense of humor found in the old growth.

“I feel like the spirit of this mushroom is very playful and light,” he said. “It gives you a happy feeling. Especially on a rainy day, when you see this, it’s like a beacon of light in the forest.”

Originally from Texas, Sasser recently moved to Quilcene, where he works as an artist, a woodworker and a wild food harvester. He enjoys mushroom foraging with his wife and 9-month-old daughter, and he also has begun to explore other types of wild foods by learning how to identify and harvest medicinal roots and edible plants.

Sasser is in his element as he searches for mushrooms in a forest near Quilcene. He can spot one from a mile away. He leaps over fallen branches, tiptoes across mossy logs, and weaves his way between trees like he belongs. In about two hours, he gathered 4 pounds of mushrooms.

“Normally, I wear flip-flops out here,” he said, already on his way to the next mushroom. “Sometimes I go barefoot.”

But his respect for the forest is evident, as he does his best not to disturb the mycelium mat that the mushrooms grow from. Their complicated root system helps to keep the forest alive. 

“The mycelium is restoring the health of the forest back to a healthy ecosystem,” he said. “All these trees are interconnected by that mycelium.”

While he is interested in all mushrooms and enjoys identifying all types, even the poisonous ones, Sasser focuses on harvesting edible mushrooms. The chanterelles, he said, are some of the most playful. 

“Sometimes you will be out here for hours and not find anything,” he said. “Then, on the way back to the car, you’ll find a whole basket full. They say that chanterelles are super high in vitamin D, which is funny because of their yellow color. My wife is always saying they’re embodied sunlight.”