Mushrooms now in season in SK

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Mushrooms now in season in SK

It’s mushroom season! As the rain tapers off and the sun shines through, these strange but delectable fungi are popping out of the ground.

While many of these mushrooms are not safe to eat, a select few are downright delicious and highly prized in other parts of the world.

Only experienced mushroom hunters should pick and eat wild mushrooms. However, it’s getting easier to buy Saskatchewan culinary mushrooms picked by ‘experts’ close to home.

The Local Scene

Several types of culinary mushrooms are harvested in Saskatchewan.

The first to arrive, morel mushrooms, are now in season. Morels are generally not consistent from year to year, or place to place, so they can be frustratingly elusive.

They tend to pop up in areas that were burned the previous year, so pickers will be scouring fire sites for signs of these spongy-looking mushrooms.

Chanterelle mushrooms are found beneath the pines in the northern forest. Their season starts near the end of July and runs into fall as long as the days are warm and nights are not too cold.

Late July and August are also the season for pine mushrooms, which are more famously known as matsutake in Japan, where they are believed to impart a manly vim and vigour.

They are quite rare and young matsutake can fetch a high price in Japan.

The King Bolete is so named because it is the king of culinary mushrooms in Europe – more commonly known by its Italian name porcini.

Porcini and morels enhance their flavour when dried and are therefore popular both fresh in season and dried throughout the year.

A lesser known mushroom is the indigo milkcap, which is blue coloured and found in our forests. According to Elisabeth Poscher, a professional wild food forager, it is gaining popularity.

She also forages, on request, lobster mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, parasol mushrooms, reishi (also known as ganoderma) and other lesser known culinary fungi.

Then there are the little white mushrooms my dad used to pick on the farm, which he cooked in butter and ate all by himself there was no way in h*** my mom was allowing her children to eat wild mushrooms that might be poisonous.

She needn’t have worried. Dad survived.

Three Saskatchewan mushrooms – morels, chanterelles and pines – form a commercial industry garnering about $1 million per year, according to SaskAg.

During their seasons, mushroom buyers establish collecting points in the woods, where they purchase from local gatherers and ship to international brokers in Vancouver, Toronto and other major cities.

One of those buyers is Lorne Terry of White Fox Gold Harvesting, who supplies about 20,000 pounds of mushrooms (mostly chanterelles) to a broker in Vancouver. He says most of his mushrooms land in New York, but he also supplies some shops and restaurants in Saskatoon and Regina.

Commercial mushroom foragers like Terry and Poscher obtain permits from Saskatchewan Environment and follow best practices for the health and sustainability of wild mushrooms.

Tapping the market

Sadly, almost all the mushrooms picked commercially in Saskatchewan are destined for distant markets. However, as demand increases, it is getting easier to buy local mushrooms in Saskatoon.

Look for fresh mushrooms in season at independent shops such as Bulk Cheese Warehouse, Souleio and SaskMade Marketplace.

You can also order fresh and dried mushrooms from Poscher through her company website www.prairieinfusions.com.

Don’t look for wild mushrooms at farmers’ markets, unless perhaps you’re in Alberta our provincial government prohibits the sale of edible wild mushrooms at local farmers’ markets.

Perhaps it’s as needlessly worried as my mother.

Amy Jo Ehman is author of Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner. For more wild mushroom recipes, visit her food blog.

Recipes for Mushrooms with Bill & Sheila

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