San Francisco - October 30, 2006

Magic Mushrooms

DailyCandy Goes Mushrooming

You swore you’d never experiment with mushrooms again. (Who has time for elves and fairies these days?) But you can still have fun with fungi. Here are four places in and around the Bay Area where you can hunt for mushrooms and expand your mycological knowledge.

Morel of the Story
Charmoon Richardson, owner of Wild About Mushrooms, knows a thing or two about fungus — he led Bobby Flay on his first foray. Meet him at Salt Point State Park for a two-and-a-half-hour hunt on a specified Saturday, followed by a potluck picnic. Grill up chanterelles, porcini, matsutake, and lesser-known edibles like milk caps and russulas. Die-hard hunters can attend his overnight weekend trip to the Sierras for morels in the spring.

Pour-Cini
Guests at Les Mars (27 North Street, Healdsburg; 877-431-1700) can spend a full day of foraging with chef Peter Brown. After a hearty breakfast, a luxury SUV whisks small groups of two to four people to sweet spots out toward the coast. (Peter insists on a two-pound-per-person limit to minimize impact.) After an hour of hunting, it’s on to a local winery or private home where guests learn how to prepare simple mushroom dishes, like flatbreads and risottos, to be paired with wine at lunch.

Forest Foray
Headed to Big Sur for a little R&R? Starting in January, guests can tack on a morning mushroom hunt to weekend activities like spa treatments and afternoon yoga sessions at Ventana Inn & Spa (Highway 1, Big Sur; 831-667-2331). Park ranger Chuck Bancroft leads excursions of fifteen or fewer through the redwoods. A delicious wild mushroom lunch with wine pairings at Cielo follows.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mushroom World
Learn everything you ever wanted to know about mushrooms and then some by joining the Mycological Society of San Francisco. Show and tell with other amateurs, rub elbows with pros, and stay keyed in to annual events like the upcoming Fungus Fair at the Oakland Museum and the Mendocino Woodlands Foray, where you can learn to make dyes, paints, and paper from mushrooms.

So when it starts to rain, head into the woods. Just steer clear of the toadstools.