A Fall Walk in BC’s Forest

Some days the best way to spend an afternoon in British Columbia is the way we always have: boots on, phone in a pocket, and a slow walk along a mossy forest trail. This fall we did exactly that, and the forest put on a show.

Where it all started

Long before we made mushroom extracts, we were mushroom people. Our roots are in BC’s wild mushroom trade in the 90s, picking and buying Pine mushrooms and Morels, and later running a wild-food shop in Richmond. You can read that story in our picking years.

Today our extracts are made from organically grown fruiting bodies (plus wild-harvested Chaga). But every fall the forest still pulls us back for a walk, and this year we brought a camera.

A Lobster to start

The first find of the day was a flash of orange in the moss: a Lobster mushroom, bright orange on top and white underneath. Once you have seen one, that colour is impossible to miss on a green forest floor.

Pine mushrooms under the moss

A few minutes later came the one every BC picker hopes for: the Pine mushroom, also known as Matsutake. They hide just under the moss and needles, and you often spot a small bump before you see the mushroom. Digging one out is slow, careful work: you loosen the soil around the base and lift it out whole.

Fresh Pine mushrooms are firm and white with brown flecks, and they have a spicy, earthy smell that is hard to forget once you know it. That smell is a big part of why they have been prized in Japanese cooking for centuries.

Where there is one, there are often more. Further along the slope, two came up side by side, and late in the walk a big, knobbly one finished the day’s pine hunt.

Coral and colour

Then came a white Coral mushroom tucked between cedar sprigs, looking more like something from the sea than the forest.

The forest floor was full of colour that day: clusters of small orange mushrooms spread across the needles, and a pink, frilly one on a mossy bank.

A word on safety

Many mushrooms in BC’s forests have look-alikes, and some of those look-alikes are dangerous. Only pick what you can identify with 100% certainty, ideally with someone experienced beside you, and leave everything else for the forest. A photo is always a safe thing to take home.

The canyon and the chapel

Along the way the trail ran above a river canyon, with green water rushing between rock walls and old cedars leaning over the edge. Later we came across a small white chapel in a field, with the hills behind it turning yellow for fall. It was the kind of afternoon that reminds us why we started working with mushrooms in the first place.

From the forest to the bottle

Our walks are about the forest. Our products are about consistency. Every Pacific Rim extract is made in British Columbia from organically grown fruiting bodies, and carries a Health Canada NPN on the label. If you’d like to try one, Lion’s Mane Elixir Drops, Lion’s Mane Capsules and Turkey Tail Capsules are good places to start, and our Buyer’s Guide compares every format side by side.

This article is for general information only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Never eat a wild mushroom unless an expert has identified it with certainty.