Mushroom Foraging in the Okanagan area

Discussion in 'Fungi, Lichens and Slime Molds' started by Trev53, Nov 5, 2010.

  1. Trev53

    Trev53 Member

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    Location:
    Vernon BC Canada
    Hi! I hope this isn't off topic.
    I had been living on the Sunshine Coast and was fortunate enough to have a few experienced mushroom picker take me out and show me the ropes, and some hot spots for chanterell and pine mushrooms.

    I am now in the north Okanagan area and I am wondering what may be out there here. It's early November but it hasn't rained much yet. Does anyone know if there are chanterels are in this area? I have heard there are morel's here, but I haven't been shown morel by an expert so..I hesitate to try picking or eating them, if I was lucky enough to find them.

    any info would be appreciated!

    Trev53
     
  2. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    Burnaby, Canada
    I don't know about Chanterelles in your area, but Morels are abundant during spring in burns from the previous summer. Just check the BC wildfires Website for large burns nearby and check them out next spring. Morels are easy to identify from photos. The only mushrooms that look similar are the Verpas, which can be differentiated easily by looking at the lower margin of the cap. Morels are attached to the stem at the bottom of the cap, and Verpas are not. Half-free Morels are intermediate between the two but can be ignored; I don't think that they are very abundant in BC.
     
  3. Frog

    Frog Generous Contributor Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Dried whole morels look a fair bit like fresh morels, at least for showing key characters: I'd suggest taking a dried morel out with you when foraying for morels: It's useful when you are new to a species, to have a sample at hand to compare.

    Also, since morels have exceptional camouflage, you can help tune your minds focus to the morel by staring with concentration at a sample - this helps!

    I had a funny conversation once at a burn site: I was heading for a patch of morels I'd spotted, and saw some folks coming towards me. We met pretty much exactly at the patch, and they explained they'd arrived recently and hadn't found anything yet. I gave them some tips, talked about the camouflage effects and so forth. They walked on, I stood there, waited until they were a distance away, then knelt on that spot and picked a bunch of morels. :-)

    - frog
     

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