Book a guided foraging experience on the Sonoma–Mendocino coast
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.
Two ways in. Pick a date for yourself, or give the day to someone else.
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Pick an experience below
Each experience books on Airbnb — dates, payment and confirmation all happen there. Dates open with the November rains.
See the experiences ↓Give a certificate
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Six certificates, one per experience, paid on this site. Emailed as a PDF within a day. Never expires, admits one guest.
See the certificates ↓Private & group bookings up to 10 guests, year-round, at the Sea Ranch commons or a venue of your choice — email Jerome.
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.
+ Add the Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn — from $145/guest
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.
+ Add the Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn — from $145/guest
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.
+ Add the Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn — from $145/guest
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Optional upgrade · Elk, Mendocino Coast
The Wild Feast at Elk Cove Inn
The full sit-down. A multi-course dinner built from the day's harvest, cooked at Sibo — the oceanfront restaurant at the historic Elk Cove Inn — and served as The Unscripted Table, six courses. Prepared in the inn's professional kitchen under its health permit. Book it alongside any mushroom foray and come to the table the same evening.