Morel pickers, buyers arrive in N.W.T. for mushroom season

Morel mushroom pickers and buyers are setting up camp along highways in the Northwest Territories in anticipation of a bumper harvest following last year's record forest fires, but dry conditions mean they have some waiting to do.

The prized mushrooms used in gourmet dishesare said to flourish in burn areas the year following a forest fire. Buyers typically pay $10 to $14 per pound for the wild mushrooms.

But less than a millimetre of rain has fallen this month in N.W.T.'s fire-ravaged areas, and there's none in the forecast for this week.

"We don't know what will happen,"said morel picker Anthony Haydock. "Maybe we won't have any mushrooms."

Alex Babin and Thierry Lemay, two pickers from Quebec camping near Kakisa,say they don't mind spending their time fishing while they wait for morels to grow.

"It's best to be before the morels come to us, not to come to the morels, so we have to wait and be patient," Lemay said.

$14 or $7 a pound?

Mushroom buyers are also getting ready, but at least one is warning pickers they may not make the big dollarsdescribed in the territorial government's guide for pickers.

The N.W.T. morel mushroom guide says pickers got up to $10 or $14 per pound last year.

Buyer Pat Mazerolle says prices also went as low as $7 last year and he guesses it will start around $8 this year.

"It could even go down as low as $6 a pound and sometimes, like in the Yukon, they're down to $5 a pound."

Mazerolle says it's a question of supply and demand, and how hard it is to pick mushrooms, noting that the higher prices were paid during dry conditions when mushrooms are hard to get.

"Generally when [the price] goes that low, it's easier to pick. The mushrooms are more plentiful. They're a little bit bigger, weigh a little bit more, so it all sort of balances out."

Mazerolle is now setting up shop in Fort Providence.

"We'll have a couple of buying stations outside and we're going to be aggressively buying morels."