Hunt it. Find it. Eat it — the same day.

Wild mushroom & coastal foraging with a French forager of 20+ years — every foray ends at the table.

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Jerome with a haul of golden chanterelles in the coastal forest

The forager

I grew up in France, where foraging is practically the national weekend sport. I've been hunting mushrooms and seafood since I could walk — and for the last two decades I've done it on one of the richest stretches of coastline in the world: the foggy pine forests and wild tidelines of the Mendonoma coast — that wild stretch where Sonoma meets Mendocino.

For five years running, the same group of friends has asked me to take them out every early winter. They finally convinced me to open it up. This is that tour.

Off the trail, I spent two decades in tech — until I noticed the best part of every week was the weekend in the woods with a knife and a basket. I cook the way I forage: French technique, wild ingredients, nothing wasted. Tonton JJ is what happens when you finally chase the thing you'd do for free.

Every experience is small (never more than 10 guests), shaped by the season, and ends the way a good foray should — around a table, eating what the land and sea gave us, with a glass of local wine.

The experiences

The season writes the menu — no two dates are the same. One coast, two wild larders: mushrooms when the rains come (Nov–Mar), the tideline and sea vegetables in the minus-tide months (Apr–Oct) — each experience built around one or the other, never a mash-up.

A guest learning to identify mushrooms on a guided walk

Easiest start · Sea Ranch · year-round

Forage Walk & Wild Tasting

New to foraging, or short on time? The gentle way in: a relaxed 2.5-hour guided walk on the Sea Ranch coastal commons, learning to spot, identify and safely handle the season's wild edibles — ending with a tasting of what we find and the foundations to head out on your own. No full-day commitment, no special fitness. Our most popular first taste of the wild.

2.5 hours · max 10 guests · $100 per guest
Terrain: easy walking on gentle trails · All fitness levels welcome

+ Add the Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn — from $130/guest

Book on Airbnb →

A tray of fresh-picked finds from a guided foray

Intermediate · half-day

The Intermediate Foray

More than the intro walk, less than a full day. A real guided foray — into the forest or onto the reef, whatever's in season — on moderate ground close to base, learning to find, identify and safely handle the day's targets, ending with a field tasting of what we gather. The genuine hunt, without the full-day commitment.

4 hours · max 10 guests · $140 per guest
Terrain: moderate · some off-trail or wet rock · reasonable fitness

+ Add the Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn — from $130/guest

Book on Airbnb →

Golden chanterelles

November – March · Flagship

The Advanced Mushroom Hunt

A day reading the forest floor for chanterelles, hedgehogs, black trumpets and porcini. Bring a picnic lunch; when weather and rules allow, I'll cook up a field tasting of the morning's finds — and you take your share of the haul home.

6–8 hours · max 10 guests · $195 per guest
Terrain: 2–3 mi off-trail forest, slopes & deadfall · Moderate fitness required

+ Add the Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn — from $130/guest

Book on Airbnb →

Purple sea urchins from the tidepools

April – October · tide-dependent

Coastal Harvest

A minus-tide morning reading the tide pools of the Mendonoma coast — gathering sea vegetables and learning to identify urchin and shellfish, the limits and safe handling, where the rules allow. We finish with a guide-prepared tasting of the day's legal finds. Tubes, tools and gloves provided.

5 hours · max 8 guests · $225 per guest
Terrain: 1–2 mi on wet rock, mud & tidal flats · Sure-footedness required

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Digging clams on the bay flats at low tide

Year-round · Tomales & Bodega Bay · tide-dependent

Bay Clam Dig

A minus-tide morning on the flats of Tomales or Bodega Bay, digging for horseneck and gaper, butter and Manila, geoduck and cockle — gauge, shovel and tube in hand. We cap it with a dockside cook of the day's dig where the rules allow. Muddy, hands-on, and deeply satisfying.

5 hours · max 10 guests · $225 per guest
Terrain: soft mud & tidal flats, sustained digging · Moderate effort, sure-footedness required

Book on Airbnb →

Morels rising from the forest floor

April – June · Coming soon

Sierra Morel Expedition

Spring in the high country: hunting burn morels at elevation and learning to read fire country. We end around the campfire, where I coach you through cooking your own finds — the oldest cooking lesson there is.

Full day · max 6 guests · $295 per guest
Terrain: 3+ mi off-trail at elevation, burned timber · Good fitness required

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Glacier country and king boletes in the tundra moss, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Late August · Kenai Peninsula, Alaska · Registering interest

Alaska: 4 Days on the Kenai Peninsula

Four days of late-summer foraging and salmon in one of the wildest larders in North America. We base ourselves at Bill White's Alaska Sports Lodge on the Kenai River near Sterling, now run by the family — a lodge with deep mushroom roots, where forays have logged over 200 species on the Kenai. We hunt the birch and spruce country nearby — boletes, leccinums and gypsies, hawk's wings around Skilak Lake, chaga on the birch, and blueberries, crowberries and highbush cranberries at their August peak. One full day goes to the water: a guided run on the Kenai River for the late silver (coho) run, one of the last great pushes of the season. Nights are forage-to-table — including a lodge potluck — and there are dehydrators on site so you can dry your haul and carry it home. Lodging, the guided fishing day and all ground transport from Anchorage are included. Flights and your Alaska sport-fishing licence are not.

4 days · max 8 guests · from $2,950 per guest
Includes lodging, guided Kenai salmon day & ground transport · excludes flights & licence

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A crate of fresh cèpes and a basket of black trumpets from an autumn foray in southwest France

October – November · Southwest France · Registering interest

France: 5 Days in the Forests of the Massif Central

A five-day autumn foray across my old French foraging country — the oak and chestnut forests of the Charente, Corrèze, Dordogne and Cantal, with October the prime time. We hunt cèpes (porcini), chanterelles, black trumpets and sweet chestnuts, and whatever else the forest gives, basing ourselves near some of France's most beautiful villages — Argentat, Salers and Collonges-la-Rouge among them. Four dinners at local restaurants and one convivial hot-pot night; lodging in village hotels and gîtes, and all ground transport from Paris and around the region, are included. Flights are not.

5 days · max 8 guests · from $3,950 per guest
Includes lodging, 5 dinners & all in-country transport from Paris · excludes flights

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What you'll eat

Every foray ends with food. Here's exactly how — so there are no surprises.

On every foray · included

A field tasting + the haul to take home

We cook a tasting of the day's finds right there — chanterelles in butter over a camp flame, fresh-shucked urchin on the beach, whatever the day gave us — and you take your share of the haul home to cook again. Open-fire rules, weather, and what's legal to gather that day all have a say, so the field tasting happens whenever conditions allow; the haul and the hands-on know-how, you get every time.

Optional upgrade · from $130/guest

The Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn

Want the full sit-down? Add a multi-course dinner built from the day's harvest, cooked by Chef Victor Passalacqua in the kitchen at the historic oceanfront Elk Cove Inn with a guided Anderson Valley wine tasting. Booked alongside any mushroom foray, and prepared in the inn's professional kitchen under its health permit — the real restaurant experience, not a campfire.

What to bring & what's included

I bring the foraging kit and the know-how. You bring layers and an appetite.

What I provide

  • Expert guiding & safe-identification instruction, from 20+ years on this coast
  • Foraging baskets, a mushroom knife & brush, and waxed bags for your haul
  • Gloves — and tubes, gauge & shovel on the coastal & clam outings
  • A printed pocket field guide, yours to keep
  • A field tasting of the day's finds, cooked on site when weather & rules allow
  • Your share of the haul to take home, plus how to clean and cook it
  • First-aid kit and hand sanitizer

What to bring

  • Sturdy, weather-appropriate footwear — waterproof boots with grip for forest & wet rock
  • Warm layers and a waterproof rain jacket — rain doesn't cancel
  • A reusable water bottle (and a packed lunch on the full-day forays)
  • Any personal medication you may need (allergy meds, inhaler, epinephrine auto-injector)
  • A phone or camera for photos
  • Curiosity — and kids, on the family-friendly walks

Full-day forays (Mushroom Hunt, Sierra Morel): pack a lunch, snacks and extra warm layers — you'll be out around six hours.
Coastal & clam outings: a California sport-fishing license is required for ages 16+ (I'll send the link before your date). No license is needed for the mushroom hunts or the Sea Ranch walks.

What's wild, when

Twenty years of seasons, in one chart.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Coast mushrooms
Matsutake
Sierra morels
Sea vegetables
Shellfish*
Bay clams*

*Shellfish & bay clams follow California seasons, minus tides, quarantines and licenses — we take only what's legal, safe and abundant that day.

From twenty years of baskets

Every photo below was taken on these forays, on this coast.

Every guest leaves with our printed pocket field guide — the Essential Twelve, the Deadly Three to never touch, and a 20-year season chart. Illustrated from these forays, and yours to keep.

Where to stay

Stay & Forage

Our forays range across the Mendonoma area and the bays beyond — here's where to base yourself for a weekend.

Mendocino Coast · Elk

Forage & Feast at Elk Cove Inn

The historic oceanfront Elk Cove Inn is the base for our Mendocino-coast forays — the mushroom hunts and tide-pool days gather here, you warm up by the fire afterward, and Chef Victor Passalacqua turns the day's finds into the Wild Feast. (Bay clam digs meet down at Tomales or Bodega.) Rooms, foray and dinner in one weekend package.

Package rates on request Elk Cove Inn

Sonoma Coast · Sea Ranch

Stay at the Forager's House

Our own house on the Sea Ranch bluffs — book it on Airbnb and sleep above the Sonoma coast. It's also the home of our easy Forage Walk, which runs right here on the Sea Ranch commons. A calm southern base if you're making a Mendonoma weekend of it.

Book direct on Airbnb The Sea Ranch House

Good questions

Asked by nearly everyone.

Will we actually find mushrooms?

If conditions are right — and we only run dates when they are — yes. Twenty years on this coast means I know where the chanterelles hide. But this is hunting, not shopping: the wild decides the menu, and that's the point. No date has ever gone home empty-handed or hungry.

Is it safe to eat wild mushrooms?

Safety is the spine of the whole experience. You'll learn the rules I live by: every mushroom is identified to species, anything uncertain never reaches the basket, and I teach you the dangerous lookalikes first. Dining features species from safe, verified sources.

Do I need a license?

For coastal shellfish foraging, California requires anyone 16+ to carry a sport-fishing license (quick to buy online — I'll send the link before your date). For mushroom walks, no license needed; we forage only where it's legal.

How hard is the walking? Be honest.

Honestly: this is real off-trail travel, not a nature stroll. Mushrooms don't grow on trails — expect 2–3 miles (more on morel expeditions) through forest with slopes, deadfall, mud and brush, with kneeling and climbing over logs. Coastal forays cross wet, slippery rock and uneven tidal flats. You should be able to do this unassisted and comfortably. Ages 12+ welcome if they hike regularly. Rain doesn't cancel — rain makes mushrooms — so come dressed for it. We only cancel for dangerous conditions. If you're unsure whether it's right for you, email me and describe your usual hiking — I'll give you a straight answer.

What are the risks?

The same ones that make it an adventure: off-trail terrain, ocean edges, weather, and wild food. I manage them with twenty years of judgment, small groups, conservative identification rules, and routes chosen for conditions that day — but they can't be eliminated, and every guest signs an assumption-of-risk agreement at booking. We carry first aid, I hold safety certifications. If you have food allergies or a medical condition, tell me at booking — privately is fine.

What should I bring?

Layers you don't mind getting muddy, sturdy shoes, a water bottle, a picnic lunch, and curiosity. Baskets, knives, gloves and the field tasting are on me. If you've added the Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn, come hungry.

Is dinner included?

Every foray includes a field tasting of your finds when weather and regulations allow — and you take your share of the haul home. The full Wild Feast is an optional upgrade: a multi-course dinner built from the day's harvest, prepared by Chef Victor Passalacqua in the kitchen at Elk Cove Inn, from $130 per guest, with an Anderson Valley wine tasting included. Book it with your foray and arrive at the table the same evening.

Can you host our group or company offsite?

Yes — private bookings up to 10 guests, year-round, at the Sea Ranch house or a venue of your choice. Write me.

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