Mushroom Hunting Season

Finding Medicinal and Edible Mushrooms

Artist Conk Koksilah River

Wild mushroom foraging season is about to begin in beautiful British Columbia. I’m excited. Last year we found dozens of pounds of fresh Oyster Mushrooms in the forest near our Salt Spring Island property. The west coast of Canada is full of medicinal mushrooms like turkey tail, and red belted conks. Edible Mushrooms include Lions Mane, Oysters, Chanterelles,  Morels and Chicken of the woods. You can see a full list of British Columbia’s edible mushrooms here.

What’s your favourite mushroom? If you are new to foraging, remember to go with knowledgeable, experienced foragers.  When looking for mushrooms, look for their host trees. Also, get a good book on ID’ing mushrooms like the field guide to edible mushrooms of the Pacific North West or the Wild edible mushrooms of British Columbia.

Please be respectful so that we can share the gift of harvesting food and medicine with the generations that come after us. I like to respect nature and only take what I know I will eat. If I am not sure about a mushroom, I’ll take a photo instead. I will also take expired mushrooms and move them to the appropriate type of tree to spread their spawn for a bigger harvest for the foraging community next year.