Mushroom Hunting Adventures in Gifu

Today, we visited Gujo again, this time in a place called Takasu. Several weeks ago, Hiromi and I decided to hire a mushroom hunter who is best friends with the Deguchi brothers we hired for river fishing last May. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may know Hiromi has a talent for spotting mushrooms. This skill comes into play whether we’re in the forests of the Netherlands, the Alps of Switzerland last September, or now, here in Gifu Prefecture.

Fortunately, we found Mizuhara, a professional mushroom hunter, to guide us through the forests. However, you can’t simply walk into the woods and start picking mushrooms. Just like we needed a Fishpass for river fishing, we had to pay a fee and an insurance premium to enter the forest. Mizuhara brought all the necessary gear and provided us with invaluable instructions on the dos and don’ts of mushroom hunting. He meticulously inspected our finds, distinguishing between edible mushrooms and poisonous ones.

After hours of wandering through the forest, we collected quite a bounty. I must admit, I struggled to spot mushrooms, so my basket was nearly empty by the end of the day. Thankfully, Hiromi has a remarkable knack for finding them. Together, we brought home a considerable amount of kuritake, mukitake, and shimofuritake—new types of mushrooms I had never seen or tasted before.

The whole experience was transformative. As I immersed myself in the hilly terrain, I began to understand where mushrooms tend to grow. I will forever look at forests differently now, always on the lookout for half-dead trees and shady gaps near other trees. Best of all, we got to savor our harvest! The mushroom pasta Hiromi cooked for dinner was incredibly satisfying.