_October'•2014_________ Minority & Small Business Week________________ page/
Foraging Wild Edibles Creates a Business
An Interview
with ‘The
Truffle
Temptress’
ing season as this brings forth our
state m ushroom , the P acific
Golden Chanterelle. You can also
fin d boletes, lobster mushrooms,
chicken o f the woods, Matsutake,
cauliflower mushroom and sev­
eral other edible species o f
fungi. M y fa vorite season fo r
foraging is fall, although truffle
season starts in November.
O livia O livia
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Recently the Portland Observer
had the pleasure of catching up
the ow ner o f the Tem ptress
T ruffles W ild E dibles, Elan
Hagens. She answered some of
our questions on running her own
local business and the quest to
find the “diamond of the kitchen”
- truffles!
I remember you said you
went to school here in Portland
and how it instilled the love of
foraging and growing food in
you. What was the name of
that school again? And what
specifically did you love the
most about it?
Now it’s called Sunnyside En­
vironmental School, but at the
time it was called the Environ­
mental Middle School. The thing
that I loved most was that we were
able to mix with students from all
over the city and spent the major-
The name is the Truffle
Temptress so I’m assuming
you love truffles or might know
a lot about them. What makes
truffles so special and so hard
to find? Do you prefer black
truffles or white truffles?
The reason why truffles are
hard to fin d is because unlike
the m ajority o f fu n g i it never
grows above ground. They live
among the roots o f f i r and oak
trees. A nd because they are un­
derground, i t ’s beneficial and
sustainable to use anim als to
photo by O livia O livia /T he P ortland O bserver s n iff them out fo r you. P articu­
Elan Hagens, owner o f the Temptress Truffles, sells naturally growing delicacies
larly dogs, even though histori­
from the Pacific Northwest like Pacific Gold Chanterell mushrooms, truffles and other cally moths have been used in
wild edibles, during a Saturday’s Farmer’s Market at Portland State University.
France and Italy. The main rea­
son animals are used is that they
iry o f our class time outdoors. Wc
Obviously different seasons son for foraging?
fin d truffles that have ripened
also participated in statewide en- come and go when you’re for-
Right now we are in the most and have a strong scent. Some
vironmental projects and Native aging - what’s in season now? bountiful time o f the year. In the
continued
on page 10
American cultural studies.
And what’s your favorite sea- Northwest, fa ll is a prim e forag-
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