Turning to the great outdoors for food; foraging community sees resurgence in Manitoba

There's a foraging boom in Manitoba as more and more residents are turning to the great outdoors to find their food.

At Fort Whyte Alive, foraging workshops have been booked solid for June and are filling up fast for July and August.

Barret Miller, manager of group services at Fort Whyte Alive, calls it a resurgence.

"Once upon a time, everybody foraged or hunted for their food," he said. "The pandemic has taught us that things need to come from closer by than maybe we thought 10 or 15 years ago, and everybody has had more time to spend outside."

When Brian Hogue made his first foray into mushroom foraging more than a decade ago, he says he took out as many books as he could to learn about the different species of plants and mushrooms. Now he says there is a thriving foraging community, one that has been growing recently.

"The people are just out in droves right now, so it's amazing to see the change from couple years ago," he said.

Hogue runs Mushroom Picking Manitoba, offering guided group outings to learn about mushroom picking. He says there is already a waitlist.

"It was quite a huge change from what it was two years ago."

It is not just any mushroom Manitobans are seeking out – it's morel season.

"That's our spring mushroom of Manitoba," Hogue said. "Very popular amongst people (and) very expensive mushrooms. So people want to find it themselves and learn where and when to find them,"

Tom Nagy, owner of River City Mushrooms in Winnipeg, said the popularity of morel mushrooms has brought in a new group of people looking to learn about wild foraging.

"There's more of a desire these days, I think to become more in tune with foraging and with gardening and that whole kind of like lifestyle," he said.

While the popularity boost is an exciting time for the foraging community, Miller said first-time foragers need to learn the dos and don’ts.

"If you can learn from people with firsthand experience, it's always best," he said. "If you are using a guidebook or the internet, make sure that you're confirming things from multiple sources."

He said another important lesson to learn is one of stewardship – sharing with the other inhabitants of the natural world.

"The next animal, person, whatever comes along might need that resource more than you do," he said. "So you need to be cautious and not overharvest. Always leave more than you think behind and only ever take what you need." 

-with files from CTV's Devon McKendrick