Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/130547
Foraging fo Love the taste of wild ingredients and the thrill of discovering new combinations of flavours? TEXT CAROL POPE FORAGED FOODS can be both health-giving and highly prized as delicacies – such as matsutake mushrooms sustainably foraged in the Pacific Northwest and sold online by Mikuni Wild Harvest. Other sought-after taste treasures include newly-formed fiddleheads of B.C. ostrich fern and spongycapped morel mushrooms that spring up in damp spots. For aspiring "mushroamers," mycological expert Daniel Winkler has created A Field Guide to Edible Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, with photos and descriptions of what fungus is good to eat – and what is not. He strongly recommends connecting with a mushroom club for accurate identification, as "using a guidebook alone is often not sufficient." Adds Winkler: "An old mushroomer adage is 'When in doubt, throw it out!'" For those looking for the easiest pick to become familiar with, he suggests the chanterelle, adding that "morels are pretty easy, too, but much harder to find and poisonous when not cooked." Pickers should tread gently in any forested ecosystem, limit their harvest to just a few and know that it is illegal to harvest in provincial parks. There are other ways to embrace "volunteer 24 | BC HOME & garden June 2013 p18-25_Le Marche/ForagedFood.indd 24 13-05-01 3:54 PM