Country Nerd FarmGourmet mushrooms from the Sierra Foothills
Country Nerd Farm
We offer various foraging trips in our local Sierra foothills area throughout the mushroom season (April – November). Our early season trips focus on finding morels, while our autumn trips often result in finding a dozen or more kinds of mushrooms!
To learn more about a particular foraging trip, click on the trip title, or you can use the Get Tickets link if you’re ready to book.
Join us for early-season morel foraging in the Sierra National Forest. We’ll depart a location near our foraging destination at 9am, and spend several hours in the National Forest learning about how mushrooms grow, and where to look for morels (hint: it’s everywhere!).
Since morels grow based on a variety of factors including snow melt, soil temperature, moisture levels, and probably a bunch of other things science doesn’t even know about yet, we’ll share the exact location of our trip a week before.
The Sierra National Forest allows personal collection of mushrooms only with a permit. You will need to purchase this permit from your local Sierra National Forest office if you intend to pick any mushrooms during or after your foray. The permit starts at $20 and allows for a substantial amount of foraging. Please do your part to support our local natural resources and purchase a permit!
Foraging trips involve a good amount of walking around, often in burned areas that can be dangerous. All participants will be required to sign a waiver in order to participate. If you are not comfortable with signing the waiver, we will refund your payment, but you will not be allowed to join the foray. Participants under 18 years of age are welcome with a parent or guardian. Pets or animal companions are not allowed on forays, with the exception of service (not emotional support) animals.
We will be driving on dirt roads for a portion of our foray, so please don’t bring that brand-new Porsche! We recommend a front-wheel or AWD vehicle with some decent ground clearance, but all areas have been pre-visited by our class instructor using a Kia Niro, so you don’t need a truck or a Jeep to attend. If you’re concerned about access, please reach out to the instructor once you receive your location information email, and we can coordinate you with other students to car-share into the foraging area.