Photo courtesy Morel Mushroom Workshops and Harvests in the Northwest Territories in 2015.
A burn zone is the prime spot to find morel mushrooms, but this year that didn’t pan out as well as many in northern Saskatchewan had hoped.
Morel mushrooms typically perform well a year after a major wildfire. However, precipitation played a major role in a morel yield that was 30 per cent of what mushroom harvester Walter Buckley expected.
“It wasn’t a real good season for morels because there was very little snow pack in the burn areas. As soon as that melted off in early spring the ground dried up and it was very dry and stayed dry all through May because we had very little rain,” Buckley said.
Each year, he travels from his home in Grand Cache, Alberta, to areas that had been hit with wildfires the previous year. Last year was great for the harvest from Northwest Territories. This is Buckley’s first year in northern Saskatchewan as he buys from local mushroom pickers to sell orders to West Coast Wild Foods. Hundreds of pickers have visited his set-up in the past month and a half, first in the Weyakwin area and now in the Creighton junction area. Last week marked the end of the morel season for Buckley.
There were plenty of first-time mushroom pickers keeping busy in the Beauval area up to Pinehouse, Weyakwin region, and the burn zone north of La Ronge. Garnet Charles from Stanley Mission says there were lots of mushroom pickers out in a burn zone he’s been out to. He had a good day where he brought in about 20 pounds. With prices around $6 per pound, he made over $100.
There were some good days, with pickers bringing in about 20 pounds – prices are around $6 a pound this year. Morel season is now over, and chanterelles are looking a lot more promising because of recent heavy rains.
Buckley said conditions are perfect for a bumper crop of chanterelles, with mushroom pickers expected to be out in the coming weeks.