Edible Vancouver Island Mar/Apr 2023

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Treasure Hunting in the Forest

Imagine yourself on a treasure hunt in a quiet, magical forest, with misty air, verdant moss, and unmatched serenity. In your hands, you carry the tools to aid your treasure hunt: a compass, a knife, and a bucket—but wait, is that bucket full of holes?

It is when the treasure you’re hunting for is of the mushroom variety. Tucked among the forest floor of Vancouver Island are hundreds of species of mushrooms, hiding in wait for you to seek them out. And it turns out, bringing a bucket full of holes is an important part of foraging for mushrooms. “You need to make sure there is airflow in the container you bring,” says Benjamin Patarin of Forest for Dinner. As co founder and CEO of the wildcrafting company, he knows everything there is to know about foraging on Vancouver Island, specializing in bringing foraged products to retail shelves and conducting foraging tours. “If the mushrooms can’t breathe, they will go rotten really quickly,” he continues. “The holes allow airflow, and if it rains, the water can escape so you don’t end up with just a mushy mess in a bucket.”Other good alternatives are wicker baskets and mesh bags, which provide the same benefits and might be more convenient to keep on hand. Neil Horner of Mushroom Savage is a passionate mushroom picker who has been selling his foraged treasures at the farmer’s market in Parksville Qualicum Beach for seven years, and he says the buckets also serve another purpose. “As you’re hiking, you will be spreading the spores of the mushrooms you’ve already picked. Putting the mushrooms in a permeable membrane helps you fertilize the area as you go.” But before you head into the woods with your buckets, it’s important to know what exactly you’re looking for. Patarin

recommends that if you’re new to mushroom foraging, you start by hunting for chanterelles. “It’s a really easy mushroom to start with, because it’s easy to recognize,”he explains. “Figure out a couple of species that are easy to identify, then you find them, bring them home, and over time start growing the list of species you’re confident with identifying.” As you grow your list of identified mushrooms, you’ll also discover a wide range of flavours and uses. Horner explains that while the chanterelle is a versatile mushroom that goes well in soup, stew, stir fry, stuffing, steak and more, the cauliflower mushroom has an egg noodle texture that substitutes well as pasta. Chicken of the woods tastes like—you guessed it, chicken; lion’s mane tastes like shrimp; and hedgehog mushrooms have a delightfully nutty flavour. So regardless of your taste preferences, the variety of mushroom flavours and textures makes it easy to customize your picking to your liking. Once you know what you’re looking for, you can pick up that bucket full of holes and let the treasure hunt begin! Forest for Dinner specifically chose their home base in the Parksville Qualicum Beach area because of how central it is for traveling around to find mushrooms in various areas, with multiple ecosystems providing diverse mushroom species growth. In fact, Patarin says there are over 3,000 species of mushrooms growing in forests on Vancouver Island. Other key things to bring with you are a walking stick, whistle, bear spray and a compass. Wear boots that can handle swampy

12 MAR/APR 2023 EDIBLE VANCOUVER ISLAND