D is for Dinner: Foraging for chanterelles

Interview with Brodie on CBC’s All in a Day

After what happened to Brodie Barrie earlier this week, you could say the mushroom farmer risks his life for good food.

While hunting for chanterelle mushrooms in a forest in the Almonte area on Monday, Barrie encountered a black bear in his path.

He occasionally spots bears along his path when he’s foraging, he said, but they usually get scared and leave him alone.

“But this one did not and took a few steps toward me,” Barrie told CBC Radio’s All in a Day. “And I took a few steps back and decided to kind of find a different path. So, I ended up kind of flanking the bear, like, going around.”

“You know you would have been allowed to say, ‘I couldn’t get the mushrooms for CBC that day?'” host Alan Neal replied. “It would have been an acceptable response.”

Already a half hour into his walk, Barrie said he just wanted to keep going.

Barrie sells his farmed and foraged mushrooms at the Almonte Farmer’s Market under the name Forest Floor Mushrooms. He was a guest on CBC Radio on Wednesday to share his recipe for tagliatelle with chanterelle and oyster mushrooms.

Click here to listen to the full interview.