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 is not hard, but it requires patience, caution and study. Check out our foraging for beginners online courses here…
Wild chanterelles & lobster mushrooms
Pro Foraging Tips:
- Go out with someone who knows what they are doing, a book is no substitute for someone with ‘mushroom eyes’ and solid knowledge of the dangers to watch out for. ie. Death Caps – a poisonous mushroom you can find in the Pacific Northwest. Join our BC Mushroom Tour
- Walk slowly and hike often. If you slow down and start scanning the ground you will find tons of mushrooms in the city, forest or meadows. Aug-Nov is best in southern BC. A ton of wild mushrooms are edible, beautiful and tasty, well worth the research.
- Buy a handbook – David Arora’s – All the rain promises and more is a great start.
- Start trying to identify simple groups of mushrooms like Oysters, Hedgehogs, Boletes. This is where patience comes in. You will need to spend a while getting to know each species and especially any harmful mushrooms within the group. Once you are sure you know the bad ones, then you can start eating the good ones:)
- Learn how to make a spore print. This is a key identification technique, you gotta know it. It’s also fun to do with your kids, like magic!
- Pick a few edible mushrooms and get to know them really well, any poisonous look alikes, habitat and characteristics. There are 10,000+ fungi in BC so it can get overwhelming.
Edible, medicinal and amazing mushrooms that you can find in and around Vancouver, BC
This is a list that I’ll be updating as I find new mushrooms this year. Click on the links to find out more info on each…
Chanterelles – Cantharellus spp.
Lobster Mushrooms – Hypomyces Lactifluorum
Chicken of the Woods – Laetiporus sulphureus
Fall Oyster Mushrooms – Panellus serotinus
Porcini – Boletus Edulis
Matsutake (Pine) – Tricholoma magnivelare (for experienced hunters only)
Shaggy Manes – Coprinus comatus
Morels – Morchella spp.
Honey mushrooms – Armillaria mellea
Have fun! And I’d love to meet you on one of my infield trips or online courses for the Pacific Northwest. Shoot us an email if you have questions: info@swallowtail.ca
Chef Robin
Please be cautious when mushroom hunting, make sure you go out with an expert (come out with one of our wildcrafters) or are 100% confident of your identification.