Intro to Mushroom Foraging — Seattle A two-hour evening class on what to pick, what to avoid, and where to look
Most people who want to forage never start, and it is almost always the same two reasons: they don’t know which mushrooms are actually worth learning, and they are quietly afraid of poisoning themselves. This class fixes both in one evening.
We cover the handful of Pacific Northwest mushrooms that are genuinely worth your time — chanterelles, boletes, morels, hedgehogs, oysters, lobsters — the poisonous species you need to know cold, and the habitat reading that turns “somewhere in the woods” into a specific place you can drive to on Saturday. It is a classroom evening, not a walk, so bring a notebook rather than a basket.
What the Two Hours Cover
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0:00
Why the Pacific Northwest
What makes this one of the best foraging regions on earth, how the season runs from spring morels to late-fall hedgehogs, and what is realistically findable within an hour or two of Seattle.
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0:20
The mushrooms worth learning first
Six or seven species that are common, distinctive, and genuinely good eating. For each one: what it looks like, what it grows with, when it comes up, and the single feature that confirms it.
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0:50
The dangerous ones
The species that actually put people in hospital in Washington, the look-alikes they get confused with, and the identification habits that keep you out of trouble. This is the part that lets you forage without anxiety.
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1:15
Reading habitat
Tree associations, elevation, moisture, and timing — why a chanterelle is under a hemlock and not a cottonwood. The skill that separates people who find mushrooms from people who go for walks.
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1:40
Where to go, and questions
Public land rules, permits, how to pick spots off a map before you drive, what to carry, and how to clean and store what you bring home. Open questions until we run out.
Who This Is For
Complete beginners
No background assumed. If the only mushroom you can name is the one on a pizza, you are exactly who this is written for.
Self-taught foragers
You’ve read the books and watched the videos but still second-guess yourself in the field. Two hours with someone who does this constantly closes that gap fast.
Cooks and food people
You’ve paid $40 a pound for chanterelles and wondered how hard they’d be to find yourself. Not very, once you know where to look.
Couples and friends
It works well as a two-person evening out, and foraging is much more fun with someone else. Book seats together.
Venue & Logistics
Where: A Seattle venue within about 15–20 minutes of downtown. The room is being booked now — the exact address goes out by email to everyone holding a ticket well ahead of the date, and is posted here as soon as it’s set.
Parking: Venue selection is weighted toward easy parking and transit access. Details come with the address.
Bring: Something to write with. Everything else is provided.
Age: Adults and teens. Minors should come with an adult.
Food: No foraged mushrooms are served or handled for consumption — this is an identification and habitat class.
Full refund up to a week before class
Plans change. Cancel up to 7 days before the class and you get every dollar back — no fee, no credit-instead-of-cash, just a full refund to your original payment method.
Inside 7 days I’ll happily move you to another city’s date or a future session instead.
About Your Instructor
I’m Jeremy Collison. I’ve spent years foraging the Cascades and the Olympics, I’ve hosted a mushroom identification class from my home that’s rated 4.98 across 122 reviews on Airbnb, and I built Forayz, a mapping tool that foragers across the Pacific Northwest use to find habitat. I teach this the way I wish someone had taught me: fewer species, better understood, with the safety part handled properly rather than waved at.
The mushroom class is among the Pacific Northwest’s top-rated Airbnb experiences.
“Jeremy’s workshop was fantastic! We walked away feeling confident being able to pick out chanterelles and porcini.” — Sarah, Seattle WA · October 2024
“Jeremy is so personable and knowledgeable. You can tell he has a passion for mushrooms!” — Jenelle, Seattle WA · June 2024
“He was so informative and answered all of our wide ranging questions. Highly recommend!” — Katheryn, Glen Ellyn IL · March 2024
Other Cities
The same class runs in three other cities this fall. If the Seattle date doesn’t work, one of these might.
- EastsideBellevue / Kirkland · venue announced closer to the dateThe same two-hour intro class, held on the Eastside so Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond don't have to cross the bridge.Next: Wed, Sep 16
- EverettEverett · venue announced closer to the dateNorth-end version of the intro class — and the closest one to the Mountain Loop and Stillaguamish country you'd actually forage.Next: Thu, Sep 17
- TacomaTacoma · venue announced closer to the dateSouth Sound version of the intro class, an hour from the Greenwater forests on the northeast side of Mount Rainier.Next: Thu, Sep 24
There’s also a smaller version of this class hosted at my home in Greenwood, and a four-week fall course at North Seattle College in October. See all mushroom classes.
Ready to Take It Outside?
The class is the classroom half. The other half is standing in the forest with someone pointing at things — that’s what the guided tours are for, and everyone who takes a class gets first word when new tour dates go up.
Put the habitat lesson on a map
Forayz overlays burn perimeters, soil moisture, snowline, and forest-type data on a map of the Pacific Northwest, so the habitat reading from the class turns into actual spots to check.