 On February 3rd, 2008, Sustainable Fairfax hosted a fun-filled, family friendly, forest fungi forage in Deer Park.The event was part of Sustainable Fairfax’s monthly Community education series. Since fungi loves the rain, this event took place rain or shine.
Environmental educator and mycelium enthusiast, Luke Synder took the participants on a local mushroom hunt where they learned to safely identify and collect some of the most common mushrooms in the area. Participants discovered where to find delicious edible mushrooms right in their own neighborhood and became informed about poisonous mushrooms and the hazards of foraging.
Luke Synder, a certified Permaculture teacher has been sharing his knowledge of the outdoor world with children and adults for over 15 years.
As the founder of the School of Plenty, an organization devoted to ecological education, Luke has taught and organized events at several California schools and educational centers including OAEC, Ocean Song and Westminster Woods.
Luke has learned from mushroom gurus such as Paul Stamets and David Arora. He now harvests many edible mushrooms each year and loves to share his knowledge of local bounty with others during the wanders he leads.As a permaculture gardener, Luke also teaches about using mushrooms in the garden to create a vibrantly healthy landscape.
Notes from this event:
How to become a Fantastic Fungus Forager –
1. Get your gear:
- Rain clothes, knife, basket, wax bags, an “mushroom guide” pocketbook, and some poison oak soap (Marie’s or Technu)
2. Explore often and think like a mushroom.
- Search different types of forests, whether on the coast or in the redwoods. Don’t expect to only gather edibles. Get to know both the beautiful and ugly ones. Go ahead and touch, smell, and dissect them.
- Collect and identify. Usually, this process is immediate, but sometimes needs a spore print to be definite. Make sure you’re obeying state and local laws
- If you think you’ve got an edible. Double and triple check it by consulting with another book, or emailing a picture and all of your identifications to me or a guru.
3. Resources
- Own “All the Rain Promises and More” David Arora . This book is the perfect, picture-loaded, pocket identifier.
- Rent/own “Mushrooms Demystified” David Arora
- Great for cross referencing identifying everything
- Rent, read, or own “Mycelium Running” - Paul Stamets
- Pure inspiration and practicum for how mushrooms helping save the world.
- www.fungi.com - Learn and support Paul Stamets – He may be the “top dog” in this hobby
- www.schoolofplenty.com - Luke Snyder leads forays and can cross identify mushrooms
- www.wildaboutmushrooms.net - Charmoon Richardson leads fabulous forays for many years
- www.somamushrooms.org - Sonoma County Mushroom Association. – Loaded with information.
- www.mssf.org - Mycological Society of San Francisco – A great place to start! Lots of links
4 Learn more
- “Mycelium” is the tree and roots to all funguses.
- There are three types of fungus - Parasitic, Saprophytic, and Mycorrhizal funguses.
- Mycoremediation, mycofiltration, and myco- anything is part of our sustainable future.
- Sonoma and Marin Counties have some of the highest spore counts in the world.
5 Enact some fun mushroom projects
- Inoculate your garden, stumps, downed trees, etc with mushroom spawn.
- Make mushroom art with spores or dyes for paintings or wool.
- Eat local edibles after you are absolutely sure of them!
- Share your knowledge and questions with neighbors.
|
After much hard work 