This delectable sauteed mushrooms recipe is made extra special with the addition of delicate spruce tips and chives. [Skip to recipe.]
There's something exciting underway in the Canadian food blogging world. It's called The Canadian Food Experience Project and it's going to be a great focus on the wonderful and varied food culture we have here in Canada. Valerie, of the blog A Canadian Foodie is hosting it. On the 7th of each month I, and a bevy of other bloggers, will put up a post relating to a Canadian food topic, then on the 15th of the month all the links will be posted for you to check out. I think it will be a lot of fun!
This month's topic is:
My First Authentic Canadian Food Memory
The word 'foraging' springs to my mind immediately. . . for mushrooms, and stinging nettles, and tea herbs, and wild rose hips, and roots, and a host of wild berries of all kinds. My parents were German immigrants filled with knowledge of the many edible plants and foods to be found in the wild. They had both lived through extreme poverty and hardship during the war years and post-war time in Europe. Their survival often depended on what they could glean from the fields, forests and streams. My dad talked about catching homemade nets full of minnows in the ditches, which his mother ground whole into delicious 'fish burgers' and about he and his brothers catching swallows in deserted barn lofts to be cooked in soup. They were thankful to pick the meat off the tiny bones. My mom remembers picking nettles and herbs to be used in teas and for healing (both people and animals) and gleaning whatever grains or vegetables they could scrounge from the harvested fields.
When my parents and their families arrived in Canada as immigrants in the 1950's, they brought with them all that knowledge. No, they didn't need to catch swallows and minnows any more, but they continued their foraging ways whenever they could. My dad was a hunter and fisherman, so we ate a lot of fish (definitely bigger than minnows) and wild meat, prepared in lip-smackingly tasty ways by my mom. My mom has a deep addiction to wild berry picking. She still spends days-at-a-time every summer picking wild blueberries and huckleberries and saskatoons, filling pails and pails of the sweet berries.
When we were children, berry-picking days were one of summer's great pleasures, for many reasons. There was the break from daily chores and farm work. (Although cleaning and sorting and canning and freezing the berries awaited us when we got home.) There was the pleasure of filling our bellies (more than our pails) with the plump and juicy berries. And there was the promise of adventure. . . because we could always find berry-studded bear droppings or find the flattened grass wallows where the bears had had their little afternoon naps after feasting on the berries. Foraging provided food for our bellies and our imaginations!
My first memory of foraged food, though, is of juicy, flavourful wild mushrooms sauteed in butter - each bite a little burst of golden, earthy goodness. After a rain, my parents went mushroom hunting, usually in fields where cattle roamed - the grassy manure made a prime mushroom-growing environment. Mom and Dad knew which ones to pick, my mom knew how to cook them to toothsome perfection, and we all knew how to eat them with appreciation.
I don't trust myself in the same way, so my mushroom picking is restricted to choosing the smoothest, firmest ones in the grocery store bins. I wish I had more courage to pick them myself, but the stories we were told as children, about people who took only one small bite of a poisonous mushroom and immediately dropped dead, have developed the healthy fear in me that I'm sure my parents intended. My imagination pictured those poor people writhing in agony before succumbing to their tortured demise. Mom and Dad didn't want us picking any old mushroom we found growing in the fields or forests. Their stories worked.
So, no, I'm too scaredy-cat to pick my own mushrooms. However, I do know that we have edible mushrooms growing in the trees right behind our house. A few years ago when we were having our floors replaced, the contractor doing the work was from the Ukraine. During a lunch break he asked me if I minded him picking the mushrooms in our forest. I said 'sure' and was totally surprised to see him come out of the trees only a short time later with two plastic grocery bags filled and bulging with mushrooms, that he claimed were a delicious variety.
Hmmm . . . tempting, but . . .nope. . . .still too scared to pick my own. (And I never saw that contractor again to see if he survived.)
A plateful of golden pan-fried mushrooms brings me back to those childhood days, when we celebrated the bounty to be found in nature, prepared simply and enjoyed within a short time of their harvest. I know mushrooms aren't exclusive to Canada, but to me they embody the Canadian spirit of living off the land and enjoying nature's gifts.
Right now is spruce-tip season here in northern Canada, so I can think of nothing better than the resinous flavour of this herbal delicacy to enhance the earthiness of the buttery sauteed mushrooms - a match that makes my mouth water. And the spruce tips were definitely foraged by me from my own trees . . . I know they're safe.
If you have never used fresh spruce tips in your cooking, I urge you to try them. Every spring, my mom eats a few of them whenever she is gardening, just because. I think her instincts are sound, because spruce tips are full of vitamin C. They are delicious - lemony and piney at the same time.
If you have a spruce, or pine, or other fir tree in your yard (or your neighbour's), you have a source for a seasonal delicacy.
Just pick off the new growth buds at the ends of the branches, remove the brown papery casing and use them to flavour all sorts of dishes, like potatoes and desserts. You can pick the spruce tips even after they are no longer tight buds, as long as they are still soft and not too tough or resiny-tasting.

For some other delicious recipes using spruce tips, here are some great recipes to try:
Spring Green Salad with Spruce Tips
Spruce Tip Baked Rhubarb Compote over Silky Swedish Cream
Potatoes with Cream and Spruce Tips (Plus How to Make Spruce Tip Salt and Spruce Tip Vinegar)
Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Spruce Tips
Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Spruce Tips and Orange Glaze
* * * * *
Kitchen Frau Notes: If you collect your spruce tips from a location where they aren't exposed to exhaust fumes from vehicles, you don't even need to wash them, because they will be clean and protected inside their papery husks. Just check for bug bites, but those are rare. If the tips are older, or near a road, give them a quick rinse and shake them dry.
You can use the tips from any needled tree. Taste them first, as some are more 'piney' than others. You may need less of the stronger tasting ones.
Don't worry about damaging the spruce trees - you are actually doing them a favour, and pruning them to grow even bushier by nipping off the tips. Try to spread your picking around different parts of the tree, rather than picking one area clean. Just don't pick the tip off the leader at the very top of a young tree, as that could disturb its growth.
The spruce tips last for up to a week in the fridge if kept loosely covered.
Sauteed Mushrooms Recipe with Spruce Tips and Chives
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 4 cups small white button mushrooms (11oz/320gms)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon chopped spruce tips
- 2 tablespoons minced chives (or green onions)
- light sprinkling of pepper
Wash the mushrooms under running water, then leave them to dry on a tea towel or paper towel until most of the moisture is off. Pat them lightly with the towel to speed the process. If your mushrooms are large, cut them in halves (or even quarters if really large).
In a heavy skillet over medium heat, melt the butter until it starts to sizzle and smell nutty, just beginning to brown slightly. Tip in the mushrooms and sprinkle them with the salt. (The salt helps draw the moisture out of the mushrooms.)
Saute the mushrooms, stirring them often, so they brown on several sides, for 8 to 10 minutes. First, the liquid will be released from the mushrooms, but keep cooking them until this liquid is cooked away and the mushrooms start to brown. Once the liquid is evaporated you will need to stir them more often.
When the mushrooms have all turned a deep golden colour on several sides, sprinkle them with the chopped spruce tips and chives. Cook them for 1 minute more, stirring constantly.
Remove the pan from the heat, give them a very light sprinkling of pepper (you don't want to overpower their delicate flavour), and tip them into a small serving bowl, scraping all the lovely butter and sprucy, chivey bits into the bowl, too.
Serves 4 as a side dish.
In the words of Andreas: Those mushrooms are amazing.
Guten Appetit!
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You might also like:
Spruce Tips and Potatoes and Cream
Spruce Tip (or Basil) Baked Rhubarb Compote over Silky Swedish Cream
Fresh Trout, Morels, and a Side of Bannock
Ode to the Lowly, Lovely Chayote Squash
Coconut and Curry Carrot Puree
The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we, the participants, share our collective stories across the vastness of our Canadian landscape through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity through the cadence of our concerted Canadian voice. Please join us.
What is your first Canadian food experience? I'd love to hear. If you want to share, drop me a line in the comments link below!
Sabine Macleod
Hi, just wanted to let you know that I sooooo very much enjoy your writing!
Keep it up!!
Hugs
Sabine
Margaret
Thanks - what a nice 'warm fuzzy'! Makes my day.
Judith
Beautiful.
Margaret
Thanks so much.
A Canadian Foodie
I cannot recall how many times I have leaned into one of my spruce trees at other homes and breathed in the scent of Spring. Who knew these were edible? With all of my volunteer work in the food area that I had heard it all for our region. But, no! Love learning new things. This looks amazing. It sounds like you need to take a course with Robert Rogers or Martin Osis from the Mycological Society to identify your mushrooms. I think we should get together and cook or preserve sometime, too!
🙂
Valerie
Margaret
It is rewarding to find food off the land, especially when it's in our own yard - answers that call back to the land. I will have to look up those gentlemen for some mushroom education, thanks for the tip. And I would love to cook with you some time! It would be a thrill for me!
Redawna
What an absolutely fascinating post!
I wish I still lived back on the farm, we were surrounded by acres and acres of Spruce trees.
I look forward to next spring so I can give the tips a try.
Margaret
How wonderful to have such memories of childhood - there's nothing more wonderful than the sound of the wind in the spruce trees! As for cooking with them, maybe you can still find some young tips on the north side of trees in the shade - like on a neighbour's lawn . . .
Marie Porter
I'm just getting around to reading all of the other Food Experience entries, and I've got to say - SUPER jealous that you grew up with people who knew mushrooms. Like you, I'm too scared to forage for mushrooms myself (damn survival instinct!), but I totally feel like I'm missing out.
Also... I've never heard of eating spruce tips! I'm going to have to look into that, as I'm sure my husband would love them! Thanks for the info!
Margaret
I guess we could take a course on mushroom recognition - I do believe they offer them - but I don't know, those poisonous mushroom stories are embedded deep in my psyche!I chuckled when you called it survival instinct - so true. Spruce tips are a wonderful flavour - but a little goes a long way! Hope you have fun playing with them.
Marie
What an interesting and may I say very Canadian recipe. I must try to find the spruce tips and make this unique and delicious sounding recipe.
Margaret
Thanks! I hope you enjoy this dish as much as our family does!
Roy
Never heard of eating spruce tips (and even read Euell Gibbons books as a kid). Two notes:
1) I believe many mushroom poisonings involve liver damage, so they are not instantaneous (but basically irreversible and pretty horrible) though some may be more acute.
2) Not into the gathering (though some friends used to do it to supplement income, selling them to local high-end restaurants for a small fortune) but I know the local mycological societies back in California would hold orientations for beginners, as well as holding shows of edible and poisonous species. What I'd heard is the key is to starting is to learn a very few good, edible species that have absolutely no poisonous lookalikes, so there is no possibility of running into trouble. There are quite a few fungi that have very unusual appearances, so you can be safe. (I remember a couple toxic ones at a show that were "dead-ringers" for common button mushrooms from the store.
Margaret
Great information. Thanks! And 'yikes' about the toxic ones that look like button mushrooms - it makes me want to stick to foraging through the boxes of mushrooms in the store. I know there are people out here who teach mushroom recognition, but it is still a scary thought. I keep thinking that it only takes one 'mistake'! As to the spruce tips - I have been having a lot of fun experimenting with them in combination with different foods - at least they are safe and can't do any more harm than giving a person 'piney' breath!
Joyce
I'm making this for supper tonight. My kids had fun picking the tips of nearby trees, making sure to leave plenty as the trees need them to grow. We're making them with locally foraged oyster mushrooms (not picked by me). If you go out on a beginner's mushroom ID excursion, you'll discover some mushrooms are quite easy to know they're safe. (Others are trickier, and I'm not risking finding the wrong ones, so I only pick the ones that are 100% easy to identify with no risky look-alikes.)
Margaret
Mushroom hunting is a whole exciting new world for me. I hope to learn more about it, but you're right about being absolutely sure which ones are safe. I only trust myself with a few varieties so far. I do need to take a class from a local expert. What fun for your kids to be involved in picking the spruce tips and learning how nature provides a bounty for us. Happy cooking!