.99 lb. button

     Tricholoma magnivelares, also known as Matsutake or the Pine Mushroom is found in abundance in British Columbia, Canada. One of the best places to find them is in the Nass Valley and surrounding areas in northwest BC less than a hundred miles from the Alaskan border. This page focuses on Cranberry Junction, near Kitwanga in the Kispiox forest district and one of several mushroom camps that spring up each year. Approx. 1000 professional and amateur pickers from around the world flock to this and other nearby camps every year. The mushrooms are sold to on-site buyers who ship the product to Japan within 48 hours. Prices vary from $10 to over $100 per pound for Grade 1 buttons.
 
 

                        Part of the Pine pickers camp known as 'The Zoo".

"When we left, this area was filled with buses which had been converted into mobile homes. The highrollers begin their year in the Yukon picking Morels in the summer, by August they move to Bella Coola and  the Nass Valley areas of BC for the Pine mushroom season. As the weeks move on they move further south following the cool weather as it moves down the coast like a wave. Lillooet, Powell River, down through Washington, Oregon. Come Jan - Feb, the season is finishing up in California. Then its off to Mexico for a couple months of r & r  before returning to Alaska or the Yukon for the next go-round. The vehicles, gas, food and good times all paid for by mushroom profits!"
 

1999 wasn't a very good year but we still managed to make a couple hundred bucks in a few hours.
 

"I dropped this 2.7 pound monster button and watched in horror as it rolled down the hill in pieces!"
 

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