Page 132 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2021 DISCOVERING MENDOCINO

Deep into the forest, we paused at a clearing where he and his wife,
the head gardener at the Inn, were raising mushrooms for the chef’s din-
ners. In the future, the couple hoped to offer guests a mushroom tour
focused on collecting, cleaning, preserving, and cooking these mountain
morsels. The tour would end with a mushroom-themed picnic lunch,
complete with Mendocino’s famous Candy Cap mushroom ice cream.
The Inn instituted the mushroom experience at the Ranch in December
2020. It’s called the “Forage for Incredible Edibles” package and plan to
bring it back in Fall/Winter 2021, when the mushrooms are back. The
tour and the Inn at Newport Ranch itself provided a microcosm of his-
tory, nature, lore, and life on California’s Wild Coast - a fitting cap to our
Mendocino road adventure.

132 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2021