Marjie Millard knows her Mushrooms.

by Susan T. Wehren Of the Newport News-Times, October 16, 2002

At one time, Marjie Millard was a seasonal worker picking mushrooms and camping out, as she and her husband followed the different seasons around the Pacific Northwest.

Today she still picks mushrooms but now it is with her family, and she has a place to call home on Highway 34, just a few miles east of Waldport.

About 15 years ago, when she and her husband, Tom, began picking mushrooms when they were living in Brookings, it was fairly easy to find spots that they could call their own and return to each year.

Today, things have changed, and at times, there is just a little clandestine excitement for mushroom pickers.

"There are more people picking now," she says, noting that mushroom buyers hire large groups of people who pick as much as they can as quickly as they can.

Many of the pickers are Latinos or Asian. "They are hard workers, so they pick a lot," she says.

"It can get very competitive," she adds, and a times, pickers are aggressive.

"We used to travel all over Montana, Washington, Oregon and California. We followed the seasons. It was a lot of camping and a lot of time on the road," she says.

Determining it was not a good way to raise a family, the Millards and their two children moved to Seattle, and Tom took a construction job.

Later they moved to Waldport, where the Millards, "would pick as a family once in awhile. Then I got busy," she says, as she dabbled in real estate and home schooled her children.

She started picking seriously about three years ago and has now started Millard Family Mushrooms.

Joining her son, Clayton, 14, a Newport High School student, and Katie, 12, at Newport Middle School.

"Almost all of the good local mushrooms are shipped out of state. I started picking and drying mushrooms, and try to keep them affordably priced," says Millard.

She works from the kitchen in her home, where she dries and packages wild edible "forest fungi," including Black Trumpet Chanterelles, Candy Caps, Cauliflowers, Hedgehogs, Lobsters, Chicken of the Woods, Yellow Foot Chanterelles, Morels, Cat's Paws, Golden Chanterelles, King Boletes, Matsutake, and Oysters.

She alaso sells a pre-packaged soup mixture that is mixed with a variety of her dried mushrooms. Millard says she is particular about the mushrooms she sells. "I try to dry the best mushrooms," she says.

As an example, her kitchen table features a basket filled with the reject Chanterelles from an order she recently filled for two restaurants. "I don't pick the ugly ones," she says.

Millard is also careful about how many she collects. "I am very much aware that fungi are an important part of forest ecosystems. We are careful to collect "wisely," using collecting methods that conserve fungal poplulations," she says.

Millard takes part in local farmers' markets and has been asked to take part in the North American Truffling Society show in Eugene.

At the Yachats Village Mushroom Fest set for this weekend, she will have a booth and share her knowledge of forest fungi during some of the events.

"I like to give out samples so people will know what they are buying," she says, and Millard supplies the following recipes for using mushrooms.

"Just about any mushroom is excellent added to a stir-fry. We prefer to use Matsutake, Chantrelle or Lobster mushrooms. And there is nothing better than just sauteed mushrooms with butter and garlic. Try adding a few Matsutake's to a kabob," she says.

"Most wild mushroooms should not be eaten raw. Lobsters and Morels have been known to cause mild stomach upset if eaten raw or with alcohol," she adds. "The alcohol part is in rare cases. We have tested this theory and have not had any ill effects, but some people are sensitive to this combination."

next article - Meet the Mushroom Queen