The weirdest mushroom in BC? Edible Lobster Mushrooms!
Lobster mushrooms in BC are one of my favourite edibles. They do taste mildly like seafood and have a great, firm texture. They also colour your dishes red; remember you eat with your eyes first! Image by Paul Noll The cool thing about Lobsters (Hypomyces lactifluorum) are that they parasitize russula family mushrooms (with gills)…
BC Poisonous Mushrooms
It’s mushroom hunting season and you may be thinking that you’ll give it a go. Rule #1 – Learn the BC poisonous mushrooms first! As a start, Check out our FREE Foraging for Beginners 3-Part Video Series here. The facts: There are 10,000+ species of mushrooms in BC, only a handful of these can be…
Where to find Porcini ( King Bolete ) in BC?
Porcini are also called Cep, Penny Bun, Steinpilz and King Bolete, in Latin… Boletus Edulis. The King of Mushrooms! Soo nutty and savoury, they’re great in pate, sauces, gravy etc. And they’re HUGE, so it’s easy picking. I love these with fresh pasta. But how to find them? Where do I look? Forests of Fir,…
How to find edible Chanterelle mushrooms in BC?
Chanterelles + a bit of butter + a splash of sherry = magic. Where do I look? Near Douglas-fir trees When do I look? Fall mainly in BC Key Features? thick, forked, shallow gills that run down the stem (decurrent) wavy cap margin white flesh, stem not hollow growing on the ground Distinctive fruity aroma…
How to make a spore print?
What is a spore and why do you care? A spore is a one celled reproductive unit of a fungi (i.e. its seed). Identifying spore colour of a mushroom can help you figure out if you are holding an edible giant horse mushroom or its poisonous friend. You can only check spore colour by seeing…
Wild mushroom foraging in BC
Where do you find edible mushrooms like chanterelles? That’s the question I get most from guests at the supper club when we do our fall mushroom feast. While I’m not going to give up my secret forest stashes, I’m happy to give people tips on how to hunt for them. Wild mushroom foraging in BC…
Wild Mushroom Pate Recipe
It’s mushroom hunting season in Vancouver, so run for the forests people! Everyone always asks me for the recipe that I serve on our mushroom foraging tour, so here it is. And yes, the tours start in September if you want to learn how to forage for your own. Foraging note: BC forests are full…
Cedar Smoked Sablefish
I’m getting bored of salmon, so I decided to smoke one of my favourite white fish. Sablefish(Black Cod) has a nice amount of fat in it and it’s silky texture really stands up to smoking well. I serve this with a wedge of lime to squeeze over it and cut the richness. Here’s the cedar…
Summer BC Fruit Recipes
What to do with all that ripe BC Fruit from the Okanagan? I just bought $100 worth of peaches, cherries and sweet apricots after visiting my grandparents last week near Kelowna. They all looked so perfect that I went a bit overboard… it was a LOT of fruit. So, I went to battle! Here are…
Wild BC Berries
Red Current.. the blossoms are tasty too. The wild berries of BC are happening right now! If you are a hiker like I am then you’ll want to know how to identify a few of these tasty treats. Come on one of our wild edibles tours to learn how to identify and cook with BC…
Spot Prawn Season
It’s one of the mostly heavenly times of year to live in BC–spot prawn season! Usually running from early May until the end of June, spot prawns are one of the more sustainably fished species in BC’s waters. They’re very closely managed in terms of catch and fishing techniques, and are recognized by the David Suzuki…
Rhubarb Rites of Spring
Rhubarb is one of the first crops to poke out of the soil when spring hits where I grew up in Nova Scotia. I have very fond memories of sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table with a dish of warm stewed rhubarb topped with fresh cream or on top of her fresh baked bread. Rhubarb has been used for…