Meeting January 4^th

From Spore To Fruit

Our new President Sam Andrasko will be speaking to us about his past experiences with growing mushrooms and how he came to love the hobby. He will help us to understand how mushrooms grow and develop and give a quick rundown of a few common species we can grow at home for our own enjoyment. Sam has been collecting gourmet and medicinal mushrooms for years. From his first attempt at the age of 19 he has learned numerous ways to manipulate and grow fungi for food, medicine, spiritual enlightenment, and as healers and recyclers. He is excited and is looking forward to sharing his experiences with you. Come and learn about the wonderful world of growing mushrooms.

The meeting will be at the usual location, Room 101 at the Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park at 6:30 pm. If you happen to find any mushrooms, bring them for discussion and identification.

Pre-meeting Dinner

We will observe our usual custom of treating the speaker to dinner.
Meet at 5:00 at the Khyber Pass, 523 University Ave in Hillcrest.

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Mushroom ID Class

Details are still being worked out for a mushroom identification class at the Natural History Museum. Most likely a Saturday in mid-January.

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Renewal Time

Remember, all memberships now expire each February. Bring your check for $20 to the meeting and save a stamp.

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Point Reyes Fungus Fair

Foray Saturday, January 30, Fair Sunday January 31, fair.
Bear Valley Visitor Center, Point Reyes National Seashore.
This will be the fifth annual Point Reyes Fungus Fair at the Bear Valley Visitor Center. The public is encouraged to bring mushroom collections from anywhere in Marin to the Red Barn on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 pm; the best and most beautiful examples will be used for mushroom displays for Sunday’s Fair, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Free.

We get a tremendous outpouring of the local West Marin community for this one, and welcome all interested mushroomers who want to help collect, ID, and set up on Saturday, and schmooze with the public on Sunday. We are thrilled that the Park has embraced the concept of mushroom hunting here, as well as mushroom education. More Information.

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Watching The Rain

As our mushroom season slowly starts, I like to watch the rain. There are some good ways to watch it besides looking out the window. As a storm approaches, I watch the NWS forecast discussion for a detailed discussion from the forecasters. During a storm, I look at the San Diego Radar, where you can see what is happening as it happens, and also see estimates of the rainfall for the last hour and the storm total. After the rain stops, I look at the observations to see the measured totals.

For a longer-term view, the CDEC offers a lot of options. The NOAA Water page has interactive maps showing observed rainfall and how it compares with normal. The Drought Monitor shows a national view, and some good discussion about what is coming in the long-term forecasts.

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Mushroom News

Bad News

• November Poisoning results in a fatality
• More details
• Hotline for amanita poisoning treatment
• Deaths Of 550,000 Confirm Which Mushrooms Are Okay To Eat

Good News

• Kew Gardens to create worlds biggest fungi collection
• Why Mushrooms Have Gills
• The abstract(full article requires subscription or fee)
• 10 Things Fungi Have Done For Us

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Mushroom Views

• Mushroom Origami
• Glowing Mushrooms
• More Glowing Mushrooms
• Squamanita paradoxa
• Giant Mushrooms
• Another Giant

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Mushroom Hunting

• Salt Point
• Arora on Commercial Pickers

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What’s Cooking!

Fungi As Food - Candy Caps

In keeping with the holiday spirit, the fungal food item for December is the Candy Cap, Lactarius rubidus, and its relative, Lactarius rufulus. The true candy cap (rubidus) has not been reported from our area, but we do have reports of rufulus in a few locations under coast live oak.

For a good introduction, read this article from BAMS. You can see lots of pictures of rubidus at this link on Mycoweb. For pictures of rufulus, see this link on the Mushroom Observer.

Most recipes I have found are for sweet desserts, but here is one for candied yams that sounds good. This one, from Marx Food, combines chili powder with the candy caps in a flan, which sounds interesting. Here is a bread pudding from Mycoweb, and here are several recipes from Mushrooms By Millard, where you can order dried candy caps in small quantities. They are expensive, but so is real maple syrup. Think of them as a seasoning rather than a staple food.

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Two sources for a "Recipe of the Month".
BAMS, and MAMS

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Fungi of the Month

Now there are two "Fungus of the Month" sites:
Tom Volk's long-running series at : http://tomvolkfungi.net/.
And a new one at: http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/index.html.

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SDMS Information