Looking for New Spots when Mushrooms are Growing: by Guest Blogger-Alice Kulyk
Guest Blogger Alice Kulyk has suggestions for the best time and places for mushroom foraging.
A good time to look for new mushroom picking spots is when that variety of mushroom is growing. I also mark the date I first found them growing in my gardening journal. This year I first found chanterelles on July 23 and have been going out once a week to search for more and scouting potential new spots for next year. Last year, I first found honey fungus mushrooms on Oct 4th. They were beautiful buttons probably just a day old so this year I will start looking for them a bit earlier, maybe mid September. Last year I found lots of honey fungus in Birds Hill Park and found a couple of new spots where no one had been picking. The mushrooms were big and old but there were LOTS of them.
A warning to pickers: there may be poison ivy where mushrooms are growing.
Make sure you wear long pants with ankles covered, even rubber boots wouldn’t hurt and be careful when you are picking with bare hands. I did end up with a small case of poison ivy last year. A preventative measure when you get home is to wash your hands and arms with sunlight soap. For me, Birds Hill Park is a great place to pick mushrooms even though there may be poison ivy, as it is only 10 minutes from home. I did notice there was a big sign saying that every car should have a park pass even though the front ticket booth was closed. You could buy tickets at the park office. I took a chance without a pass and was not towed or ticketed in the middle of October.
Find out more:
Kath’s quote: “If you want to go foraging into the wilds of Canada without proper gear, you deserve what you get, even if that happens to include being attacked by an undead moose”.
Love never fails.
