Puck's Plenty Foraging

We had an amazing experience on the foraging tour led by Danijela! We purchased our tickets online via emails, and the communication beforehand was excellent. Danijela is incredibly knowledgeable and made the tour both informative and fun. We learned so much about mushrooms! The walk lasted about 2 hours and 30 minutes, and we did some off-trail roaming, so I wouldn’t recommend bringing your furry friends along.

Fantastic trip, Peter was very nice, knowledgeable and funny. Me and my friend really liked it, the mushroom was kind of hard to clean but very delicious. Would recommend it to my other friends 100%!! It was really cold that day but definitely try again next year when it’s warmer.

Peter gave a very informative, friendly and fun tour and we brought home plenty of mushrooms. Peter is very informative and answered all our questions. Highly recommended

I hope someone reads this as a cautionary tale. Unfortunately, I think this place is operating very unsafely and I urge people to avoid going as someone that is now at the hospital and will have to be here for the next 24 hours as a result of this trip. First off, there are just way too many people that attend with only one guide. My friends and I thought there would be under 10, but I think there were more than 20 people with one guide? With the guide urging everyone to go out explore, it makes it really easy for people to get lost (which did happen) and for people to forage unsafe mushrooms without being able to call the guide over (which also happened). I saw people picking mushrooms that were already identified as unsafe constantly. The guide is incredibly sweet but she realistically couldn't keep check of every mushroom for such a large group. Also, this isn't their fault, but since there's so many people and limited amount of mushrooms, people were just grabbing mushrooms someone else had found, including one person who yoinked the mushroom while the guide was still trying to talk about it. I didn't end up finding any mushrooms myself other than a few turkey tails I helped my friend forage, but the guide handed out some of the mushrooms she found and unfortunately that is the mushroom that landed me in the hospital. I looked up preparation instructions for the specific mushroom she said it was and followed it to a tee, but I quickly got really really sick, diarrhea, nausea, everything. I called poison control, sent them the info and was rushed to the hospital and the hospital has mentioned they hear about people getting sick from eating wild mushrooms even during a guided forage! The guide is very sweet and I'm sure if this place made some very much needed adjustments, it would be able to operate safely, but until they do this is just so unsafe even if you don't eat anything.

*in reply to their comment, no I am not trolling. I was with Danielle at the Barrie Sports Centre forest session on Sun, Oct 26th. I do not have my real name on my google account. Alert google all you want, I am alerting the public at what an absolute sham this experience was for me. I want to follow up on a similar review from a year ago as I had an almost identical experience this past Sunday. Last week’s foraging trip was a waste of time and money. 1. There was no real introduction by the guide of herself 2. No discussion about what we were going to do and what to expect from the outting. Some people were getting their kids bundled up, coming out of the cars while she showed some of us a few different mushrooms we could possibly find today. Didn't really recap for anyone else who wasn't right beside her. 3. No information about the forest we were walking through at all. We jsut pulled up to the Barrie Sports Centre and went into the forest right behind it. 0 safety discussions or protocols. no head count, didn't even check my tickets I paid for? Anyone could have just joined along. 4. People were left alone-no real group experience. I honestly think some people were left behind by the end of the event - at multiple points we almost lost the guide. It's like she was on her own hike and we all happened to just be there picking random mushrooms. There was one moment at the start where she found a mullen plant and explained that to us - then that was it. There were 0 group knowledge moments or learning afterwards. 5. There was no real instructions on gathering the mushrooms. We got an email to bring paper and plastics bags before the day, that was it. I felt bad for one girl who mixed everything she picked all together - then the guide at the end basically said "oh well, these are all contaminated now. I told you not to mix them" - There was no discussion about how to store what we picked and we definitely were told nothing about mixing mushrooms. 6. Group size was too large for only 1 guide. 7. What was really frustrating was the the guide's attitude as a whole. One moment she would say "if you find ANYTHING, call me over so i can see where it was" - ok, that is a fair request but multiple people myself included were literally screaming her name and she would be so far ahead she couldn't find or hear us. I brought a mushroom to her after finally catching up, she was rude and said "well does this look like something you would eat"? how would I know? This is my first time doing this and we had minimal guidance or teaching. Overall she was dismissive and it felt like asking her anything was just inconveniencing her. 8. The event was billed as being from 10:00am to 12:30 or 1:00pm - we ended up being later, approx. 1:15. Not the end of the world, but it could have been if someone had other plans to get to. I genuinely think she was lost as she was on her phone map the whole way out, not checking back for anyone. 9. She also used an app for a lot of the mushrooms I brought to her called "picture mushroom". It basically identifies mushrooms and give you a breakdown about it - kind of cool. I asked her about it and put it on my own phone - when I finally got home I decided to try the free trial and scanned all the things I picked that the guide explicitly said were ok - one of them, grey knights, explicitly says not to eat them as they cause kidney damage. The recent review by Katya P. saying she was poisoned by what she picked is very telling. Overall for how much this cost and how far we traveled, I would absolutely recommend looking elsewhere for this type of experience.

Great tour around sustainable harvesting practices on crown land in the Stratford area. Peter and Daniela were both very knowledgeable about countless species of mushrooms and fungi. After the tour (just under 3h), I left with a bag full of mushrooms that I was able to fry up and put into teas

Was fun but there are way too many people for one guide, told us to send pics of mushrooms in the future anytime for help identifying. All of which have been ignored have sent to each different type of communication given and all have been ignored on multiple dates. Ive stopped trying at this point.. Something that would help if the plan is to continue on this mass, would be to have laminated handouts of what you're looking for with characteristics of mushrooms. And keeping the group smaller/closer together. Edit to answer (again) the response. I sent to both text and email. Multiple times. As I said in the review the first time.

Wife and I did the Forage and Feast. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon! While in the forest, Peter educated us on several edible and poisonous plants in the area. Not just mushrooms, but also wild leeks, ginger, and berries. Had a great time! Definitely wear waterproof boots, long pants & sleeves, and bring bug spray. Peter is very friendly and clearly passionate about what he does. Also a shout out to Karen at Stratford Tea Leaves for organizing and leading the wonderful meal and tea tasting!