FFSC Events Archive

Visit the Suds n Shrooms page for details about this event.

Ever wanted to try a simple mushroom growing project at home, but don't know where to start? Or, looking for a fun and easy project to share with children and young adults, while teaching them about the life-cycle of a mushroom?

Then join us for the FFSC's "Urban Growing - Cultivating Oyster Mushrooms on Toilet Paper Rolls Workshop", Saturday May 9th from 10:30am - 12:30 (half past noon). At the Nelson Louden Center, Santa Cruz, CA..

Geared towards the novice mushroom grower, this workshop will cover the novel method for one of the easiest and buzz-worthy ways of growing Oyster mushrooms - on toilet paper rolls!

All materials will be provided for each participant to make and take home an inoculated roll of toilet paper, after a brief presentation on basic mushroom growing tips.

The workshop will be held at the Nelson Louden Center in Santa Cruz, and is open to current FFSC members only.

OK... here is the word: the Spring Foray is scheduled (almost for sure) for the first week end in May.

This year, with warmer and dryer conditions the flush could take place in earlier. Our scouts will be checking fungal activity. If the flush comes early there may be members organizing early trips or the foray date could change. Check back here as the date approaches for the latest update.

For more info, visit our Spring Long-Distance Foray page.

Justin will be doing a compelling presentation on mushroom propagation, reproduction and home cultivation.

This is the chance to brush up on your navigation skills before chasing down those spring coccora, morels or king boletes! We will be using what was learned in the Basic Survival Skills Workshop. It can also be a way to brush up on compass skill that haven't been used in a while.

Registration will be limited to FFSC members initially. If it doesn't fill, it will open to non-members. Enrollment will be limited to about 12 participants so I can attend to questions on an individual basis.

This workshop will involve walking in the forest and will include some compass exercises, topographical map reading, and at least an introduction to triangulation (a way to use compass and map find your location on your map when lost). Map and compass skills have applications not just for finding your way out. It can also be used to locate and find suitable mushroom habitat. And in the mountains, GPS does not always work!

You will need:

• A compass... a real one with a rotating dial.

• Water

• Hat

• Lunch

• Glasses, if you need them to read.

• Hiking attire, as this class is planned as a hike.

-- Sue Labiste

This workshop is designed to introduce participants to survival tactics that might save their lives if they get lost or stranded on a foray into the woods. As mushroom foragers we travel off-trail often in steep and remote terrain, so we are at risk for injury, direction disorientation, or, for that matter, running out of daylight. This workshop is also just plain fun.

Last year this workshop filled within hours. This class will be limited to FFSC members at first. If it doesn't fill the enrollment will be extended to all. There is no fee.

From your instructor, Susan Labiste:

Forget about that image of a battle tested military survival instructor busting with muscles. I am just an old lady with attitude. Actually I taught this class for East Bay Regional Parks for several years and I teach primitive skills at primitive gatherings... Winter Count, Rabbitstick, Buckeye... etc.

This workshop lasts 5 hours, so it is not appropriate for the little kids. Participants should be 15 or older and anyone under 18 requires a parent who agrees to be legally responsible for supervising their offspring. I will be far too busy instructing to keep anyone, adult or child, from making an error in judgment. You will be handling a knife, fire, ropes, sticks... you get the idea. Be responsible.

How to enroll? Read to the end.

What to bring?

• Compass

• Sharp, fixed-blade knife in sheath

• Lunch

• Elbow grease

Here is a basic description of the topics covered in the workshop. Plan on learning by doing, not just listening. No sitting on your laurels allowed... I am serious, you can't just watch.

Thermal threat: Plan on learning how to get a fire going even in wet conditions. We will be using both modern and prehistoric techniques for fire-starting, having fun with fire by friction using hand and bow drills, modern ferrocerium strikers, and a variety of tinders... including FUNGUS! You will also be improvising using a garbage bag and natural materials to stay dry and warm enough to avoid hypothermia, build an improvised shelter, tie basic knots, learn strategies for hot weather and the symptoms of hypothermia and hyperthermia.

Water treatment: Several ways of treating water to make it potable will be covered. Taste tests to be included!

Getting found and getting out: Some practical tips, signaling techniques, and basic compass skills will be covered and there will be some compass work. We may drive to a second nearby location to complete this segment of the workshop. You will need your own compass and it really needs to be one with a moveable compass housing and a liquid-filled magnetic needle. See image below:

For those who want to practice their compass skills on Sunday the 12th, you can also sign up for a land navigation workshop to use what we learn in the Survival Skills class in the field and in more detail.

Strategies and Keeping your Cool: The entire workshop is designed to help participants learn to prioritize their actions, avoid panic decisions, and build the confidence necessary to keep a positive attitude in the event of an emergency.

Survival Kits: Last but not least, we will be discussing what constitutes a survival kit. Of course, the best survival kit is the one you actually carry, so the emphasis will be on essentials and keeping it lightweight.

If you are not 18 years of age, a parent must sign you up. Include which of the two classes (or both) you are signing up for, and a phone number where I can reach you. You aren't enrolled until I reach you to confirm there is room for you. Enrollment is on a first-come first-serve basis but I will want to touch bases with you. I know it is free, but commit to coming if you sign up. If you can't make it, be sure to let me know so I can make your spot available. Enrollment limited to 12.

Many wild mushrooms and lichens contain permanent, intensely colored dyes. In this workshop, you will explore a multitude of dye mushrooms found right here on the Redwood Coast.

Wild foraged fungi and ethically harvested lichens will define our palette. Using 10 species of urban and woodland fungi, along with eco-friendly mordants, we will create a full spectrum of incredibly rich colors - about 20 in all! Learn about foraging, ethical practices, basic identification concepts, and get hands on experience extracting mushroom and lichen dyes for wool and silk.

Shibori dye techniques will be demonstrated and you will take home a beautiful hand designed silk chiffon scarf, a rainbow of dye samples created in class, recipes and complete instructions for recreating the dyeing process at home, and a color guide to the best local dye fungi and lichens. Do not miss this unique educational opportunity to learn about the brilliant dyes found in wild mushrooms and lichens of our area. For a sneak peek, see Alissa's website.

Cost is $65 for FFSC members, $85 for non-members. 

Alissa Allen has been experimenting with mushroom-derived pigments for 15 years. Raised by a forager in the Pacific Northwest, she has been a student of the natural world her entire life. For the past two years she has been travelling around the US; studying regional habitats and sharing local mushroom dye palettes with fungophiles and fiber artists alike. Mushroom identification is her primary passion, but Mycopigments are her obsession. In addition using mushrooms to dye wool, she is currently exploring lichen dyes and mushroom pigments for paint. You can read more about mushroom dyes on her website http://mycopigments.com/

Contact Alissa

Mycopigments.com 

Mycopigments on Facebook 

Mushroom Dyers Trading Post

The FFSC Sequencing Project and the Santa Cruz Mycoflora

The Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz is helping push forward the boundaries of citizen science. Come learn more about the model, functioning, and results of the UCSC Herbarium Sequencing Project. Our club is well on the way to assembling a mycoflora Santa Cruz County. Christian and Penelope will talk about the project as well as discuss ways that amateurs, professionals, and clubs can collaborate in the future of taxonomy, systematics, and ecology.

About out speakers:

Christian Schwarz spends his time collecting, photographing, researching, writing and teaching about mushrooms. He and Noah Siegel are nearly finished writing the upcoming field guide "Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast", and he is intensively working on a web database to document the mushrooms of Santa Cruz County http://www.scmycoflora.org

He also writes a blog - Notes of a Mycophile http://www.mycobratpack.tumblr.com.

Fungi satisfy his curiosity with their seemingly endless forms (from the grotesque to the bizarre to the sublime). He has travelled in search of fungi throughout the United States, as well as in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Europe. Besides general taxonomy, he is interested in Citizen Science and mycofloristic projects.

Penelope Gillette is a natural history enthusiast who has been working with Christian Schwarz and Adam Ryska to establish a Myco-Herbarium as part of the Santa Cruz Mycoflora Project. She graduated last spring in the Environmental Studies Department at UCSC, where she interned for Chris Lay at the Museum of Natural History Collections working with lichens. Fungi are especially fascinating to Penelope because of their cryptic nature, under-appreciated beauty, and immense importance to the "circle (and sustainability) of life".

Environmental interpretation and conservation are also important to Penelope: she hopes to incorporate all of her learnings about fungi and other aspects of natural history to help others find and develop connections and relationships with the land (i.e. the natural, more than human, world).

Penelope was responsible for the lichen ID we so enjoyed at our 2015 Fungus Fair.

For more info, visit our Wine & Mushrooms Event page.

Dr. Desjardin presents: A New Field Guide to California Mushrooms. Dennis is lead author on an all-color field guide that treats over 1,100 species of CA mushrooms, with complete descriptions of 650 species, and over 750 color photographs. It is published by Timber Press in large format (8.5" x 11"), hardcover, about 580 pages. He will present what the field guide is all about, how decisions were made on what to include, and the melding of nomenclature and taxonomy, morphology and phylogeny, and the problems encountered when writing such a tome. He will show plenty of beautiful photographs presenting a sampling of species covered in the book.

Desjardin received a Master's Degree from San Francisco State University studying with Dr. Harry D. Thiers, and a PhD from the University of Tennessee under the guidance of Dr. Ronald H. Petersen. He also had the privilege of being trained by Drs. Alexander H. Smith, Rolf Singer, Meinhard Moser and Egon Horak. He has published over 125 scientific papers on the taxonomy and evolution of mushroom-forming fungi in which he described 225 new species and 7 new genera. He is co-author of the field guide Mushrooms of Hawai'i (Ten Speed Press, 2002). He has active research projects in the Hawaiian Islands, Micronesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and the African islands of São Tome and Principe, funded by grants from the National Science Foundation. A recent interest is in the origin and evolution of bioluminescent fungi. Born and raised in Crescent City, California, he has been collecting and studying California mushrooms for 60 years.

I am calling for members to register for the upcoming mushroom identification classes to be held in the months of February and March, 2015. These classes are free of charge, but to enroll, you must be a paid FFSC member and commit to attending all four classes. Classes will be held at the Natural History Museum of Santa Cruz on E. Cliff Drive on the first and fourth Wednesday nights of February and March from 7-9 pm.

These classes are free but are ONLY open to paid up Fungus Federation members. I will take the first 22 registrants in the order that I receive them.

More instructions will be forthcoming both here and by email as we near the beginning of the classes.

Thanks.

Phil Carpenter

Visit the Albion Long Distance Forays page for info about this foray.