No, this isn’t about Zach’s and my visit to Amsterdam a couple of years ago. Though that was fun.

Yesterday afternoon my friend Kathleen and I went mushrooming on Larch Mountain in the Gorge. Our haul of chanterelles was disappointingly small: those are mine on the right. But we found a bunch of the most beautiful mushrooms I have ever seen. They look black in the photo, but they are really a deep, dark, velvety purple.

They are Cortinarius violaceus, the Violet Cortinarius, also called the Purple Cort. According to several mycological guides I’ve checked,  they are the only member of their large family that it is safe to eat. It is unsettling, though, when a mushroom is labeled “Edible, with Caution.” All of the other cortinarius mushrooms, apparently, contain bad substances called cortinarins. The onset of the deleterious effects is delayed, such that you don’t know you have a problem until 3 to 14 days have passed. Still, the identifying characteristics of the Purple Cort are pretty conclusive.

Kathleen and I have never collected these mushrooms, because we have always had much better luck with chanterelles and have concentrated on them. This year we had to branch out. She got a lot of angelwings, and I got these satanic-looking beauties.

The Purple Corts are said to be not particularly savory. They are also said to darken to black when cooked. I propose to start with those two small ones and see what happens. But aren’t they gorgeous?