Go back

Features



CDs

NNSL Logo .
 Email this articleE-mail this story  Discuss this articleOrder a classified ad Print window Print this page

This year's mushroom harvest a bust

Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Friday, September 21, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - It was a bad year for mushroom lovers.

Yellowknife saw a short window of opportunity to go mushroom picking this year. A popular pastime in the region, many Yellowknifers noted the lack of abundance in some of their favorite fungi.

NNSL Photo/Graphic

Diane Boudreau displays her collection of dried birch bolete mushrooms from last season. - Cara Loverock/NNSL photo

Joachim Obst, a long-time nature enthusiast, said the weather is partly to blame. With rain coming fairly late into the summer, many of the edible mushroom species were not around this year.

"There are lots of other mushrooms now," said Obst.

"Probably in the last two, three weeks or so, but those are mostly mushrooms here people don't know, including myself. So those are mushrooms people don't pick and eat."

There are about a dozen edible mushroom species that typically grow in the shield country around Yellowknife, including species from the boletus family of mushrooms, like birch bolete, and matsutake mushrooms, also known as pine mushrooms.

Mushroom season this year started late. It wasn't until the first or second week of August when boletus mushrooms finally arrived, and mid-August when a few matsutake mushrooms began to appear.

This year, the season lasted only about four weeks, a very short season in Obst's estimation. Last year was excellent, said Obst. Some bad seasons have to be expected, especially after an abundant year, he said.

"This year there's a few (matsutake) coming out, but it's like nothing compared with last year," said Obst.

"This seems to be kind of a natural cycle too. It's not just the rain and the weather."

His prediction for next season isn't particularly optimistic either. He said the downward cycle for pine or boletus mushrooms will likely continue. He said the past few years have also seen a lack of shaggy mane mushrooms, which are tasty but poisonous if consumed with alcohol.

"I would expect, like in the next week or so, the boletus mushrooms are over," said Obst, adding that anyone planning to go out mushroom picking may well be disappointed, "They will be still growing but it may not be worthwhile anymore."

Yellowknife artist Diane Boudreau - also a trained biologist - noticed the poor mushroom season as well.

"The season was not so abundant," said Boudreau, "Last year I went mushroom picking with a friend eight Sundays in a year. This year I went twice, three, four times and three times there was nothing."

Boudreau does not want to divulge her favorite places to find the best mushrooms, but said it's a good idea to stay out of the city center because the mushrooms there may be contaminated with arsenic. The best place for mushroom hunting is out in the wilderness, far from the city.

While studying biology in Montreal, Boudreau took some courses to study mushrooms in order to better understand the characteristics of the different families and learn how to identify different mushroom species. She stresses the people must be careful with mushrooms, as to not pick the more poisonous species.

"You have to go with somebody who knows better than you," said Boudreau, adding, "To people who are interested, you have to develop your sense of observation, this is the most important thing."