Tramping through Nova Scotia’s Tobeatic Wilderness Area, melodic birdsong as your soundtrack, you’re keeping your eyes peeled. It’s not so much wildlife you’re after, but rich patches of black trumpet mushrooms, Indian cucumber root, ripe blueberries and elderberry flowers. Your mission: hit pay dirt on the foodie scavenger hunt known as “wildcrafting” — that old-fashioned, reborn trend of harvesting plants in the wild.

As you pick, you catch a fragrant whiff of spruce smoke. It reminds you that at some point in your cooking adventure, at the haute-rustic nature retreat called Trout Point Lodge in Nova Scotia, you’ll learn how to cold-smoke your own salmon, swordfish, scallops and tuna in an outdoor wooden smokehouse. Then, perhaps, you’ll whip it into a finnan haddie jambalaya or some other Acadian-cum-Cajun specialty, à la seafood gumbo. Between canoeing excursions on the Tusket River, dips in the wood-fired hot tub and stints in the outdoor cedar sauna, you’ll also learn to make cheese. It’s no wonder Condé Nast’s online Concierge.com named this lodge 2007’s second-best place in the entire world for a cooking vacation. (Trout Point also just snagged the Parks Canada Sustainable Tourism Award for Nova Scotia.) www.troutpoint.com

Wildcrafting here is by no means confined to Nova Scotia, of course. Anywhere you pluck a few dandelion greens on a roadside for salad, you’re wildcrafting. In bogs and berry patches, on beaches and front lawns, anywhere really, in Canada, it’s spreading like — well, like fiddleheads* on Canada’s east and west coast.

For a sample, try A la Table des Jardins Sauvages in Quebec’s St. Roch de l’Achigan, run by avid wildcrafter Francois Brouillard. There, foraged treats such as game, bulrushes and wild plants — which could include the baby cattails chef Nancy Hinton grinds up to make savoury crepes — morph into weekend gastronomic dinners each fall. In the fall, mushrooms (“shaggy mane” grows like crazy here) star in fungi-focused, seven-course extravaganzas. Who knew the larch boletus, for instance, infuses a chocolate dessert with sweetness and a soupçon of mocha? www.jardinssauvages.com.

* Fiddleheads are the tender, tightly curled tendrils of ostrich ferns. Foodies on Canada’s west coast gather and sauté them in butter or olive oil for a vaguely nutty, asparagus-like side dish.