As a child, Stefan Himmer picked edible mushrooms with his parents before he could even speak. Together they’d walk im wald (German word for ‘forest’), collecting chanterelles, parasols, porcinis, red caps, and birch mushrooms.
When Stefan was four, his family immigrated to Ottawa, Ontario. They brought the tradition with them.“It was like Easter egg hunting,” Stefan remembers. “In Ottawa we picked chanterelles, shaggy manes, puff balls and honey mushrooms.”