A Guide to Picking Fire Mushrooms in British Columbia
This is an excellent page addressing picking fire mushrooms (burn morels) in BC. Fire Mushrooms – BC Much of this content is useful for Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and beyond.
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Identifying Cottonwood Trees for Mushroom Hunting | 2026 PNW Guide
Identifying Cottonwood Trees How to find black cottonwood for early-season mushroom hunting in the PNW Black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) is one of the most important trees for early-season mushroom hunting in Western Washington. While our region is dominated by conifers, cottonwoods grow along rivers, streams, and lake margins — and they’re among the first trees…
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Morels are edible and poisonous
It comes as a surprise to many when I say that the edibility of mushrooms is on a spectrum. Poisonous mushrooms can often be eaten when prepared in sometimes quite elaborate ways. For instance, there is a method for preparing the classic Amanita muscaria in a way that can remove the toxins. This involves boiling…
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Spring Foraging – Stinging Nettles
Before most edible spring mushrooms start flushing here in the Pacific Northwest we start to see stinging nettles. In fact, one of my most anticipated signs of spring are the nettles popping up in the green spaces around our home in NW Seattle. The deep emerald color of nettles are a herald of warmer times…
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Fire Retardant and Burn Morels
Trent of Modern Forager posted about whether it is safe to eat morels foraged in burn zones where fire retardant may have been used. You can find the original post here. Here are my key takeaways from the article. Firefighters have much greater exposure to these chemicals than a typical forager. The Forest Service assessment…
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Toxicity of Morels and False Morels in the Pacific Northwest
Introduction Mushroom edibility is not a simple yes or no. Even widely eaten species cause reactions in some people. Some foragers in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe eat Gyromitra esculenta after repeated boiling, but that does not reliably remove its toxin, and we do not recommend eating it. Reactions vary from person to person and with…
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12 Days of Mushrooms
As we pass the winter solstice and look back on a fungi-filled autumn, here’s a fun reimagining of the 12 days of Christmas for all of you mycophiles.
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Milk Caps
The Milk Caps can be a fascinating and sometimes overwhelming genus to observe. Scientifically known as Lactarius, the name indicates one of the genus’s unique characteristics: a strongly-colored juice known as latex or ‘milk’. Dozens of Lactarius species grow in the Pacific Northwest and the characteristics of any one species can vary significantly from mushroom…
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Candy Caps
Candy Cap Mushrooms Candy caps are small, orange-brown mushrooms in the milk cap genus Lactarius that smell of maple syrup when dried. Several similar-looking species exist, and only some have that scent. Lactarius rubidus is the name usually used for the local candy cap. Mushrooms of Cascadia (Siegel & Schwarz) reports it from western Cascadia,…
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Egg Flower Soup With Matsutake
I have only made this dish once, and that time I used a powdered soup mix. I only had a tiny backpacking skillet and a jetboil. This recipe is adapted from this egg flower soup recipe. Ingredients – 4 cups chicken stock– 1 cup matsutake mushroom (thinly sliced)– 1/4 cup sliced salami/sausage (optional)– 1-2 teaspoons…
