Sporadic Press
Journal of The San Diego Mycological Society
January 2006 Vol. 10 # 5
Meeting February 6th.
We will try out a novel approach at our February meeting. The focus will be on edible wild mushrooms, with a “cook and taste” session. This will be a cooperative effort. We will need volunteers to track down wild mushrooms to sample, and to help with cooking and cleanup. We will also need some portable camp stoves, plus pans and utensils. We hope that the mushrooms will cooperate.
This will not be a meal, just a chance to taste a sample of whatever wild mushroom species we can get.
We will not have a pre-meeting dinner this month. You are welcome to bring an appetizer to share, with or without mushrooms.
Upcoming Meetings
March 6th
A presentation by Gary Lincoff.
Gary is a well-known mushroom author, teacher, tour leader and past president of the North American Mycological Association. His books include one of the most widely used mushroom field guide in North America, the Audubon Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. He has also authored Toxic and Hallucinogenic Mushroom Poisoning and other books. One of the few professional mycologists without a degree in mycology, he is a lecturer at the New York Botanical Gardens.
April 3rd
A presentation by Elio Schaechter on how parasites affect the behavior of the host organism.
May 1st
The annual end of season potluck and party.
Fungus Fair February 19
The Mushroom Fair is set for February 19. It is our largest annual event, with the focus on educating the public about fungi.
The whole fair depends on member participation—without you, there is no fair! It is a great way to deepen your knowledge and be energized by the world of mushrooms; but there is a lot of work to do as well, creating the displays. Even part of a day’s helping will make a difference, so please volunteer!
On Saturday the 18th, members foray for fungus in their favorite areas and then bring the collections in after 5 p.m. We will be setting up for the mushroom fair in room 101 that evening and all hands are appreciated. On Sunday morning we continue setting up from 9:30 a.m., arranging more mushroom specimens and other displays. The fair opens officially at 11 a.m., though a slideshow/lecture begins at 10:30 in room 104.
The fair goes till 3:00 and we need workers on the floor throughout the day, plus afterward to break it down. There are many jobs to do and mushroom expertise is not essential! Please sign up at the February meeting, or call Les Braund at 858 566-3958 to volunteer.
The new display approach using various baskets to place the mushrooms on exhibit worked very well, so we will do it again this year. If you have any spare baskets knocking about that you’d like to part with, roughly 4 to 8 inches and with or without handles, please bring them to the February meeting or the fair setup on the evening of the 18th. Please also get the word out to help publicize the fair—we’ll have flyers for the February meeting to pick up and distribute.
Mushroom Events
SDMS Events
February 6, 2006
SDMS Meeting
February 19, 2006
SDMS Fair
March 6, 2006
SDMS Meeting
Other Events
January 28, 2006
Chiquito Basin Foray
El Cariso Ranger Station
Cleveland National Forest
www.lamushrooms.org
January 28, 2006
Myco-blitz at Point Reyes
Bear Valley Visitor Center
Point Reyes National Seashore
January 29, 2006
Mushroom Display
Bear Valley Visitor Center
Point Reyes National Seashore
February 11 to 12, 2006
LAMS Mushroom Fair
Los Angeles County Arboretum
Arcadia, CA
April 28 to 30, 2006
Mountain Mushroom Festival
Irvine, Kentucky
April 29 & 30, 2006
Morel Mushroom Festival
Mansfield, Indiana
May 5 to 7, 2006
26th Annual Morel Festival
Richmond, Missouri
May 20 & 21, 2006
24th Annual Morel Festival
Muscoda, Wisconsin
Janet, Erin and Nancy’s Big Adventure.
By Janet Fraser and Nancy Mirr
Members Janet Fraser, Erin Leong and Nancy Mirr packed their gear and headed for the SOMA Winter Wild Mushroom Camp January 14 - 16. The event was held at the CYO Camp, a first rate camp offering new cabins with hardwood floors, located in Occidental, California.
The event had several excellent programs. Paul Stamets, owner of Fungi Perfecti, presented a program titled “Mycelium Running” and Leon Shernoff, editor of “Mushroom The Journal of Wild Mushrooms,” gave a presentation titled “The Whacky Eastern Mushrooms!” There were classes and demonstrations throughout the weekend as well as organized forays.
The trio decided to do their own foray Sunday morning joined by Margaret Stokes from San Quentin, and Claudette Dunn from Mendocino. Bright and early, they headed out for the approximate one hour drive north along breathless views of the coast, ending up at Salt Point State Park. Mushrooming was at its best.
“We hit the jackpot,” stated Janet Fraser. We will be eating many gourmet meals in the future. We gathered Craterellus cornucopioides (black trumpets) and Cantharellus infundibuliformis (yellow footed Chanterelle). We also gathered Gomphus clavatus (Pig’s Ears) and Hydnum repandum (Hedgehogs). Some of the other participants also had beautiful large golden chanterelles, and there were so many other mushrooms I couldn’t begin to name them all. There was one really unique find of a pale yellow variety of Craterellus Cornucopioides, it was spectacular. All the mushrooms found over the weekend were well displayed and identified. It was mushroom heaven.”
In addition to the classes and forays, there was exceptional food for feasting. Myco chef, Patrick Hamilton, wowed everybody with outstanding meals. On Sunday evening, there was an amazing selection of great cheeses and wines to be tasted. Everybody came home a few pounds heavier.
“It was really a great event,” continued Fraser. “We feasted, hunted and learned new things and made new friends. It is an event I would highly recommend others check out next year.”
This mushroom offers more than just holiday spirit
By Maureen Gilmer in the Providence (RI) Journal.
There is a great red mushroom that illustrates children's books and is surrounded by ancient folklore. Oddly enough, it can also be found on 19th-century German Christmas cards.
These are but two of the clues that connect "fly agaric" mushrooms to our holiday traditions of reindeer, red and even Santa.
Flying reindeer and Siberian shamans dressed in red and white are only a small glimpse at the enormous world of mushrooms. Nowhere else is it more perfectly seen than in a new edition of the decade old venerable title, Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America by Roger Phillips, (Firefly Books, $39.95).
The only limitation of the book is geographic; it features only our native mushroom genera, although some of these are globally distributed. This ensures that most of those you'll find in field, forest and fen will be included in the pages.
What sets it apart for beginner and aficionado alike is the photography. Much of it is large format so you can easily see the details.
So many other mushroom and fungal references are field guides and to be portable they are small format, with tiny pictures of in situ specimens.
Roger Phillips' pioneering in-studio photography lets you see each species of mushroom up close and personal. Phillips' book features 1,000 clear color studio-quality photos that take the guesswork out of identifying the various groups and species. In wild mushroom photographs the views are not as illustrative. Ground dwellers in shady dells offer little opportunity for super close ups without glaring lights.
Atop that is the fact that mushrooms and many other fungi are fast-growers. Their form can change hourly, altering their appearance and further confusing identification. This book solves that problem by painstakingly showing you the mushroom at many stages of growth, from small bud to fully open and decadent for easy side-by-side comparison.
Another helpful feature shows the mushroom cut into a cross section to reveal the anatomy inside. Phillips removes the cap to photograph it, providing you a precise top-down view of the color and density of spore bearing gills. Some views even combine the mushrooms with their associated plant communities such as conifer needles, hardwood leaves and mosses.
Each species receives a detailed profile of description, odor, texture, flesh, spore shape, habitat and range, season, edibility and occasional commentary.
Phillips is a fan of edible wild mushrooms. Therefore, the book is detailed to identify the edible mushrooms such as boletus, chanterelle, oyster, morel and others. However, the book's opening statement is a vital caveat. "Beginners should never eat wild mushrooms until they have had their own identification checked by an expert in the field."
The similarity of death cap, deadly galerina and poison pie mushrooms with edible species is made all too clear in these pages.
As a gift for the nature lover in any family, the devout botanist or the magic mushroom aficionado, there is no better reference.
(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of Weekend Gardening on DIY Network.)
Chiquito Basin Foray
January 28 (Saturday), 9 am: LAMS Field Trip to Chiquito Basin in the Cleveland National Forest.
For those of you who have not been there before, please be advised that this is a rather strenuous hike with a round trip distance of approximately 4 miles and an elevation loss and gain (on the way back) of 600 feet. The hike does take us into a large oak grove that has lots of mushrooms when conditions are favorable.
Because January has such short days, it will also be necessary for us to get an earlier than usual start in order to hike in, collect for a few hours, and return with our finds before sundown. It is recommended that you pack your lunch and collecting gear THE NIGHT BEFORE in order to be able to leave early.
There will be no LAMS-sponsored campout but you are welcome to camp Friday evening at Blue Jay Campground. The last time I checked the nightly camp fee was $15.00. It is seldom full. Be aware that nighttime temperatures in January at the elevation of Blue Jay Campground (3400') are likely to be quite cool.
Here are the important foray details:
Date: January 28, 2006 (Saturday)
Time: 9:00 AM--please be prompt.
Meeting Place: Meet in the parking lot of El Cariso Ranger Station on the SOUTH side of Ortega Highway 23 miles EAST of San Juan Capistrano or 10 miles WEST of I-15.
Leader: Steven Pencall <spencall@sbcglobal.net>
Directions: From the San Diego Freeway, I-5 in San Juan Capistrano, drive EAST approximately 23 miles on Ortega Highway, State Route 74, to the ranger station on the RIGHT side of the highway at the east end of El Cariso Village. If you reach the turn off to the Wildomar OHV area you have gone about 0.2 miles too far.
From I-15 in Lake Elsinore, drive WEST approximately 10 miles on State Route 74. The ranger station will be on your left about 0.4 miles below the summit of the hill (el. 2662')
Please allow yourself enough time to reach the meeting site--typically around 1.5 hours from either the Los Angeles or San Diego metro areas.
It is a two mile hike each way with approximately 600' of elevation loss and gain. Bring lunch, adequate water (1-2 quarts depending on temperature) and a hat. Wear boots and protective clothing: poison oak is abundant in the area. Bring a whistle if you have one--we will be hunting in dense woods.
HEAVY RAIN CANCELS! A forecast of showers or light rain will NOT cancel the foray.
A foray web page has been established at
http://www.lamushrooms.org/chiquito-2006-01-28.html
and will be updated as necessary.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
#1. In keeping with LAMS policy, all foray participants, members or not, will be required to sign a liability release in order to participate in the foray.
#2. You will also need a forest parking permit called an "Adventure Pass" to park in the National Forest. "Adventure Passes" are available at National Forest ranger stations and at many sporting good stores, such as REI or Sport Chalet. One day permits are $5.00 and annual permits are $30.00. Parking passes are sometimes available at the small ranger station about 1.2 miles east of Long Canyon Road (9.9 miles west of I-15) where we will be meeting, however, it may not be open. Parking passes may also be for sale at the small general store in El Cariso Village just west of the ranger station.
Additional "Adventure Pass" information is available at:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sanbernardino/ap/
#3 I also ask all members to refrain from collecting in Chiquito Basin in the 10 days prior to the foray on January 28. "Poaching" on announced foray sites before a group event diminishes the foray experience of many people for the benefit of a few (or one). This kind of activity has caused hard feelings in other mushroom clubs. LAMS has been remarkably free of this kind of divisive behavior. Let's not start now.
Steven Pencall, Field Trip Chairman
Mycological Delights
By Amy Coombs, in The San Francisco Chronicle, January 14
This time of year soggy Bay Area forests are ablaze with bright crimson and orange mushrooms. Spores are spreading all along the North and Central coasts, which are home to more than 130 native edible mushrooms and 3,000 species of fungus.
"Our temperatures are mild, the wet season is long, and when it's wet here, it's really wet!" says Debbie Johnson, a Santa Cruz Fungus Festival organizer. During a recent mushroom hunt, she darts around tree trunks coated with translucent, teardrop-shaped mushrooms and stoops to collect a batch of copper-colored caps from the forest floor.
"This is a candy cap," she says. "It's kind of a cinnamon brown color, and is unique to Northern California and Southern Oregon. You can't find them anywhere else."
At $125 a pound, sweet-flavored candy caps are a gourmet treat, but like many tasty mushrooms, candy caps look very similar to poisonous species. Johnson says foragers have to know what they are looking for before they start sampling foraged fungi.
"This group of mushrooms are called milky caps," she says. "They literally lactate, and this is an important diagnostic feature." She slices the underside of the mushroom cap, and white milk begins to flow. According to Johnson, other lactarious mushrooms look similar, but the milky fluid is a different shade. If the milk is clear or yellow, or turns green upon exposure to air, the mushroom isn't edible.
Knowing these nuances is what sets apart an expert mushroom identifier from someone who ends up in the hospital. Phil Carpenter, a chemist and longtime member of the Fungus Federation, unearths a poisonous look-alike just a few feet from Johnson's batch of gourmet candy caps.
"Notice that it's growing on wood," he says. "The candy caps were growing on the ground. Notice that it doesn't lactate, therefore it's in a completely different genus." Carpenter breaks the stem to demonstrate that it's more fibrous than the candy cap stem, which snaps in half like chalk.
It's easy to make mistakes, but with a little education, Johnson and Carpenter say, poisoning can be avoided. They hover over a 4-inch-wide Boletus edulis bursting through bunches of loose grass, and rattle off recipe ideas. Otherwise known as porcini, it has a cap that looks like a hamburger bun, and Johnson says the nutty flavor goes well with fresh cream. They talk of chanterelles with soft-shell crab and lemon butter, and candy cap crème brulee.
"The other night we had persimmon pudding with infused candy cap cream on the top," says Johnson. "I've also used candy caps in rolled pork tenderloin. Boy, are they good with pork and a little fruit."
Dawn Whitaker, a Santa Cruz mushroom enthusiast and beginning hunter, says proper mushroom preparation is nearly as important as proper identification. While frying mushrooms in her kitchen, she says that some mushrooms have to be soaked to dilute trace toxins. Some have to be cooked more thoroughly than others.
"As a rule I would strongly encourage anyone foraging for mushrooms to make sure to cook their mushrooms thoroughly," she says. "Some mushrooms that are edible in their cooked form are actually poisonous raw."
Whitaker says that even if a mushroom poisoning doesn't kill you, after hours of agony you will probably wish it had. Her close encounter was with chicken of the woods fungi, which grow on trees like a shelf. Some people can eat the yellow-colored mushroom without complications, but a small minority of people have idiosyncratic reactions. Whitaker realized a little too late that she and the chicken of the woods are not compatible.
"I made the mistake of eating this mushroom before I went to work," she says. By the time she arrived at the facility where she works as a psychologist, she was nauseated. "When I told people where I worked, their first inclination was to think that I had taken a hallucinogenic mushroom," she says. After appeasing their fears, Whitaker went home to spend the next seven hours in bed.
Carpenter says Whitaker was lucky. The most poisonous mushrooms in the world grow in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and some people don't survive their mushroom mistakes.
"The most poisonous mushrooms in the world are in the genus Amanita -- of those the worst is Amanita phalloides, called the death cap. It's the one that is responsible for the serious poisonings. There have been local deaths from that mushroom."
Carpenter demonstrates the difference between edible and nonedible mushrooms during a guided demonstration. He leads a group into the forest in search of Russula mushrooms -- only some of which are edible.
"See how white the gills are," he says, pointing to a Russula silvicola, a red-capped mushroom with a white stem. "Take a bite of this. Just chew it up and spit it out. If it tastes like cayenne pepper, it means the mushroom isn't safe to eat."
Lisa Akeson, a local mushroom connoisseur, puts a small piece of the cap on her tongue.
"Oh my, it's really hot," she says. "It has a really chemical feeling on the palate. It's very distinctive and nasty." Her teenage son Stuart tries a bite and spits it out immediately. "My tongue is numb," he says.
With Russulas, as with many mushrooms, edibility is somewhat ambiguous. Some are toxic only if the entire mushroom is eaten, and for others it may take a handful to make you sick. Some cause a reaction in one person but not another, and some are less toxic if prepared a certain way. The peppery Russula silvicola, for example, is generally considered nonedible, but Carpenter says this might be because its spicy flavor makes people queasy. Its toxicity is considered low to moderate.
"My suspicion is that if you ate cayenne pepper by the spoonful it would make you sick, too," says Carpenter. He says the best way to prevent a distasteful experience is to avoid eating unidentified mushrooms. The biggest problems arise when people see an edible mushroom, and then proceed to misidentify other mushrooms with the same cap color. "If you aren't sure, take (the mushroom) to someone that can identify it," he says. "Someone you trust with your life."
To avoid poisoning, Carpenter advises taking good notes about the types of trees directly above a mushroom's habitat. Along with a spade and knife, he carries a pad and pen in his wicker basket in case he finds a mushroom he can't identify. "Habitat is very important when you talk about finding mushrooms because fungi form symbiotic relationships with the trees," he says. Mushrooms help the trees absorb water, and the trees give off sugars that help the mushrooms grow. Boletus aereus, an edible mushroom associated with madrone trees, is very different from porcini mushrooms, which are associated with long-needled pines. Chanterelles are associated with oak trees, and candy caps are found under scrubs and Douglas firs, he says.
(Amy Coombs is a research associate and lab manager in the Biophysics Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz.)
See Cool Mushroom Pictures at
www.velutipes.com/english.htm
What’s Cooking?
Fungi as Food
This months search for recipes turned up two more web sites:
http://mushroomrecipes.com/
http://www.mushroominfo.com/
And a recipe, along with some mushroom tips and tricks.
Success® Rice and the Mushroom Information Center are pleased to announce the results of the 2005 Mushroom Lover's Recipe Contest. Entries were judged on the basis of taste, creative use of mushrooms and rice, ease of recipe preparation and appearance. Enjoy the first prize recipe.
Creamy Lemon, Mushroom, Shrimp & Rice Skillet
Shelly Platten (Amherst, WI)
Ingredients
1 bag Success® Rice
1 tablespoon garlic-flavored olive oil (or olive oil plus 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic)
16 ounces sliced white mushrooms (about 6 cups)
1 tub (8 ounces) onion and chive-flavored cream cheese
1 pound cooked medium-sized shrimp (about 40)
2 cups rinsed baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Directions
Prepare rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add mushrooms; cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are golden, about 6 minutes. Add cream cheese; stir until melted and creamy. Add shrimp, spinach and 1/4 cup water; cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Fold in cooked rice and lemon juice, adding more water, if necessary, to keep the mixture creamy. Season with salt, if desired. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
YIELD: 4 portions
10 Quick and Easy Ideas for Fresh Mushrooms
Sauté sliced mushrooms and onions in butter or oil until tender. Layer bottom half of French roll with thin slices of rare roast beef, then mushroom mixture, then shredded cheddar cheese. Broil to melt cheese, then cover with top of roll.
Marinate mushroom halves or quarters and chunks of red and green bell pepper in a bottled vinaigrette dressing. Add to salad greens, vegetable side dishes, antipasto plates, and deli sandwiches.
Stuff mushroom caps with softened cream cheese seasoned with herbs. Chill. Halve or thickly slice. Arrange on dressed salad greens.
Sauté mushrooms in garlic butter until tender. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serve as an accompaniment to beef, poultry or pasta.
Toss pieces of cooked, chilled new potatoes and mushroom halves or quarters with a little sour cream. Season to taste with dill weed, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with cooked, crumbled bacon and sliced green onions.
Thread raw whole mushrooms and pieces of fresh vegetables on skewers. Serve with a tangy herb dip.
Mix fresh mushrooms with canned, frozen, or fresh vegetables before cooking.
Add freshness and flavor of mushrooms to prepared foods such as spaghetti sauce, chili, vegetable soups and stews.
Tuck sliced mushrooms into a fluffy omelet for brunch or a light supper.
Slip thinly sliced mushrooms, chopped fresh or canned green chilies and shredded Monterey Jack cheese between two flour tortillas, then fry until golden on both sides. Cut into wedges and enjoy with good salsa.
SDMS Information
The Sporadic Press is published monthly during the mushroom season, from September to May, by the San Diego Mycological Society.
Membership in the society is open to all who are interested in mycology. Membership dues are $20.00 per year, and include a subscription to The Sporadic Press.
If the date on your mailing label is highlighted in yellow, your membership has expired. Please renew promptly.
To join or Renew, send a check for $20.00 with your name, address, phone number and email address to:
Janet Fraser
1010 W. Upas Street
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 260-8420
We meet once a month from October to May on the first Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in Room 101 of the Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park. Meetings are free and open to the public.
Web Site: the SDMS Web
site is:
http://SDMyco.org
Mushroom Hotline: upcoming events and spontaneous forays are announced by email. To get on the list, go to this link and enter your email address.
lists.igc.org/mailman/listinfo/sdmyco
Newsletter Submissions Welcome
Send To:
Dave Grubb
2233 Manchester Ave # 1
Cardiff, CA 92007
(760) 753-0273
davegrubb at ispwest dot com
Officers:
President, Paul Maschka
Vice-president, Elio Schaechter
Secretary, Charlene Atkins
Treasurer, Janet Fraser