Gailene Cook is currently purchasing mushrooms at the Highway 2 and 165 junction. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

forest products

Harvest begins for northern fireweed and mushrooms

Jul 18, 2023 | 12:58 PM

Chantarelle mushroom buyers are offering $10 per pound for the boreal delicacy, the highest amount paid since at least 2018.

Chanterelles are the most sought-after mushroom in northern Saskatchewan, prized for their high quality and unique taste. Every year, buyers for B.C.-based companies set up camp at the Highway 2 and 165 junction to purchase mushrooms from local pickers.

Gailene Cook has been at that location since July 9 and she is currently buying mushrooms for $10 per pound. In 2022, she was offering $8.

“I guess they are not getting the amount they want,” Cook, who buys for West Coast Wild Foods from Burnaby, said. “I’m not really sure why, they just tell me what to do and I do it.”

Cook explained the mushroom harvesting season is about two weeks early. She noted they are just starting to appear, adding if there’s a good amount of rain soon, it should be a healthy harvest. The harvest typically lasts until the end of August or early September.

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“I think more people are starting to just go pick on weekends and stuff that haven’t picked before, and they are taking their kids out to make extra money for the fair this weekend,” Cook said.

After the mushrooms are transported to B.C. and sorted by size, they are sent to countries around the world. The price for mushrooms tends to fluctuate every year with the buying price being $6.50 in 2020 and 2021.

Fireweed harvest strong in 2023

While Air Ronge-based Boreal Heartland Herbal Products isn’t buying mushrooms this year because they still have enough in stock from 2022, they have been purchasing fireweed. On July 17, they had to momentarily pause receiving more fireweed from pickers because all of their drying sheds were at capacity. Boreal Heartland has a quota of tens of thousands of pounds it needs to meet.

Boreal Heartland drying sheds are currently at capacity with fireweed. (Facebook/Boreal Heartland)

“It takes about five to seven days for it to dry, so we will shut down buying for a couple of days until we get some space in our sheds, then we are going to open up again for a little while and fill our quota from there,” said Keewatin Community Development Association CEO Randy Johns, who manages Boreal Heartland.

Some of the fireweed collected is used in Boreal Heartland’s tea that is marketed all across Canada. Boreal Heartland also has a contract with a company in Saskatoon that turns the fireweed into an extract to be dandruff shampoo, skin cream and more. Johns was offering .70 cents per pound for fireweed this summer.

“All over, locally, around the La Ronge and Air Ronge area,” he said about where the fireweed is coming from.

“There is some that is coming from some of those fires that burned last year up by Grandmother’s Bay and Lynx Lake. There’s other stuff just coming from the ditches. There’s a lot of fireweed around this year. It’s a plant that seems to like smoke and it’s been pretty smoky, so there’s lots of fireweed around and it’s been coming in really well.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno