Beginners Guide to Mushroom Foraging

Picking wild edible mushrooms is fun and rewarding, but it has its dangers too.

If you want to learn how to get started foraging for wild edible mushrooms, this guide will help you find and forage mushrooms safely.

This page includes information that is specific to Vancouver Island and British Columbia, so consult local guides and resources for your area.

Also, check out our information on the best mushroom guide books and easiest mushrooms for beginner foragers.

Note: This page contains affiliate links. If you use them, I could earn a commission. Thanks!

How To Start Mushroom Foraging

1. Open your eyes and look around. You can find     mushrooms anywhere, and learning to spot them is a skill.

2. Take it slow. Get confident identifying one or two types 

       of mushroom. 

3. Most importantly: Don’t consume any mushroom that 

       you’re unsure about. 

4. Team up! Find some mushroom buddies, an expert, or an 

       established group of enthusiasts to help you.

5. Consider taking an offline or online course on mushroom 

       foraging & identification. 

Mushroom Foraging Kit

 

What to Bring When Hunting Mushrooms

Hunting for mushrooms often requires hiking old roads and forest trails. As such, make sure you bring all the regular outdoor gear for

enjoying the great outdoors: rain jacket, water, emergency items, etc.

Looking for mushrooms also involves some extra challenges. First, you’ll likely have to do some bushwhacking, and second, you’ll be doing

so while collecting and carrying some new treasures as you go.

Here are some recommended items, or items you might find useful.

 

Equipment and Gear for Hunting Mushrooms:

  • A small, regionally appropriate guide book. Buy a book recommended by foragers in your area.

  • A notebook. For information, and to track your finds for future reference.

  • Navigational aids. Maps, a compass, or a reliable GPS device.

  • A knife. This is perhaps the most consistently useful item for mushroom foraging.

  • A brush. Good for cleaning debris from mushrooms before placing them in your basket.

  • Gloves. To protect your hands from the knife.

  • Basket. Your main collecting basket, especially if you’re expecting to collect mushrooms in large quantities. Old fashioned baskets are

  • doubly good. Their rigid structure helps to keep mushrooms from crushing each other, and breathable walls allows them to start drying

  • while you forage.

  • Extra containers. Bring a few small containers (plus wax paper) for collecting samples of mushrooms for later identification. Paper bags

  • are excellent for storing mushrooms.

  • Waterproof boots and rain pants. You can get away without these on well-worn paths, but wading through damp undergrowth is a different

  • story.

If you’re in a rush, your essential foraging kit should include: A bag, a book, and a knife.

How To Pick Mushrooms Safely

Mushroom Foraging Can Be Dangerous…

Although relatively rare, British Columbia is home to some of 

the deadliest mushrooms in the world. 

 

Many non-deadly mushrooms can cause severe gastro-intestinal upset. 

 

Even choice edible mushrooms can trigger unpredictable reactions, 

or accumulate contaminants from their environments. 

 

There are no simple tricks for identifying poisonous mushrooms.

 

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