Meeting January 3^rd

Talk: Flavorful, Fancy & Foul Fungi From Far Flung Places Around The World

Daniel Winkler

In this presentation Daniel will share his stunning images and entertaining and educational stories from his journeys to far flung places and near-by locations searching for mushrooms. The hunting grounds range from dark mountain forests and vast alpine meadows, to village markets, restaurants and home kitchens. You will encounter many famous and familiar mushrooms in exotic places you never expected. The fancy flavorful mushrooms will be accompanied by fascinatingly odd fungal fellows, some of them stinky, slimy and incredibly beautiful, others eerily strange and more precious than gold.

More information here.

Who is Daniel Winkler?

Daniel grew up collecting and eating wild mushrooms in the Alps. He trained as a geographer and ecologist and works as a researcher and NGO consultant on environmental issues of the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayas. He has published on forest ecology, forestry, land-use, medicinal plants and fungi [see www.danielwinkler.com]. Working in Tibet, Daniel realized that mushrooms play a crucial role in rural Tibet. Since 1998, Daniel has been tracking yartsa gunbu (caterpillar fungus - Cordyceps sinensis) as well as researching Tibet’s diverse mushroom industry and its importance for rural people and has published many research papers and articles on a range of economically important mushrooms like caterpillar fungus, matsutake, morels and boletes in Tibet.

In 1998 Daniel started guiding tours and in 2006 he organized his first “MushRoaming” tour in Tibet, which is happening twice a year. In recent years he has added MushRoaming tours to Europe and now to Ecuador (in Feb. 2011) for more info check www.MushRoaming.com, which contains hundreds of photos with subtitles from all over, mostly mushrooms in Tibet, Bhutan, and the Pacific Northwest, but also Europe and South America.
This year Daniel published reports on the Cordyceps tour and the summer fungal& floral foray that will also take place in 2011.
In addition there is a huge section on nature (plants, medicinal plants, orchids, hot springs, forests etc.) and culture (monasteries, livestock, forestry, modernization) in Tibet.

Pre-meeting Dinner

We will continue our tradition of taking the speaker to dinner before the meeting. All are welcome to join us. Meet at 5:00 pm at:
Khyber Pass
http://khyberpasssandiego.com/
523 University Ave, Hillcrest

---

Mushroom ID Class Jan 9

Sunday, January, 9th 2011 from 6:00pm to 9:30pm in Room #104, Casa Del Prado, Balboa Park.
This will be part 1 of a 3 part course with class 2 and 3 later on in the season. This first class will be on macroscopic features and habitats. The second on mycorrhizal species and their associative trees. The third on microscopic features, reagents and how to find taxonomic information.

---

Mushroom ID Web Sites

Check out this wonderful web site: Matchmaker Mushrooms, where you can enter characteristics and get a list of matching species. It is an online version of a free program. You can also download the program at the MatchMaker home page. The online version only includes gilled mushrooms, but the downloadable version includes a second program for non-gilled mushrooms.

Another great site for mushroom identification is Rogers Mushrooms. It has a visual key, and also a simple online key.

---

LAMS Foray January 2nd

In response to the recent heavy rains, LAMS will be holding its first foray of 2011 (and third of the current mushroom season) at the El Cariso "Big Woods" in the Cleveland National Forest.

This foray is open to the public. Reservations are not required.
Details here.

---

Truffle Madness

French farmer jailed in shooting over truffles
PARIS – French police have arrested a farmer who fatally shot a trespasser he suspected of trying to steal highly coveted truffles from his land on the edge of France's southern Provence region. The 32-year-old farmer told authorities he was guarding his truffle patch in the town of Grignan when he was frightened by the intruder and shot him in the legs and head with a hunting rifle, police said Wednesday.
Read more here.

---

Mushroom Views

• Treatment for Amanita poisoning
• Giant Yeast
• Mushroom Lights
• Mushroom Art??

---

Mushroom Events

FFSC Fungus Fair

37th Annual Fungus Fair: January 7-9, 2011
The fair opens early this year on Friday, 4:00-7:00 p.m., with a lecture and cooking demonstration.
Friday admission is only $5.
Come to Santa Cruz and visit the kingdom of Fungi! Learn about the hundreds of beautiful and fascinating species of local fungi on display in a re-created woodland habitat. A unique Santa Cruz tradition, the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair features a special room full of hands-on activities for the kids, including a fungus exploration area, clay mushroom building, face paints, and more!

The 37th Annual Santa Cruz Fungus Fair will be held at the Louden Nelson Community Center. Sponsored by the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, the fair draws 2,000 plus visitors each year.

Highlights & Activities

• Culinary demonstrations by top bay area chefs, including Jozseph Schultz (India Joze); Todd Spanier (King of Mushrooms); and Damani Thomas (Oswald). They will thrill your palate.
• Dr. Denis Benjamin, a nationally renowned mycologist and the author of Mushroom Poisons and Panaceas, will participate in a panel on current developments in mushroom poisonings and treatments.
• Nationally regarded mushroom author and expert David Arora will present The Wheel of Fungi. David is the author of Mushrooms Demystified and All That the Rain Promises and More.
• Renowned herbalist Christopher Hobbs will discuss the medicinal properties of mushrooms.
• Lectures by prominent mycologists and basics of mushroom identification in our popular Mushrooms 101 class.
• A special Kid's Room full of hands-on activities for kids, including a fungus exploration area, clay mushroom building, face paints, mushroom-dyed silk, wonderful mushroom art and more!
• FFSC mushroom experts will be available throughout the fair to identify the mushrooms you’ve found.
• Throughout the three-day event, Fungus Fair attendees be able to learn more about local mushrooms, view remarkable mushroom arts and crafts, and taste unusual and exceptionally good fungal fare.
• The habitat display area will present and display hundreds of mushroom species commonly found in the Santa Cruz/San Francisco/Monterey Bay area.

More Events

• SOMA Camp - January 15-17 SOMA Camp 2011
• All-California Club Foray - Jan 28-30 2011
• Los Angeles Wild Mushroom Fair - February 12-13
• San Diego Mushroom Fair - February 20, 2011

---

What’s Cooking!

Fungi As Food

I happened upon another recipe for Meringue Mushrooms.

T'is the season for wild mushrooms. While we are not blessed with an abundance of local edibles, we are blessed to have Specialty Produce. Check out their web site, scroll down to mushrooms, and look at what they have available. As of New Years Eve that included chanterelles, black trumpets, yellowfoot chanterelles, and hedgehogs. While they are primarily a wholesaler, they will sell small quantities to individuals. There prices are very reasonable, and the mushrooms are fresher than what you can find at the few grocery stores that carry any wild mushrooms.

There are other advantages to looking at the web site. For the mushrooms they have in stock, they list the restaurants that are buying that species, with links to the restaurant web sites. That is a good indication that there is a dish or two featuring wild mushrooms on the menu. They also have recipes for many of the mushroom species.

If you have an iPhone, check out the Specialty Produce app for a searchable database of information and recipes.

---

Recipes of the Month

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

---

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.

---

Liability Waiver Forms

Participation in SDMS Forays requires a signed liability waiver. To save time at the start of forays, you can download a form here, sign it, and turn it in with your membership renewal.

---

SDMS Information