Porcini Foraging: From Forest to Kitchen

Head into the woods just outside Sebastopol for a hands-on morning of porcini foraging. In this small-group workshop, property owners & local foragers Gary & Whitney will guide you across their private 10-acre property as you learn how to identify, harvest, and work with one of our region’s most prized wild mushrooms.

This workshop goes beyond finding mushrooms. You’ll learn what to look for as you forage, how to distinguish porcini from other mushrooms, and important principles of mushroom safety. After the hunt, Gary and Whitney will show you how to clean, store, and preserve your harvest, followed by a tasting of porcini dishes prepared to highlight different ways of using them in the kitchen.

In this workshop you'll:

• Learn how to identify porcini, where and when to look for them, and how to harvest them responsibly
• Explore general mushroom identification and foraging safety, including how to distinguish porcini from lookalikes
• Forage for porcini across a private 10-acre property just outside Sebastopol
• Learn how to clean, store, and preserve fresh porcini after your harvest
• Taste a selection of porcini preparations and learn different ways to use them in the kitchen
  

You’ll Take Home

Participants may take home up to 2 pounds of porcini harvested during the workshop, along with practical knowledge for identifying, handling, preserving, and cooking with porcini. You’ll also take home an Opinel No.08 Mushroom Knife with Brush so you can continue your foraging adventures on your own.

Prerequisites

No prior mushroom identification or foraging experience is required. This workshop is appropriate for complete beginners.

What to Bring

Please dress for three hours outdoors in the woods. The property has mildly uneven wooded terrain and is likely to be muddy during porcini season, so boots or sturdy, weather-appropriate footwear are strongly recommended.

You can bring a basket of bag for foraging. We will have paper bags available, as well.

Location

This workshop takes place on a private 10-acre property less than 10 minutes from downtown Sebastopol. The exact location and arrival instructions will be provided to registered participants before the workshop.

Important note about mushroom season

Porcini fruiting is closely tied to rainfall and weather conditions, and the exact timing of the season can vary from year to year. We’ve scheduled these workshops based on the typical porcini season, but nature ultimately determines when the mushrooms arrive. 

We want you to take home the maximum yield possible. Because of this, the workshop date may need to shift if conditions require it. We will email you 10 days in advance of the scheduled workshop date to confirm that Porcinis will be available and offer an alternative date if there is no rain in the forecast. The workshop itself will take place rain or shine except in the case of extreme weather.

About Your Guides

Gary + Whitney Swett: For over 20 years, herbalist and acupuncturist Whitney Swett has cultivated a deep connection with plants, traditional healing, and the natural world. A culinary school graduate, she has long been interested in food and the ways we connect with the land through what we eat. Gary Swett brings a lifetime of outdoor experience, including bow hunting, fishing, foraging, and working with wild foods.

Whitney and Gary’s interest in fungi began 15 years ago with a workshop led by renowned mycologist Paul Stamets and grew into a passion for wild mushroom foraging. After purchasing their Sebastopol property ten years ago, they discovered an abundance of porcini growing on the land and began delving more deeply into mycology and mushroom identification. Today, they forage porcini and other wild mushrooms and supply their harvest to local fine-dining restaurants. They look forward to sharing their knowledge and the abundance of their land with workshop participants.