MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall / Winter 2017

FALL/WINTER 2017 MLCM 81 EDIBLES EDUCATE YOURSELF Here are some resources to get your wildcrafting mushroom adventures started. Whistler Naturalists  They hold a foraging course annually during their Fungus Among Us Mushroom Festival .  whistlernaturalists.ca  The Northern Bushcraft Guide  This guide provides a list of edible mushrooms throughout British Columbia or you can buy Tom Cervenka’s book Wild Edible Mushrooms of British Columbia at Armchair Books in Whistler Village. Royal Roads University Located in Victoria, BC, Royal Roads offers non-degree courses on Wild Foods of Southern Vancouver Island, ethnobotany and more. royalroads.ca NAMMEX (North American Medicinal Mushroom Extracts)  Check out Jeff Chilton’s website for more education on everything mushrooms and learn how to ensure any mushroom supplements you buy contain the medicinal components they advertise. nammex.com  Words :: Taylor Godber  “Wildcrafting”  It’s as primitive as it sounds. Wildcrafting is the action of gathering herbs, plants and fungi from the wild. It’s hunting in the dimly lit woods and combing through the hallways of trees instead of shuffling the concrete floors and fluorescent-lit aisles of supermarkets. It’s gathering golden treasures from the mossy forest floor while actively revolting against the convenience and disconnection of the industrialized food preparation industry. But there is also an innate joy in obtaining food from places where the organic edibles are perfectly imperfect. Real food speckled with dirt, damp from rain, and in varying shapes and sizes. When gathering wild mushrooms in particular—for food or medicine—there is also a sense of something magical, as if these fresh, natural fungi sprouting from the earth hold immeasurable, beneficial qualities. Specialty mushrooms have recently been showing up on the menus of fancy restaurants, on the shelves at health food stores, in abundance in the forests we call our backyards, and ultimately, onto our plates. Beyond nourishment however, various Asian cultures have recognized the potential medicinal qualities of mushrooms for tens of thousands of years. And North American culture is beginning to pay attention. MAGIC IN MUSHROOMS PUTTING THE FUN BACK IN FUNGI, BOTH ON THE PLATE AND MEDICINALLY  Golden forest treasures. ADAM CHILTON