River City Mushrooms

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River City Mushrooms

Cultivating mycological literacy in Treaty 1 - Winnipeg, MB and beyond. Programs, workshops, grow kits, spawn and more 🍄 Join our mailing list 📬

An online repository of educational articles and experiments illustrating how to foraging for and cultivate edible & medicinal plants and fungi. The premise of this knowledge is to outline ways in which we can use both plants and fungi as a conduit for creating ecologically sound and interconnected food generating communities on a local and global level that will remain sustainable and resilient well into the future.

09/24/2026

An incredible flush of shaggy parasol mushrooms (Chlorophyllum rhacodes) at Wooden Gate C***r this week! These large, charismatic mushrooms are an excellent wild edible, and can be quite abundant in the right environment. Thank you Pamela for sending in such a perfectly filmed video to help with ID 💪🍄‍🟫📸

Notable features:

wide, broad white or off-white caps adorned with shaggy, thin brown-grey scales that radiate outwards from the centre. Cut flesh near the stem base and inner cap often stains pink or rose coloured.

Gills are white, broad, end abruptly at the stem, and are covered by a persistent annulus (ring) that can be reliably detected still attached to the stem. Stem is often darker coloured than the cap, and the base is often enlarged or swollen.

Shaggy parasol mushrooms can be found from mid summer through to early autumn in open fields, lawns, meadows as well as open woodlands.

They tend to prefer a rich, nutritious medium, and have a tendency to grow in former barn yards, agricultural fields or pastures where grazing animals have been present.

NOTE: This species does have a poisonous look-alike, Chlorophyllum molybdites, known as the green-spored parasol or fool’s parasol. This species can be reliably differentiated by conducting a spore print.

This species produces green coloured spores, while those of the edible C. rhacodes has white spores. The mature gills of C. molybdites will also be somewhat greenish in color vs. the pale gills of C. rhacodes.

09/08/2026

A beautiful and abundant shiitake mushroom harvest this labour day weekend. 🤩 15+ lbs. harvested from 18 x 5 lb. blocks grown outdoors in Rockwood, southeast of Stonewall. ‘Acorn’ variety from North Spore

Incubated 12 weeks after inoculation on sterilized hardwood sawdust blocks with 10% wheat bran supplementation. 65% moisture. 🤓 Soaked blocks in cold water for an hour before placing outside in a sheltered and shady position with plenty of airflow. 8 days from placement / initiation to harvest.

Definitely going to be producing more outdoor shiitake next spring and fall. Planning for next year starts now! Comment below or DM if you are curious to learn how you can grow your own shiitake mushrooms. We’d be delighted to help and show you how. 🍄‍🟫

08/26/2026

It’s not the end of summer until I find at least one of these mushrooms. This impressive and brightly coloured species is Lactarius indigo: also known as the indigo milk cap. This is one of those mushrooms that really gets peoples attention!

Lactarius mushrooms are unique among mushrooms in that when the flesh or tissue of the fruiting body is damaged, it will releases latex, which can be at times very colourful. The name Lactarius is derived from lactose or to lactate, referring to milk, and it is true that many Lactarius mushroom species produce a white milk-like fluid.

The indigo milkcap, true to its namesake, produces a deep blue latex in addition to having a stem / stipe, gills and cap that are all different shades of blue. The top of the cap often becomes concave when mature, and boasts concentric rings in various shades of blue that radiate out from the centre or the cap.

The stem / stipe of the mushroom is often hollow inside, and the fruiting bodies are eagerly preyed upon by a variety of different fungi-loving insects. Lactarius mushrooms are mycorrhizal, and thus form mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships with specific plants in their local ecological community.

This highly charismatic and other-worldly mushroom is often encountered only on occasion, but can sometimes be locally abundant. Rarely do I find more than 1 or 2, even if I am walking through suitable habitat all day long. Finding 4 in a single day last week was a real surprise.

This species is also edible, despite perhaps looking as if it shouldn’t be. However, I personally find the texture and the flavour of cooked indigo milk caps to have no any redeeming qualities whatsoever and honestly not worth it.

07/26/2026

Chanterelle season is just starting here in southern Manitoba, and if you ask me, this is my very favourite time of year, and one of the questions that I get most often when it comes to foraging for wild mushrooms is ‘how do I know the right place to look?’

This of course depends on the species that you are looking for. Time of year is also important, but when it comes to our native yellow / gold chanterelles (Cantharellus), they are a mycorrhizal species that forms a mutually beneficial relationship with a certain plant or range of plant partners.

Chanterelles have a particular affinity for our native two needled pines - specifically Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and to a lesser extent, red pine (P. resinosa). I have also found chanterelles growing with white birch (Betula papyrifera) and hazelnuts (Corylus spp.) but not in the same abundance as I do in areas with pine trees.

In addition to the their specific plant partners, chanterelles also prefer to grow in sheltered areas within forests that have well draining, sandy soils. Often I find mushrooms growing from underneath the shelter of a fallen log, in shallow depressions in the ground or other microclimates where moisture and humidity may be highest.

You can see from these photos the type of environments and plant communities that I seek out when chanterelle season is upon us. In most years late July and early August marks the beginning of the season, and so long as high temperatures and humidity continue, the harvesting period can extend into September with multiple crops or flushes possible.

Some other plants that indicate suitable potential habitat for chanterelles include a variety of mosses which typically carpet the ground, as well as blueberries (Vaccinium spp.), wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), unbellate wintergreen / pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata), and bearberry / kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi).

I will follow up this post soon with more information specific to chanterelle mushroom identification, but these photos here illustrate what I would consider to be ideal environments for chanterelles. This does not mean that they are guaranteed to be there, but more often than not, yes.

03/31/2026

THANK YOU WINNIPEG! 😎🎥🍄‍🟫

My sincerest gratitude to everyone that was able to attend this last Sunday’s public screening of the 2025 Fungi Film Festival at The Park Theatre. Much appreciation goes out as well to those that helped to spread the word and get everyone together for an evening celebrating independent film and the world of fungi!

I’m already looking forward to next year, and excited to see what folks around the world are putting together right now to submit for the 2026 compilation. If you were able to come out to the event and have any comments that you would like to share, feel free to comment below, send me a message or get in touch through email.

I love that I can help get this diverse community together under one roof and experience some exceptional artistic talent and expression while deepening our wonder and appreciation for our valuable decomposers and soil builders.

It was a really great and fulfilling evening for me, and I hope you all had a wonderful time too. Like I mentioned above, Any feedback you have is greatly appreciated to help make this event better each year! Hope to see you all again in 2027! ✌️😘🍄‍🟫

02/05/2026

Hey everyone! It’s that time of year once again. River City Mushrooms is pleased to present a screening of the 2025 Fungi Film Festival! 🎥

So put on your caps (you know which ones) and join us for another round of cinematic mushroom magic at The Park Theatre on Sunday, March 29th! 🤩

The Fungi Film Fest is the world’s only film festival dedicated to the beauty, otherworldliness, and human influences of mushrooms, lichens, and micro fungi, and we’re pleased to be showcasing this year’s selection of films here in Winnipeg. 🍄‍🟫

This year there are 14 films from 8 different countries that all explore how we understand, interact with and interpret fungi using an array of artistic and creative film styles cross-genre. 🍿

Visit The Park Theatre website to reserve your spot, or follow the links in our bio. 😎

A full list of all the featured films, including a brief description of each, as well as more information about The Fungi Film Festival can be found at fungifilmfest.com or on Instagram (). 📖

18+ only event

Program Schedule:
6:00: Doors Open
7:00: Welcome & Introduction
7:10: Film: part 1
8:10: Intermission
8:30: Film: part 2
9:35: Film Conclusion
10:00: Doors Close

Hosted by Tom Nagy of River City Mushrooms with permission of the Fungi Film Festival. 🍄🤝🍄

12/17/2025

Hey folks. The last few weeks have been a pretty big blur for me, and I have all of you to thank for that. In a good way, or course. 150+ grow kits have come out of this (literal) bedroom-size production space since mid-November and are now on local store shelves or in your hands and homes already.

As a small business owner and team of 1, being busy is an excellent problem to have, and I’m immensely grateful for all of your interest, support and loyalty. I’m only here doing what I do because you all value what I can do for you.

I’m also dropping in here this afternoon to provide an update to those of you that may still be interested in grabbing a kit for yourself. Grow kits have gone out to once again this week, and in Pine Ridge Hollow also has a rotating selection of grow kits available.

I am also updating the website today with any remaining inventory, so check the website if you’re interested. Between now and the middle of next week, you can pick up from my directly in West Broadway. In closing, thank you everyone. I’m looking forward to yet another year of cultivating mushrooms and community with you all in 2026 ✌️🍄‍🟫😘

Address

75 Young Street
Winnipeg, MB
R3C1Y7

Website

http://www.rivercitymushrooms.ca/

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