Go Forth and Forage | Garden Culture Magazine

I have a confession to make: my first mushroom foraging experiences haven’t been fruitful. I had visions of heading out into the forest and stumbling upon a honey hole of wild food, my family hoisting me up on their shoulders after eating the most nutritious and damn delicious meal of their lives (or, at least volunteering to do the dishes). But after a couple of hours out in the woods, I’d come across many inedible wood-decaying varieties, some turkey tails, and a single Rooted Agaric, which apparently isn’t all that tasty, and given that there was only one, certainly couldn’t feed my family of five. I don’t necessarily think this is a ‘me’ problem, because after an extremely hot July and August with hardly any rain, the shrooms just weren’t there. 

Although my first mushroom foraging experiences may not have been entirely fruitful, they were filled with optimism and were successful nonetheless. Time spent in nature walking with my family and two dogs is always time well spent. Besides, the thrill of never knowing when you’ll come across a honey hole of wild mushrooms keeps me going, and everyone knows that the fall is one of the best times for foraging, anyway.   

Wild Food Movement

In the era of uncertain supply chains and global warming, the wild food movement has many seeking to reconnect with nature, eat more sustainably, and harvest healthy, seasonal foods in their most natural state. Growing up in the country, I’ve come across plenty of wild mushrooms in my day and wrongly assumed they were all poisonous. Now armed with the knowledge of the many health benefits associated with eating mushrooms, from brain and heart health to immune function and weight management, I’m dying to harvest mushrooms in the forest. After receiving a copy of Go Forth and Forage by Whitney Johnson, my interest became a full-blown obsession. 

“I really wanted to help beginner-level people who might see this hobby as intimidating or scary, and take the fear out of it and make it fun and attainable,” she tells me. “There are things, of course, you need to know not to do as well, which is covered, but I’m just trying to help the baby mushroom forager flourish into a confident, strong mushroom warrior.”

Whitney refers to herself as a ‘self-taught mountain mycologist’ and describes the act of foraging as ‘chaotic fun.’ Born and raised in eastern Kentucky, she has always been passionate about the outdoors but only developed an interest in mushroom foraging in college. She studied field guides, spent time in nature, and joined online mushroom ID groups. Whitney’s knowledge, warmth, and sense of humour shine in her videos on social media @appalachian_forager, and she quickly developed an online following. Soon after, she started offering workshops and was approached by a publisher. 

Fast forward a couple of years, and she’s now the author of a friendly and relatable regional field guide to foraging over 50 North American species of edible and medicinal fungi. Go Forth and Forage offers detailed information on identifying, harvesting, and preparing wild mushrooms, is beautifully photographed, and features interactive QR codes directing readers to fun, informative videos of Whitney doing what she does best. Her outstanding personality oozes from the pages with laugh-out-loud lines; she writes how she speaks, and you can hear her southern drawl as you learn the craft of foraging for mushrooms. 

“Mushroom field guides can be highfalutin, a little over your head, really big, crazy words being thrown at you without much explanation to make it make sense,” she says. “There ain’t no bells, whistles, frills. I ain’t fancy […] I want to be your hillbilly mushroom mama guide in the hills.”

Foraging 101

Whitney’s right; there ain’t nothing fancy about foraging mushrooms. The first step involves getting outside; that’s where you’ll get field experience by finding mushrooms and learning to identify them. 

“I say that mushroom hunting is a lolly gagging sport,” Whitney explains. “It is slow. You just kind of ‘fiddle fart’ is what my papa would have said.”

A regional field guide (like Go Forth and Forage) is a must, along with a journal for taking notes, pants and long sleeves to prevent tick bites, and a sack for the mushrooms.

For more of Whitney’s top mushroom foraging tips, check out our 5 Cool Ways feature.

“Once you’ve seen [a certain] mushroom three times, it’s going to become easier to identify, and you’re going to be more confident in it,” she promises. “I screwed up so many times,  you don’t know. Like, it’s nutso. I never put anything in my mouth that I didn’t know what it was, but there were several times when I saw top-choice edibles and blew right past them just because I didn’t know any better. It takes time. I always say the fungi kingdom wasn’t built in a day. So, your mushroom knowledge is not going to happen overnight.”       

That’s a relief to hear; it looks like there’s still hope for me. 

A Keen Eye and Tree Knowledge

Whitney explains that mushrooms are really good at blending into their surroundings, so it’s essential to slow down and observe. While her reference guide is mostly about getting to know mushrooms and how to identify them through physical characteristics (caps, pores, teeth, and gills), spore prints, or growth patterns, Whitney also says knowing trees will give you a head start. Mushrooms and forests have a symbiotic relationship; some fungi species grow exclusively alongside specific kinds of trees.

“Let’s say our target mushroom is the morel mushroom,” she says. “I would want to put myself somewhere with sycamore trees, and I have a lot of luck around poplars, but the number one tree I think for morels is the elm. So, we’re looking for hardwood.”

If you spot a hemlock tree, Whitney suggests looking for hedgehog or yellowfoot mushrooms in the fall and reishi in the spring and summer. If you’re hunting for chanterelles in the summer, find a forest with lots of beech, oak, birch, and poplar. Learning your trees is half the battle.

Myth Busting and Responsible Foraging

“Mushrooms get a bad rap; a real bad rap, and people are terrified of them,” Whitney explains. “I feel like a lot of people are scared to even touch them. So, I talk about how you can touch them.”

An irrational fear of fungi, mushrooms, and mould is called mycophobia, and Whitney’s book, Go Forth and Forage, aims to debunk many common myths so that people can shed their worries. Research is your best friend when foraging for wild food.

“I’ve brought home several toxic mushrooms because I’m a nerd and I want to do spore prints, and I want to cut them apart, look at all the anatomy, smell and feel them because it’s really important to engage all of your senses when you’re in the mushroom identification process […] If you have a questionable mushroom and you’re not sure if it’s toxic, we’re not throwing it in our sack with our edible mushrooms.” 

Whitney suggests working with Mother Nature and taking only a third of what you discover, leaving the rest for the critters, and allowing the mushrooms to spread their spores so the life cycle can continue. She also advises foragers to know the rules and regulations of the area they’re harvesting. 

“I do not want you to be sent to prison for picking mushrooms, which is nuts,” she says. “Make sure that you’re [foraging] respectfully, ethically, and legally; that’s always going to be on the top of your priority list.”

Go Forth and Forage with Whitney Johnson

So, what does a typical foraging experience with Whitney look like? If she’s got a target mushroom in mind, she’ll hike certain trails that check the boxes for that species. But she also loves the thrill of the unknown, because as she says, going ‘willy-nilly with it’ is just plain fun. 

“New terrain gets me all like juiced up,” she says. “It’s happened before where we’ll find a trail and a boatload of oyster mushrooms, and I’m like, ‘heck yeah.’ We’ll mark the calendar [and say] on this day, on this trail, we found this. So, that clues us in to go back there that time, next year. But I mean, a regular forging experience with me is just utter freaking chaos. I’m hooting, hollering, and running through the hills and getting my top knot stuck in briars.”

When I tell her that sounds just perfect, and I think that I’d like to forage with her one day, Whitney doesn’t skip a beat.

“You’re welcome to come anytime, honey.”

Fun Discoveries, Favourite Finds, and Culinary Creations

Anyone who has foraged for wild food has a memorable discovery, and for Whitney, it was when she found her first morel. 

“I had hiked my rear end off for years, and I felt like a poser because I’m the ‘mushroom girl’ and I hadn’t found a morel,” she says. “I lost my freaking marbles. I was shaking because I’d never seen one. It was like it was some mythical mushroom, and I’d almost accepted defeat, like Gosh, you’re never going to find one. After that, of course, I found a ton; once you get the eye for them, you know.”

When it comes to favourite varieties, Whitney doesn’t discriminate, but there’s one in particular that she pegs as the tastiest, which can be eaten fresh but also preserves well when dried or frozen.

“Hen of the woods is the most delicious wild mushroom there is. The flavor is unmatched. There are tons of delicious wild mushrooms, but I think Hen of the Woods is the best.”

As for the easiest mushroom to find, she gives the award to the hedgehog, because it doesn’t have any toxic look-alikes. It features a cream-to-orange cap, and when you turn it over, it has teeth! The hedgehog also holds a special place in her heart because it grows in the colder months.

“The main reason I like them is because they provide a serotonin boost for me in the midst of the wintertime blues,” she explains. “It’s cold outside. I’m kind of sad. Everybody who has Seasonal Affective Disorder can sympathize with that.”

Whitney loves to cook with her foraged treasures; she experiments with a wide range of dishes, from mushroom flatbreads and chanterelle cream sauce to sauteed wild mushrooms or gummy candies made with jelly fungus. The girl loves a good fried morel, too.  

“It’s kind of like a holistic experience when it comes to morels because they’re so highly sought, and they’re only around for two weeks out of the year,” she says. “They’re super elusive. So, if you can get one and eat it, it’s like victory.”

Always Foraging

At the end of my chat with Whitney, I tell her I get the sense she’s constantly foraging, no matter where she is, and she confirms this is true. Whether she’s in a city park, hiking in the forest, or driving down a street, she’s always looking. She loves the entire process, from research and being outside to finding the mushrooms, cleaning and cooking them, and sharing them with her friends and family. For beginners, she warns against overcomplicating something meant to be fun and therapeutic.  

“You don’t have to have target mushrooms when you go out. You don’t have to be that guy. You can go out for the fun of it and be like, “Let’s see what we can find today,” because I do that all the time.”

So, I won’t be that guy. Or girl. It’s finally fall, we just got buckets of rain, and fiddle-farting is in the air. It’s time to get willy-nilly with it. 

Go Forth and Forage is now available in most bookstores and online stores.