Three days of rain and then heat — the exact recipe. Chanterelles are fruiting in the oak woods, golden and apricot-smelling, and this is the issue where I beg you to learn one mushroom really well before you eat it.

What I'm reading

• Chanterelles and their dangerous look-alikes — false gills (blunt ridges, not knife-edge gills) are the whole game. The jack-o'-lantern look-alike grows in clusters on wood and will make you sick. Learn both, together.
• The Illinois Mycological Association — go on a forage with experienced people before you trust yourself. This is the single best thing a new mushroomer in Chicago can do.
• Spore prints, illustrated — the free, foolproof confirmation step too many people skip.

Field note

Swallow Cliff, the oak slope: a scatter of golden chanterelles, smelling like apricots in the heat. I cooked them simply, in butter, and confirmed every single one against false gills first. The forest will still be there if you go slow.

— Jenna