Passionate foragers, Dan Gebhart and Jordan Anderson found a jackpot when they came across a rare kind of mushroom in their regular foraging endeavors. The two friends live in California's Lost Coast, in Humboldt County and the area is full of natural wildlife and is largely undeveloped, making it the perfect place to go mushroom hunting and foraging.

Nancy Newton/Unsplash. Foragers find wild berries, mushrooms, and other edibles from their daily hunt.

The two are regular foragers and are used to eating something every day from what they’ve foraged. They find wild berries, rare mushrooms, mussels, and everything in between, which they consume and share around heartily.

As the story goes, it was a fine day in October when they came across the rare and highly-coveted flower-shaped mushroom called the chanterelles. The chanterelles are a much-loved commodity among food lovers and foragers, and they are very difficult to come by. They are also difficult to cultivate, so the only way to acquire these is by finding them in the wild out of sheer luck.

fjord77/pixabay. Mushrooms found through foraging are often gifted to friends and family.

Gebhart had been looking for the chanterelles mushrooms for a decade now, and he thinks of himself as an expert at hunting them down. According to him, he has now developed a nose for it, and can even sniff them out from afar. The Chanterelles are known for their fruity, distinct smell, but it can be difficult to sniff them out. Jordan, who is Gebhart’s partner in foraging, is highly skeptical of his skills, but it could be true that he has developed something special in him with his decade-long experience at foraging for chanterelles.

Barbroforsberg/Pixabay. Chanterelles are a rare find; these golden flower-like mushrooms are delicious and hard to come by.

According to Gebhart’s vast experience, chanterelles grow in the same spots, and after checking the same areas after a few months, sure enough, the pair have managed to find a wealth of chanterelles in the same locale. The abundant growth of the mushroom was also due to warm temperatures and considerable rainfall in October, and so the pair ended up with more than 200 pounds of chanterelles after foraging for these mushrooms in the same spots.

Gebhart even showed off his amazing collection of chanterelles on a Facebook group dedicated to foraging and mushroom hunting, and his post garnered a lot of attention and admiration from the group members. Many asked them about how they came across such a wealth of chanterelles, with some even asking if they were for sale.

Although these rare mushrooms were worth more than $4000, the two foraging enthusiasts gave them away as presents to friends and family. The two foraging friends believe that the most joy they have ever gotten out of these delicious chanterelles was when then they gifted them to their loved ones and saw their faces light up upon finding the golden chanterelles as presents.