It was 8 a.m. on an October Saturday morning and a group of us—junior and chef members from the Okanagan Branch were getting out of our kitchens and into our cars. We were heading north in search of mushrooms. In the   vehicles, the talk was all about who was going to find the biggest mushroom, how we cooked our favourite mushrooms, and how much rain there was as we left Kelowna.

We met our guide, naturalist Roseanne Van E, at the Vernon area tourism information centre. She handed around photo books of mushrooms and truffles, and all sorts of fungi goodies that she had recently found in the bush where we were headed for our seven hour hunt. Everyone was excited as Roseanne told us that rain is good and that we should see mushrooms pop out right before our eyes. As we headed to Mabel Lake, where our hunt would begin, we all got our cameras loaded and ready.

Arriving at the first stop, Roseanne took along two baskets—one for edible and one for non-edible wild BC mushrooms. We stopped just inside the bush where Roseanne talked about lichens (a type of moss), how the earth has evolved, how spores  become fungi and their “life cycles.”

We split into groups and began searching. When we found something interesting, we were to give a loud blow on the whistles, which signaled the rest of the group to gather round the big find and  Roseanne would identify the mushrooms for us. Over fallen trees, along rivers and down some small gulleys, we continued looking for the perfect patch of chanterelles, matsutakes or morels. Within an hour or so, we’d blown our whistles a dozen times and identified a pile  of mushrooms in this ecosystem. Then it was time to head to a different ecosystem in search of different mushrooms.

At the second location, we followed a long winding trail, crossed a bridge and were surprised to see that we’d descended to the beaches of Mabel Lake. What a view. Leaves changing colours. And absolute quietness, not a sound anywhere, nobody around but us. As we sat eating lunch, we learned a bit about using field guides and why they are so important. We also identified the mushrooms that people had picked on the way down the trail. Though somewhat tired after lunch, all the fresh air and hours of hiking, we were still game to look for fungi on our way back to the cars. And Roseanne wanted us to see a secret place. We found a load of honey mushrooms everywhere along the incline: growing on trees, in the moss on logs, on rocks—everywhere! At the top of the hill, as we exhaustedly got into our vehicles, Roseanne assured us that our next hike in was short, easy and very rewarding.

Our last stop, outside Mabel Lake Park, was a hike up and down hills, around trees, over logs and on narrow paths (with a long fall if you didn’t stay on them) that ended with the noise of water. We were at the base of a huge waterfall buried deep in the forest away from everything else! All of us took the opportunity to relax, and reflect on why we call British Columbia home.

After a quick rest, it was back to the park campground to browse through Roseanne’s mushroom cookbook collection, tell stories and talk about the day’s finds: about 14 varieties, five of which were edible. The point of our safari was to identify edible and nonedible mushrooms not clean out the forest to fill our bellies (unfortunately!), so we left most in the forest to grow spores for the following season. But whoever wanted, took home a sampling of lobster mushrooms (I hear some ended up in risotto and atop steak).

A glass of cider, some truffles (the chocolate variety), a group photo and a last laugh rounded out a memorable day. Not only had the day gotten us out of the kitchen and learning hands-on about wild mushrooms of BC but it had also gotten us chefs together doing something that didn’t involve too much kitchen talk.

Mushroom Safari - Click on the picture above to see more photos of this amazing adventure

Jonathan Garratt, Okanagan branch, British Columbia,

is Junior Director for his Branch and the National Junior

Representative–Western Region. This outing cost $75

per person; to encourage junior participation, the branch

paid half of their fee. He hopes sharing ideas like this

helps junior development from coast to coast.

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Taken from Mise en Place newsletter, Spring 2010 edition