Consumed with the search, they soon disappear over a ridge, and I find myself walking alongside two of her older children and their father, Miles. We ve bought an sold mushrooms everywhere from California clear up into the Yukon an Tok in Alaska, he says. If there s something that the mushroom industry has done for these kids, it s taught them how to be self-reliant and take care of themselves with confidence. It s taught them how to work . And they learn a little about contributing to a household, which is something that no kids get anymore, adds his dad.
Mushroom pickers form a seasonal, wandering community as ancient as humanity itself.
Not all of the permanent residents of Ukiah welcome the annual influx of mushroom pickers and buyers. These people are doin a helluva lot for our society because they re producin something, says Vincent. These people work their butts off. And they re the last of the independent Americans that we ve got. They re nonconformists.