Learn About Mushrooms The Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz is all about educating its members and the general public about the dangers and delights of collecting, studying, consuming , and creating art with wild mushrooms. We understand that people learn in different ways. We aim to offer something for everyone! Winter Chanterelles Bunch. Photo by Yevgeny Nyden Join Our Indoor and Outdoor Activities We get together from September through May to learn and share knowledge about mushrooms, while having fun! Monthly talks from mycologists and enthusiasts that inspire and educate. Peruse mushrooms that people bring in, and enjoy refreshments. FREE and open to the public. Monthly Speakers From tailgate tastings and potlucks to chef dinners, our foodie fun events are scattered throughout the year. Potlucks & Chef Dinners Join local forays in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay areas. Learn while exploring our local woods and fields with like-minded people. Local Forays Long-distance forays are overnight (or longer) trips farther afield. They carry the allure of new fungal finds, amazing culinary pleasures, and collaborative education adventure. Long-Distance Forays Gain more knowledge and hands-on experience with mushroom ID and mycology. (Some classes are for FFSC members only.) ID Classes & Workshops Explore hundreds of wild species, both deadly and delicious. Create mushroom crafts--fun for all ages! Visit vendors and sample delicious mushroomy treats. Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Join our club for only $25 per household! Why Join FFSC? Online Resources The safest way to learn about mushrooms is to hunt and identify mushrooms with knowledgable people in person. In addition, here are some field guildes, recipes, and other resources that can help you build your knowlede. Stay safe, and have fun learning! Featured Fungi Get background intel on mushrooms you may encounter in your wanderings. Myco Art Mushroom photography, and making art with or inspired by mushrooms. Field Reports Foray stories and species we found. (Available to FFSC members only.) Mushroom Recipes Recipes with mushrooms, and complementary dishes. Try them at home or for an FFSC potluck! Culinary Techniques Bring out the flavors of your edible finds by cleaning and storing them properly Online Learning Advice and self-challenges to build your skills. Scholarships Scholarship opportunities for students, non-profits, and FFSC members studying fungi. What We're Reading Browse our selection of books and articles on mycology.

To Brush or to Wash? Generally speaking, the best mushrooms are fresh mushrooms. Refrigerate as soon as you get home, and don’t wash until you’re ready to prepare or process them. ... Caption Keep fresh mushrooms in the fridge in paper or waxed paper bags, never plastic, as they need to breathe. Plastic bags will yield mush rather than mushrooms. Objective: Storage/Prep Total Time: Varies Suggested Mushrooms: See code Equipment and/or Ingredients May you be fortunate enough to find sufficient mushrooms for dinner and then some! (Found bucketloads while on a foray? See Collection Ethics and Etiquette .) Method Brushing: One school of thought is that one must never get mushrooms wet, as this will dilute their flavor. Advocates instead carefully trim and brush their fungi clean. This can be achieved with a pristine bolete, but you’ll be crunching on grit if you try it with a mud puppy chanterelle! Washing: Another perspective is that fungi absorb a negligible amount of water from washing, and that subsequent cooking will drive off the moisture along with that already present in the mushroom (they’re 90% water). Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking , a wonderful exploration of food chemistry and taste, did an experiment: He weighed 252 grams of fresh mushrooms, submerged them in water for 5 minutes, then removed them, blotted dry and weighed again. They then weighed 258 grams, 23 mushrooms having absorbed less than half a tablespoon among them. So he now rinses for 5 or 10 seconds with no compunctions. You can make up your own mind. Previous Technique All Techniques Next Technique

News & Stories / FFSC 2026 Ministers Elections-Results Welcome our new slate of FFSC ministers elected at May 19, 2026 general meeting. Dan Tischler • May 20, 2026 Porcini and Coccora invited to dinner-photo by Dan Tischler We have a new slate of ministers with some new faces and veteran FFSC ministers. You can view the list at https://www.ffsc.us/info/ffsc-ministers . When you get a chance please welcome the new ministers and thank outgoing ministers for all their hard work. Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

2025 Speaker Schedule : Room 1 Friday 2:30 PM Tips and Techniques for Cooking with Mushrooms Chef Bob Wynn Friday 4:00 PM An Introduction to Mushroom Identification Phil Carpenter Saturday 10:00 AM An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Vellany Pierce Saturday 11:30 AM A Discussion of Poisonous Mushrooms Henry Young Saturday 1:00 PM Top Ten Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms Douglas Smith Saturday 2:30 PM From Saucepan to Science Foraging Feasting and Phylogeny Shannon Adams Saturday 4:00 PM An Introduction to Mushroom Identification Phil Carpenter Sunday 10:00 AM Decoding the Forest Floor The Art of Mushroom Recognition Alan Rockefeller Sunday 11:30 AM Medicinal Mushrooms Traditional Usage and Modern Science Dr. Bill Schoenbart Sunday 1:00 PM Common Mushrooms of the San Francisco Bay Area Douglas Smith Sunday 2:30 PM An Introduction to Mushroom Identification Phil Carpenter Sunday 4:00 PM Mushroom Cultivation Kyle Garrone 2025 Speaker Schedule : Room 3 Friday 2:30 PM Bioluminescent and Fluorescent Fungi Alan Rockefeller Saturday 9:30 AM The Magic Mushroom Talk Dr. Christopher Hobbs, Ph.D., L.Ac Saturday 11:15 AM Fungi of New Zealand The Ecology of a Young Land Christian Schwarz Saturday 1:00 PM Medicinal Mushrooms Science and Traditional Usage Dr. Bill Schoenbart Saturday 2:45 PM Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast Noah Siegel Saturday 4:30 PM What You Need to Know About Poisonous Mushrooms Henry Young Sunday 9:30 AM Adventures of a Mycohobo Noah Siegel Sunday 11:15 AM Magic Mushroom Microdosing Dr. Christopher Hobbs, Ph.D., L.Ac Sunday 1:00 PM Fungal Range Maps How We Build Them and Why They Matter Thea Chesney Sunday 2:45 PM A Mushroom Tasting with Wine Pairing Chad Hyatt Sunday 4:30 PM Two Years of the California Fungal Diversity Study What Have We Learned Christian Schwarz

Collection Ethics and Etiquette We share these pointers to promote fungal fruiting and maintain harmony in the mushrooming community. Agaricus campestris. Photo by D. DeShazer Respect private property: One person can cause collecting privileges for the entire mushrooming community to be revoked. Don’t pick every mushroom you see: Leaving very young and very old mushrooms, along with a few in their prime may allow them to sporulate and reproduce. Don’t leave trimmings and broken mushrooms around: Bury your trimmings in the depression in the duff and cover with more duff. This keeps the mycelium healthy, prevents that “ravaged” look and vastly improves the aesthetics of a walk in the woods. (Cutting mushrooms and leaving the bottom exposed does not help the mycelia to regrow a mushroom as some people think.) You’ll know you’ve done a good job when you stumble across the area again and hunt it twice! Respect personal space: When collecting with a group, be respectful of your neighbors’ personal space. That said, if you found a huge bonanza, share a few of your findings with those less skilled or fortunate. It will come back to you! Review event policies: Each FFSC event includes a few policies for the safety and well-being of all participants, cancellation policies, and/or policies defined by the facilities we use. Be sure to read the policies carefully before registering and before attending each event. For long-distance forays, please also read Must Know to Participate in Long-Distance Forays . Members Only Content Login Join FFSC

News & Stories / Fair News A Short History of the Fungus Fair At our recent club meeting, Phil Carpenter shared how FFSC and the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair came to be. Vellany Pierce • January 6, 2014 Phil Carpenter gives a short history of FFSC and the Fungus Fair Come and celebrate the Fair with us at Louden Nelson Center in Santa Cruz this coming weekend: January 10th, 2014: 3-7 Sat 11th, 2014: 10-5 Sun 12th, 2014: 10-5 Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Fungus Fair Sculpture at the Wharf Haikus Celebrating the Secret Life of Fungi Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Stewardship Soquel State Demonstration Forest Permits We are incredibly fortunate to have this collecting resource available to us. Mushroom gathering is by permit only. Due to increased demand, only a limited number of permits will be issued, so get yours soon, before the permits are all taken. Dan Tischler • October 29, 2024 Mushrooms in the area of the Soquel Demonstration Forest Please do not request a permit unless you plan on going there. Remember that in the winter it can be a difficult drive to get to the forest, and you will need to walk 1/2 mile before entering the legal gathering area. Here is the SDF map and so me forest rules . If you would like to request a permit please, visit the Soquel Demo Forest Website and look for the Mushroom Gathering Permit under "Recreation" and follow the instructions on permit request form. You should recieve your permit by email within a few minutes. Please note that extensive parts of the forest will be closed to access due to recent and ongoing logging activity Please respect all closures areas so that we can contiue using the forest. Mushroom picking is not permitted in any area administratively closed by the Forest Manager whether or not mushroom gathering is specified on closure signs. From October 16, 2024 through May 1, 2025, Corral Trail and Corral Road remain closed, as well as the entire area of the Sulphur Timber Harvesting Plan (except for passage along Hihn's Mill Road and Sulphur Springs Road). See map below for locations. The Sulphur THP area is closed to entry since hazards exist such as loose hanging branches, rough terrain and loose logs. Please stay on roads while passing through the Sulphur THP area and follow any signage you may encounter along roads and trails. You may not wander into the timber area to gather mushrooms- stay on the road! Failure to obey signage may jeopardize the mushroom gathering program at the forest. Look for Area Closed signs, timber operations, crews working, rehabilitation areas, research sites, etc. and obey the closures. For more info on the closures, visit the SDF website . Before going to the forest it is always best to check for updated information at https://www.facebook.com/CALFIRESoquel/ . Remember that this forest is in a remote location with very limited cell phone reception. Please follow all of the rules on the permit and posted at the forest. Remember in particular that the parking area and the first 1/2 mile of the road are private property and no picking is permitted. For additional information, see the Calfire website at Soquel Demonstration State Forest . Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Jackson Demonstration State Forest Permit Changes Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Writings Lost: The Companion's View ...By now, the thunder was getting more intense, frequent and close. Henry still was not back. With the weather deteriorating rapidly, I knew something was wrong... Phil Carpenter • January 27, 2015 Caldor Fire Recovery. Photo by Katherine Elvin (Reprinted from FFSC's original Duff newsletter, 1998) Now that you have read Henry’s account of being lost in the wood, I’ll tell you my side of the story as the companion and the various thoughts that prompted my actions. Caldor Fire Recovery. Photo by Katherine Elvin Henry and I had driven up Friday night, slept on the ground and had risen early for a full day of hunting. The plan was to first look for morel at the burn north of our campground and then look for boletes on the way home that evening. We spent the majority of the day walking up and down the steep hillside between the two roads that bordered the burn we were hunting. We had been having mixed success in finding morels, but overall we were doing very well. At lunch, we had noted how quickly the predicted stormy weather was coming in. We also talked about the need to leave the area before it started raining since the road we were on was in such poor condition. We had gone out on another leg of the search, splitting up, as is usual for us. A little later we met again halfway down the ridge (again, as is usual for us) and discussed our “plans”. I was going to go down to the road below the burn and Henry was going to work his way further east at the same elevation. After working down the slope and finding little worth keeping me there, I worked my way back up, slowly moving eastward as well. By this time the wind had picked up and it was getting noticeably cooler. I was still picking lots of nice fresh morels but I heard some distant thunder and decided that it was time to get back to the truck and get out of there. I worked slowly back up the steep ridge, picking as I went. Something seemed wrong about the direction I was going. I felt like I was going too far east and needed to move more to the west. Even with that, I found that I was at least half a mile east of the truck. When I got back, Henry was not there. That really did not concern me since it is not unusual for Henry to be the last one in. I dropped off my haul of morels and went back out on a short loop to kill some time waiting for Henry. By now, the thunder was getting more intense, frequent and close. When I returned, Henry still was not back. Now I was concerned! With the weather deteriorating rapidly, I knew something was wrong from our earlier discussions about departing before the rains. I dropped off my basket and went to the area where we had met in the woods and searched the entire region east of there, both up and down that ridge. We have long-established calls, whistles, etc. that we use to “communicate” and I was using them but with no answers. I made my way back to the truck, hoping of course that Henry would be there. No such luck. That was the crucial decision point: do I assume that he is just really slow in getting back or do I assume the worst? Given the previous discussions, I made the fairly simple decision that something was wrong. At that point, it was about 4:00 and I knew that I needed more people to cover the area where he might possibly be. I never for a second thought that he was lost; I was convinced that he was hurt and unable to answer my signals. Henry and I had hunted together for many years and never in all those years had he ever been lost, and that was in parts of the world where it was much more likely to get lost. Remember that the area we were hunting was a slope between two roads: impossible to get lost, right?! Go uphill, hit a road, go downhill, hit a road – no problem; therefore no compass, no survival gear, no water and no extra clothes in case of bad weather. All that went through my mind in a flash and formed the basis of my decision to walk out and get help. I had to walk since Henry had driven and he had the keys. ( Lesson #1: Take a spare set of keys and give it to your hunting partner ) I knew that he needed to be found before dark and for that I needed help. Just as I wrote a note (just in case he DID come back late), the heavens opened with a vengeance. The next five hours were really frustrating since it took a long time for the search and rescue team to mobilize and get there from Placerville. All this time it was pouring rain and I was envisioning Henry in a heap somewhere in a T-shirt, freezing. Once the authorities were involved, I was not allowed to go back out to hunt (this was REALLY frustrating). I did take a couple of El Dorado County Sheriff deputies out in a search right at nightfall, only to have them announce that they would take up the search the next morning since they didn’t search the woods after dark. Their “plan” (standard issue, I guess) was to drive the roads with lights and sirens – a fine plan if someone is lost, warm and can get around to find the road again. Of course, I was jumping up and down trying to get through to those guys that all of that was worthless since he would already have come out if he could since he NEVER gets lost. I really believed that unless we continued to search through the night, by morning he would not have survived. My frustration level was really going off-scale and I started second-guessing my decision to get help in the first place. I felt like I had just wasted all the daylight left in the day and had nothing to show for it. If only I had continued to search by myself, I would have at least felt like I was doing something positive. All of that ended abruptly when I heard that radio call from the search vehicle that had gone off in the wrong direction but was successful in finding him. “Lost? What do you mean, he’s lost? You mean he isn’t hurt?” I had all these mixed emotions going at once: relief as well as disbelief that he really was actually lost and that they had actually found him. The fact that he was found strictly by accident only adds to the incredulity of it all. I must say that I really was impressed to see that Henry had come out with his basket – full of morels. But, you know, we never did have time to go look for boletes. Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Reality Check: Dispelling a Myth Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Mycology & Art News FFSC Scholarship Awarded to Christian Schwarz For all of you who took part in our very successful 2011 Fungus Fair—this is what we do it for! FFSC has awarded a scholarship to Christian Schwarz in support of his pending work on the UCSC Fungal Herbarium Sub-curator and Mass Sequencing Initiative. Marje Young • March 2, 2011 Christian Schwarz Christian is becoming well known and well respected for his mycological knowledge. The project will benefit us locally and members of the Fungus Federation will have access to the herbarium research collection. This is indeed a worthwhile project that we are delighted to be able to fund. Over the past few years, Christian has contributed over 400 micro fungal items to the herbarium collection at UC Santa Cruz. He will be working with the entire fungal collection (approximately 700 items) to move it into proper herbarium boxes; scan and digitize academic collection notes; create database of the text descriptions, with reference to the herbarium specimens; establish and develop a website for collection descriptions, photographs and academic notes (with international access); partner with the UCSC Gilbert Lab and UC Berkeley to obtain DNA sequencing of the collec- tion; and complete an interactive polychotomous key to macro fungi. The herbarium, including its online presence, will be of significant value to the local scientific, taxonomic, and enthusiast communities, as well as state and international researchers. !is will be especially true given that a large proportion of the collections will come accompanied with DNA sequence data. Marje Young and Phil Carpenter Scholarship Committee Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts FFSC Scholarship Awarded to Alison McGregor Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Field Reports SC Report, February 2014 I've been out 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks in a variety of locations. I've seen an abundance of very small mushrooms (<.5" caps), but few of any species any larger. It almost seems like things started to come up and then paused. Yevgeny Nyden • February 26, 2014 Nettles. Photo by Yevgeny Nyden Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Collecting Conditions in Mendocino at ACCF 2014 Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

An Educator's Guide to Fungi K-6 The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) has generously shared this incredible resource with K-6 educators and the public. Cover image of the Fungus Files, by terraBrie Stewart and Rost Koval, courtesy of NAMA The Fungus Files: An Educator’s Guide to Fungi K-6 (Second Edition) , is a newly revised e-book packed with dynamic and diverse activities designed to be easily adaptable to students of all ages, learning styles and ability levels. This publication is the best thing to come along in mushroom education in a decade. Image from The Fungi Files by terraBrie Stewart and Rost Koval, courtesy of NAMA Written by terraBrie Stewart and designed and illustrated by Rost Koval, The Fungus Files can be used by anyone teaching about fungi to school groups, science clubs, local nature groups, and any non-specialist audience. Stewart resides in Edmonton, Alberta. Members Only Content Login Join FFSC

Tricholoma Murrillianum (Matsutake) Of all the choice edible mushrooms that occur in our area, none eluded me longer than the matsutake, Tricholoma murrillianum . ... Tricholoma murrillianum (matsutake). Photo by Hugh Smith The name "matsutake" literally means pine mushroom, from the habitat in which it is found in Japan. Formerly called Armillaria ponderosa and Tricholoma magnivelare , our California species is a close relative of the Japanese form. For years I had scoured the mountains looking for my own secret patch of this much esteemed fungus. Every year l would stare with envy at the dozen or so which mystically appeared at each Fungus Fair knowing that they came from some place nearby. The preferred local habitat is tanoak, or so I was told. Yet all my years of searching had failed to turn up any. These must be the best-kept secret in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Why? I didn't want to be forced to drive north to Mendocino Co. just to find my first matsutake. Where were they? While it might be true that tanoak is the preferred habitat, l found my first specimen and subsequent others on Christmas day (nice present. huh?) in the kind of place you would normally pass by for hunting. The kind of place that a jack rabbit or a covey of quail hiding from a larger predator would take refuge in. The kind of place that leaves you with battered shin bones. telltale scratches. and shredded clothing. The kind of place where your progress is measured in feet/ min. rather than feet/sec. There must be square miles of dense impenetrable thickets of manzanita and scrub oak in the Santa Cruz mountains. Throw in a few chinquapins, pines and sandy soil and you'll begin to visualize the habitat l'm describing. Imagine crawling on your belly with barely enough room for you and your basket, or banging your shins against umpteen manzanita burls and you get the idea. Yet this is where they grow and why they had eluded me for so long. The matsutake clan comprises at least 3 species: the white matsutake, T. murrillianum , our local representative; T. caligatum , which has a darker fibrillose cap and occurs east of the Great Lakes and under conifers in the Pacific NW; and T. matsutake , which occurs in Japan and the Orient and closely resembles T. caligatum . Our version of the matsutake is a firm, dense, robust mushroom standing up to 6" tall with a cap as large as 8"-10" in diameter. The cap is initially white, dense and firm, but soon develops cinnamon to brown fibrils. The cap margin is inrolled when young. The gills are white but usually discolor brownish with age. The spore print is white. The stem is l"-2" thick, hard and tough, white above, but scaly below and colored like the cap. There is a thick white veil forming a prominent ring that flares outward from the stem. The most unique feature of the matsutake, however is its odor - what David Arora refers to as "a provocative compromise between 'red hots’ and dirty socks." There is definitely a cinnamon component to it. I thought this odor was unique to the matsutake group but there is another local mushroom I found with the same fragrance but vastly different appearance called Inocybe fraudans (formerly known as Inocybe pyriodora ). Matsutake are highly esteemed in Japan. The demand for these mushrooms is so great that individual specimens command prices as high as $300 (in 1989) depending upon their size and condition. A lucrative export business has developed in the Pacific Northwest for matsutakes which are air freighted directly to Tokyo where there is an ever increasing market for these "exotic" fungi. Last month (December 1988) I saw our local matsutake selling at the Monterey Market in Palo Alto for $27/1b., quite a bargain compared to Japanese prices ! You would expect a special treat from such a high priced mushroom, and the matsutake is probably worth it. It tastes like it smells (without the dirty socks) and keeps its somewhat chewy texture when cooked. It is wonderful simply sliced razor thin and grilled with soy sauce. I also like it finely shredded in a stir fry dish and have used it in small quantities to season white rice. Mushrooms covered: See code Previous Description All Featured Fungi Next Description