FFSC Events Archive

A world-renowned mushroom photographer, Taylor's work has been published internationally, most recently in the May 2014 issue of National Geographic magazine. Santa Cruz is fortunate: this will be the last show of the Spirits of the Forest tour before Taylor heads off on extended foray to New Zealand. He will present a thirty-year retrospective on his world-wide mushroom photography adventure. This will include many never-seen-before illustrations as well as stories spanning his mushroom career.

Taylor will have a complete selection of his DVDs, calendars for 2015, and his latest Spirits of the Forest video and T-shirt. He will also have signed prints of the "bioluminescent mushrooms under moonlight" featured in National Geographic Magazine and will sign your copy of the magazine (in gold ink) if you bring it to the meeting.

Don't miss it — this is truly some of the most beautiful mushroom imagery you'll ever have the pleasure of seeing!

Enjoy an amazing multi-course mushroom and wine feast with a group of like-minded fungiphiles.

Lucky attendees will sample appetizers and have small-scale guided tours of the displays in a more intimate, less crowded atmosphere.

Details:

• Multi-course dinner by Chef Zach Mazi

• Wine pairings by Jeff Emery of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard and Quinta Cruz.

• Menu for the evening

• Music by George Heagerty & Never the Same

• Private tour of mushroom displays with Noah Siegel and without all the daytime crowd 6:00 – 6:30.

• Appetizers will be served.

WHERE: Room #3, Louden Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Cost: $90.00, Tax and Gratuity Included

FFSC's Marty and Kathy Newman, coordinators of the Fungus Fair Kids' Room, will present a children’s storytime program at the Museum to teach preschool-aged kids and their families all about mushrooms. The program will include stories, arts/crafts, songs, games, and/or exploration of natural objects/artifacts.

Families & children of all ages are welcome to join the fun.

Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for seniors, kids are free! Become a member of the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and enjoy free programs throughout the year!

Mushrooms can be delicious or deadly and have played a role in almost every culture for nearly 10,000 years. Learn more about our local edible and poisonous mushrooms with guest speakers from the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz.

Wondering about all those mushrooms sprouting up in your neighborhood, or maybe the ones decorating the woods?  

Henry Young is giving a mushroom talk at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History on Tuesday night.  This little museum is a gem with or without Phil and Henry, but with them speaking, it is well worth a visit.

Although this is not an FFSC event, it features two of our club's most active members. 

Register online at: http://santacruzmuseum.org/

$10 general

$5 for museum members

Learn about our Holiday Potluck.

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

This month the date hase been moved to the Tuesday night before the normal fourth Wednesday so it doesn't conflict with Thanksgiving engagements.

In this talk, Dr. Beug will illustrate the spectacular and diverse world of Ascomycete fungi in the Pacific Northwest. You will learn about edibles from morels to truffles, fungal habitats and fungal lifestyles. He will describe what Ascomycetes are. You will learn about unusual fungi, some with medicinal applications, some with industrial uses, some that cause plant diseases, some that cure plant diseases, and some that control insects.

He describes how he came to write the book Ascomycete Fungi of North America with coauthors Alan and Arleen Bessette, the first color–illustrated book to cover North American Ascomycetes.

Beug is a member of the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) where he served for six years as Editor of the journal McIlvainea. He currently is Chair of the Toxicology Committee, Chair of the Editorial Committee, member of the literature committee and member of the Education Committee. Michael was winner of the 2006 NAMA Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology. He has prepared over two dozen PowerPoint presentations about mushrooms for the NAMA Education Committee (available from NAMA as a 2-DVD set).

Michael is currently Vice President and past President of The Pacific Northwest Key Council, a group dedicated to writing macroscopic keys for the identification of fungi. His specialties are the genusRamaria, all toxic and hallucinogenic mushrooms, and Ascomycetes. He is also doing research on oak-associated fungi of the Columbia River Gorge, especially Cortinarius species. He regularly writes about mushrooms in McIlvainea, The Mycophile, Fungi Magazine, and Mushroom: The Journal of Wild Mushrooming. He is coauthor of MatchMaker, a free mushroom identification program covering 4,092 taxa with over 5,000 images of 1,984 illustrated taxa.

This class is filled.

The FFSC Culinary Committee is happy to announce a fungal feast to start off the new season. We’re planning a family-style dinner for FFSC members at Casa Nostra in Ben Lomond on Monday, November 3 at 7:00 pm. Get your reservations now before it fills up!

Pasquale, the chef, enjoys collecting wild mushrooms and knows just what to do with them. Dinner will include one glass of house wine per person, tax and tip for a cost of $40.00 — check out the menu below. Additional beverages can be purchased, or you can bring your own for a corkage fee of $15.00. Our feast will be served family style, meaning that dishes will be brought out on platters and diners will serve themselves, rather than a "plated" meal in which diners must choose in advance.

Music will be provided by Michael Hodjera on guitar, with Jhea Anne McCloskey joining Michael for close harmony. Please join us for a festive evening of great food and companionship.

Menu

Crema de Funghi

Homemade creamy mushroom soup

Insalata Selvaggia

Mixed greens with wild mushrooms and balsamic vinegar

Gnocchi Ripieni

Potato gnocchi with sage, thyme, mushrooms and white wine

Gamberoni con Chantarelle

Tiger prawns with Chanterelle mushrooms and white wine

Porco Affumicato

Smoked pork loin with Porcini mushrooms, Aurora sauce

Gluten-free Chocolate Cake

Tickets can be purchased online by credit card or by check. Instructions and mailing address are included in the payment process

This class is filled.

Phil Carpenter is leading a series of Fall Mushroom Identification classes. October 1st is the first in a series of 4 classes.  Classes will be held at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum on East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz from 7-9 pm.  Participants must be club members but since the class is free, the membership dues are the only fee for nonmembers. Come with fresh mushrooms from field or lawn, forest or mountains.

Classes are scheduled for the first and last Wednesday evenings for the months of October and November.

The classes will be conducted in a hands-on, workshop style with actual mushrooms collected by the class participants. Again, we will be using the field guide, Mushrooms Demystified, as the class text. Everyone should bring their copy.