Wild about mushrooms on the West Coast

09-12-2008

 

Vancouver Island resort opens its forest floors for its prestigious great fall wild mushroom hunt

 

Vancouver Island, BC - There's a secret crop popping out of the ground on Vancouver Island and a local resort, with the help of a Benedictine monk, is opening its forest floor for a rare peek at the magical mysteries of its fungal bounty. 

 

Fall is wild mushroom season at the prestigious Aerie Resort, 35 minutes outside Victoria in the breathtaking hills of Vancouver Island. Here, each Saturday in October, the Aerie hosts its annual Great Fall Mushroom Hunt - half-day mushroom foraging and feast adventures.  The cost is CDN$130.00 per person and includes transportation from the resort to the secret hunting areas, and lunch.  If the fall experiences an early rainfall, the resort will often add hunts on earlier and later in the season, so interested hunters should call the resort and check dates. Those participating in the mushroom hunt are also offered special room rates, if they decide to spend the night. And for the non mushroom hunter, the fall season introduces special overnight rates starting at CDN$ $139.00 for an Eagle View Room.

 

The magical mushroom tours start with a hunter-gatherer expedition (lasting approximately 2 hours) into the lush forest of the region surrounding the resort, and ends with a chance to savour the bounty through a three-course gourmet lunch.  In total, the whole experience takes up to five hours.

 

Aerie's culinary team, led by executive chef Castro Boateng, takes the raw, earthy fungi and transforms them into mouthwatering culinary masterpieces. Weary but well-fed 'shroomers' also get recipes and cooking tips for future fungal feasts. A past delight has included forest mushroom scented "Bouillon de poule" with foie gras and truffle ravioli and forest mushrooms.

 

For the hunting part of the experience, fungi-philes are led by mushroom forager Brother Michael who has been supplying local hotels and restaurants with mushrooms for years. For the past few seasons, Brother Michael has been taking fungal brave hearts deep into the woods - through fallen logs, soft bogs and steep hillsides - to share his wild mushroom hunting secrets with Aerie guests.

 

Highly guarded, the location of Vancouver Island's prized wild mushroom crops is only known by a select and resourceful crowd. The chanterelle, pine, cauliflower, hedgehog and king boletus mushrooms grown here can sell for top dollar, and each fall, a handful of dedicated harvesters reap the rewards of the island's mossy floor.

 

Vancouver Island has a unique climate and geography that makes it ideal for many varieties of wild mushrooms. Temperate rainforests are excellent for delicacies like chanterelles, oyster mushrooms and cauliflower fungus that grow on the stumps of old growth trees. High plateaus and ridges are home to porcini and pine mushrooms.

 

They are exported all over the world and can be found in markets and restaurants in Paris, New York and Tokyo.

 

Wild mushroom foraging is relatively easy on Vancouver Island, but hunters should be physically fit and come dressed for a forest adventure. 

 

...more

 

 

In praise of the mushroom

High in low caloric fiber, mushrooms may look like nothing more than fleshy, spore-bearing bodies of fungi, but they are loaded with essential amino acids and are ridiculously low in fat. They are an excellent source of high quality, digestible protein, greater than most vegetables and only slightly less than meat and milk. 

 

To reserve a much-coveted spot on the Great Fall Mushroom Hunt adventure, contact the Aerie at 1.800.518.1933 or visit www.aerie.bc.ca. 

 

Located just 35 minutes from downtown Victoria, BC, The Aerie is a member of the Relais & Chateaux collection of inns & hotels. Relais & Châteaux is the prestigious global association of 460 privately owned hotels and acclaimed restaurants of charm and prestige in 50 countries around the world. Founded in France and headquartered in Paris, the association serves as an ambassador for the French "art de vivre" and the highest culinary standards. Each establishment embodies the association's quality charter of the five "C's" - Courtesy, Charm, Character, Calm and Cuisine. For information, call 800-518-1933 or go to www.aerie.bc.ca.

 

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