by Cassandra Hetherington

I used to dream about secret places in DC… dirt roads in the clouds over Georgetown that ended somewhere Mount Olympus-like, unmarked art galleries down dark alleys, houses utterly hidden from view. Turns out I was on to something — except I should have been looking down, not up, for the forests here are teeming with edible mushrooms.

Unfortunately, most are on federal property and therefore illegal to pick, but hundreds of pounds are up for grabs. I learned this exciting and shocking information from Sam Fitz, co-founder and co-owner of ANXO, a few days after he showed me, as excited as a kid on Christmas Day, one-hundred pounds of locally foraged mushrooms. It seems that while some of us were doom scrolling Twitter, Sam was beginning his new hobby of mushroom foraging.

Mushrooms represent rebirth, regeneration and rejuvenation. They are the byproduct of fungi that break down organic matter and act as the digestive tract of the forest. The fear of mushrooms has a name: mycophobia. Many people are afraid due to the fungal role of decomposition in death and decay. And we all know that some types of mushrooms are lethal when consumed. DC voters even have a mushroom issue on their ballots now, but that is for the psychedelic mushrooms, not the killer ones.

The poison, death and decay aspect has not deterred people like Sam and ANXO Chef Alex Vallcorba from regularly searching for mushrooms. Since their pop-up events in 2014, foraging has actually been a main component of ANXO. Locally foraged apples around the city would be collected by people on bikes or cars and transformed into cider. And by local, I mean local, as in a tree on R Street NW or someone’s backyard. Alex has actually been foraging mushrooms for years, mainly chanterelles and morels, which are abundant in the nearby woods for three months of the year.

Honey mushrooms (which have to be thoroughly cooked)

For Sam it all began when he was stuck at home during the beginning of the pandemic. One of his few family outings was to the Takoma Farmers Market where he would converse with the mushroom vendor. He became curious about Rock Creek Park and spent hours looking for mushrooms to identify (federal property!) with some success. His hobby has become more intense since then and he regularly forages twenty pounds a day on private nearby land.

A lot of what is foraged is distributed to members of the ANXO Mushroom Club (full disclosure, I’m a member), the rest is cooked to perfection by Alex in the kitchen on Kennedy Street. Every Friday is Foraged Friday and the menu regularly consists of fungal temptations such as foraged Maitake Mushrooms, caramelized and pickled onions, thyme, and tamari mayo. Yum.

Next year, Sam and Alex are planning to start their own mushroom farm on the second floor of their Kennedy Street property with an apprenticeship program for lucky youth. Sam’s advice to anyone interested in foraging is to start with one easily identifiable mushroom, preferably a variety that does not have an evil poisonous twin, and go look for that one. The Mycological Association of Washington DC also offers foraging expeditions and mushroom meetings.

And if you are someone fortunate enough to have access to old wood forest and are curious about what is growing underfoot, Sam would love to peruse your property. I will admit I did wander around Fort Slocum where it was rumored a tree was full of Maitake mushrooms, but unlike in my dreams, those funghi remained elusive.

ANXO is located at 711 Kennedy Street NW and 300 Florida Ave NW.