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Fall Mushroom Dinner As Autumn beckons and we await or enjoy the first fungal fruitings, Chef Bob Wynn and the FFSC Culinary Committee welcome FFSC members and their guests to celebrate the season with our much-loved Fall Mushroom Dinner. The 2026 Fall Mushroom Dinner is scheduled on Sunday, November 15, 2026 from 6:30 to 9:30pm . See the Members Only section below for location details. Fall Flavors For 2026, Bob and his crew will prepare a large main dish and green salad. Members are invited to bring labeled potluck dishes in accordance with the Permitted Species list on the Potluck Essentials page. It's sure to be a scrumptious menu! (Not sure what to make? Check out our Mushroom Recipes for inspiration!) Price The price changes each year, depending on the cost of the venue rental and other factors. For 2026, we will not charge admission for this event. A donation bucket will be ready to accept contributions to offset rental fees and expenses. $10 per person is suggested. Thanks! Location The Fall Mushroom Dinner is open to FFSC members and their guests. The location varies each year. Login to view the Members' section below for details. Let’s come together to share food, celebrate community, and welcome the mushroom season and the fall harvest with good cheer. We look forward to seeing you at the table! Members Only Content Login Join FFSC

News & Stories / Mycology & Art News Relishing Medicinal Mushrooms Part I Part 1 of 2: We will visit the history and use of medicinal mushrooms, and attempt to answer why, at this time in our history, we are suddenly inundated with a massive wealth of new knowledge on the subject. Chef Zachary Mazi • March 1, 2013 Trametes versicolor (turkey tail). Photo by Larry Volpe Editors Note: Consult your physician before consuming or using any mushroom for medicinal purposes; and ensure you have personally researched and understand how to prepare such mushrooms appropriately. Chef Mazi has been studying herbal medicine and mushrooms for over 10 years, and combining these deep earth wisdoms with fine culinary cuisine. In 2012, Food Is Medicine emerged as a co-project of Chef Zachary Mazi and partner Dr. Juli Mazi, ND; the aim of this organization if to help people worldwide understand that their choices in food matter greatly, and yet the pressure to eat can be lessened exponentially by sticking to intuitive, local and organic options. Food Is Medicine Coach/Chef Zachary Mazi would like to invite you to take a two part journey into the use of medicinal mushrooms in cooking. In this first part, we will visit the history and use of medicinal mushrooms, and attempt to answer why, at this time in our history, we are suddenly inundated with a massive wealth of new knowledge on the subject. In part 2, which will appear in the April issue of Duff , we will explore in greater detail the medicinal values of many of our commonly loved edibles. Each part will be accompanied by some delicious recipes that Food Is Medicine have created to really relish this delicious medicine. Mushrooms used as useful allies for humankind date back to before we recorded history. In the Materia Medica of Chinese Medicine, one can find the history of its seemingly mysterious and vast array of plant parts—dried, fresh and powdered—and certain fungi, spanning back to the nearly the beginning of written history, at least to 6000 BC. Elsewhere in the world, the now-famous ice-man—found preserved in ice on the disputed Swiss-Italian border —was found carrying two mushrooms, both polypores: Fomes fomentarius and Piptoporus betuinus (1). The former was thought to be used as both a fire insulator, to carry embers from one place to the next, and simultaneously used as tinder, packed with flint and stone. The latter was used as a blood stopper. Indeed, the use of mushrooms in ritual, or at the very least the mushroom being adored and worshipped, has been found in cave art about 10,000 years ago by the Tasili tribesmen in Northern Africa (now the location is the Sahara desert, but at this early time, it was a lush and green paradise...perhaps the pre-historic garden of Eden?) But our primitive use of mushrooms certainly has a much greater history even than the recorded history examples above. Of the 22 primate species that eat fungi as part of their diet, 3 of them spend more than 10 percent of their time feeding on fungi. Of these, the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey spends 95% of it feeding time eating lichens, and Goeldi’s monkeys spends up to 63% of its feeding time eating sporocarps(2). It is not apparent whether these primates are using them as food strictly, or as medicines like they do some leaves. These specifics bog western science down. Nevertheless, it is clear that mushroom medicine has been working its magic on our ancestors since time immemorial. Winding a curious path from primate to pauper to priest and to prophet, from folklore to physician, and now to us! What is most fascinating, historically speaking, is the sudden and almost frenetic burst of enthusiasm for the study and innovation in medicine derived from fungi, in the recent decades. If mushrooms have been a part of our culture and heritage for so long, then why suddenly, in the past 30 years—and even more so in the present day—are we seeing an acceleration in the sciences describing these incredible chemical factories? It appears that the confluence of truly needing the medicines they have to offer, with the instantaneous ability to share our results worldwide with the click of a button is exponentially allowing us to get a glimpse into the vast expanse of mystery that is the Kingdom Fungi. Mushrooms have a strange and extremely varied means of chemical production. Manufacturing complex and nearly indescribable compounds—some that resemble compounds made by animals, and some completely foreign to our bodies—these amazing creatures are producing toxins and poisons, vitamins and even complex molecule pathways that mitigate oil spills and other environmental disasters. Like animals, many fungi produce vitamin D when interacting with UV radiation, such as from the sun. Shiitake mushrooms, under the right conditions, have shown to increase their vitamin D content by up to 41,000% in the sun over the course of just one day! Maitake mushrooms are not far behind in the same regard(8). This is a non-reversible chemical reaction, meaning that we can dry our mushrooms in the summer sun and store them until the winter doldrums to get the benefit of their Vitamin D during the darker months. (Even dried mushrooms will undergo this reaction in UV light.) Like animals, fungi breathe in oxygen, and exhale CO2, freeing the stores of the greenhouse molecule from the decaying wood and detritus on the forest floor and elsewhere. The respiratory similarity requires antibody similarity as well, because the same bacteria and viruses that can attack our cells and systems can attack these oxygen breathing cousins of ours the same way. This is the source of some of the most powerful disease fighting compounds that even the US Department of Defense has noted (for example, for use in the case of a bio-terror attack using small pox)(7). The adapted species have spread a fine mess of life lines branching through time, and the vast number of species estimated stands at anywhere from 1.5–5.1 million species of fungi on the planet. They outnumber plants on the planet almost 6:1, and of these, only 70,000 had been described, including molds, and other non sporophor producing fungi(3). So what is now fueling the sudden acceleration of interest and of knowledge taking place in this field of science and classification? It may be because we are only aware of just over 1% of the estimated species. There is definite pressure to expand this knowledge—nature abhors a vacuum. It may be because the number of people on the planet is constantly increasing, whilst our ability to share data exponentially doubles with more regular frequency; it may be that the earth itself, under the duress of environmental catastrophe, is reaching out through the proven biological model of success shared by the mycelial mats of fungi and of our own brain: networking and redundancy. Whatever the reason, medicinal mushroom studies are accelerating in interest and significance, and we, dear reader, are present to reap the benefits and witness this monumentally important age in mankind’s history. Mushrooms and humans have evolved separately on this planet, neither needing the other to survive. As such, the vast array of chemicals that mushrooms produce have far ranging effects on the human body, from educating the body on how to recognize cancer cells more effectively, to causing death and destruction of the internal organs at a fairly rapid pace. And in between these two extremes, lie complex relationships even on the individual level, with some people being deathly allergic to certain mushrooms for which a vast number of people will pay top dollar for example, such as in the case of the matsutake mushroom(4). What is fascinating about medicinal mushrooms is their relative accessibility, their novel ways of effecting the human immune system and other systems, their effectiveness at relatively accessible doses, and the ease of extracting. With many mushrooms, the whole mushroom is indicated, and small amounts (10 grams [1/3 oz.] dried or 6 oz fresh) is a sufficient amount of material to potentiate the magic in healing. These are doses that are equivalent of a pharmaceutical level, without the pesky side effects. We are indebted to such authors and herbalists as Christopher Hobbs (OR, USA) and Robert Roger (BC, Can), for their tireless work sifting through thousands of works and distilling the modern mushroom materia medica for even easier accessibility. And while there are numerous compounds that have been isolated by various means of extraction, it is the edible, medicinal mushrooms that offer a shiny promise even further, and it is these mushroom that we shall explore herein. For what is a true medicine if not relished and taken into the body with pleasure; beyond the pleasure of the healer or the healing, but the momentary and fleeting pleasure of the senses! Cooking with medicinal mushrooms, a field yet to be fully discovered and explored, holds promise for such an exquisite combination of ancient wisdom and 21st century indulgence. This uniting of esthetic worlds can only bring us closer to uniting our health and well-being with our everyday practices. Lets start with a well known mushroom, and a regular for use in medicinal mushroom stocks and broths. The turkey tail mushroom, Trametes versicolor , which is itself difficult to eat due to its very tough flesh, yields both its medicine and its unique sour, musky flavor to mushroom stocks, rices, and soups. If powdered, the mushroom can be eaten; otherwise, it does not add much to the meal, being so tough to chew. Used in conjunction with more fragrant mushrooms like shiitakes, the turkey tail recedes from notice in any dish, perhaps supplying a lingering bitterness. This mushroom is one of the most widely prescribed medicines for cancer in Japan, because of a special humungous molecule called Polysaccharide K, or PSK. PSK has a molecular weight of approximately 10,000 molecules of water. This heat stable, hot water extractable molecule seems to train the body and its specialized cells, natural killer cells, to be better at recognizing the cancer cells lines in the body, and boost the immune system through various means to help destroy even the most advanced hormone related cancers like prostate and breast cancers. Paul Stamets tells the story of his mother, who with stage 4 breast cancer and three months to live, took the second opinion of a foreward thinking oncologist in Seattle and took PSK containing Turkey Tail capsules in conjunction with her regular pharmaceuticals for 1 year, at which time she had no detectable cancer.(5) Thankfully, the turkey tail mushroom grows almost everywhere dead wood can be found, is easy to recognize, and it is such a stable medicine, that it last a long time on logs and branches, forming massive colonies. In the US, Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine has just been approved by the FDA to begin research on the effectiveness of the whole mushroom in the treatment of cancer and as an adjunct to cancer therapies already in well established. Proving these ‘theories’ is no easy feat, as the mushroom produces many thousands of compounds, which potentially work in tandem to produce its staggering results, and no particularly easy to grasp ‘mechanism of action’(6) as required by the FDA. The take-away from the story of the turkeytail is a parable that describes many mushrooms waiting at the door of medicine right now. This multi-faceted aspect of immuno-modulating mushroom medicine is common among almost all mushrooms that have some medical benefit. Unfortunately for the rigorous west, this medicine does not desire to fit into our definition of medicine. As its own kingdom, Fungi has its own rules, very different from ours. Like the mystical Qi of Chinese medicine, the direct mechanism of action is hard to pin down by the western approach to science. It may be that finally, under the humble guise of the simple sporophor that we call a mushroom, the foundation of isolated sciences in the field of medicine—demanding direct answers to too-simple questions—may deliquesce and melt away under the weight of new holistic data. Let Bastyr’s important study be the start of this process. Our acceptance of these bio-remediating (earth medicine) and clinically medicinal mushrooms represent a great turning point in humankind’s history... if we choose to adopt this wisdom more ancient than our species to our benefit. In Part 2 of our this article, we will explore the individual and specific aspects of many of our beloved mushrooms, their uses and their lore. And, of course, recipes that we have developed to enjoy cooking with medicinal mushrooms. So as we close for this session, here are some recipes Food Is Medicine has developed to utilize and relish your medicinal mushrooms. References Peintner, U; Poder, R; Pumpel, T (1998). “The iceman’s fungi”. Mycological Research 102 (10): 1153–62. doi:10.1017/S095.375.6298006546. Hanson, A. M.; Hodge, K. T.; Porter, L. M. (2003). “Mycophagy among Primates”. Mycologist 17: 6. doi:10.1017/S0269915X0300106X. Blackwell, Meredith; “ Fungi: 1, 2, 3,...5.1 million species?” American Journal of Botany; March 2011 vol. 98; no.3 426-438 Takako Toda, Masao Yamaguchi, Yuko Nakase, et al; “A Case of Anaphylactic Reaction Following Matsutake Mushroom Ingestion: Demonstration of Histamine Release Reaction of Basophils.” Allergy International; doi:10.2332/allergolint.10-CR-0205. Landau, Elizabeth; “The Forbidden Fruit of Medicinal Mushrooms.” CNN; September 2012; http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/02/health/tedmed-mushroom-man http://m.bastyr.edu/news/general-news/2012/11/fda-approves-bastyr-turkey-tail-trial-cancer-patients Isaacson, Andy; Mother Jones Magazine; Nov/Dec 2009. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/11/paul-stamets-mushroom Stamets, Paul; Fungi Perfecti; August 6th, 2012. http://www.fungi.com/blog/items/place-mushrooms-in-sunlight-to-get-your-vitamin-d.html Ware, Kendra. “The Many benefits of Agaricus bisporus Extract.” Weight Loss Studies; January, 2013. burnitnowasap.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-many-benefits-of-agaricus-bisporus.html Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Relishing Medicinal Mushrooms Part III Relishing Medicinal Mushrooms Part II Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

Wild and Creamy Mushroom Soup Adapted by Cecilia Stipes from a soup recipe that she once found in a magazine. by Cecilia Stipes Chanterelle. Photo by Jess Baker-Ballantyne Method Grind the dried porcini in a blender until powdery. (If they are soft, dry them in a 300° oven for about 5 minutes, and then cool before blending to a powder.) Add 1 tbsp butter and the onions to a 4-to 5-quart heavy pot, and cook using moderate heat. Stir occasionally until softened (about 5 minutes). Add fresh mushrooms, the porcini powder, sea salt, tarragon, oregano, and pepper. Continue stirring occasionally until mushrooms are tender (about 5 minutes). Add the remaining 2 tbsp butter and cook, stirring until melted. Sprinkle in flour, stirring constantly until mixture is very thick and golden (about 5 minutes). Whisk in 1 cup chicken broth until mixture is smooth. Add remaining broth in a stream, whisking until liquid is smooth. Bring to a simmer, whisking, then stir in cream and sherry. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Taste, then toast Cecilia! Recipe contributed: February 2008 In addition to being a long-time mushroomer, Cecilia is an expert flyfisher. Objective: Soup Total Time: 45-60 mins Yield: Serves 4 or more Suggested Mushrooms: Chanterelle (Cantharellus californicus, Cantharellus formosus, Cantharellus subalbidus) Porcini (Boletus edulis, Boletus regineus, Boletus rex-veris) Join FFSC or renew your membership to access the rest of this content. Join FFSC Login as an FFSC member to access the rest of this content. Login Ingredients 1/4 oz. dried Boletus edulis or rex veris (porcini) 1 large onion, minced (1 1/4 cups) 3 Tbs. salted butter 1/2 lb. Cantharellus sp. (chanterelle) mushrooms, thinly sliced (3 cups) 1 tsp. sea salt 1/2 tsp. dried tarragon, crumbled 1/2 tsp. dried Mexican oregano, crumbled 1/4 tsp. black pepper 1/4 cup flour 4 cups chicken broth (32 fl. oz) 1/2 cup heavy cream 2 Tbs. medium-dry sherry Chopped scallion greens (for a garnish) Previous Recipe All Recipes Next Recipe

News & Stories / FFSC 37th Annual Fungus Fair Rocked On Friday, January 7, 2011, I’m standing at the back of the stage at the Louden Nelson Center, around 3:00 pm. I’m taking a moment’s breath, and I’m thinking, “What if nobody comes?” Rene Barone • February 1, 2011 Ticket line at the 37th Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith What if, after all this work, nobody shows up for the first Friday the Fungus Fair is open to the public? Well, four hours, 435 patrons and numerous volunteers later, the 37th Fungus Fair was well on its way to success. Saturday and Sunday followed suit with new attendance records set. Thank you one and all for your attendance and volunteer efforts. I am humbled by your enthusiasm in helping us to accomplish our goals of providing mycological education and helping to keep the fun in fungi. Rene Barone Co-chair Fungi Forest at the 37th Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith Debbie Viess at the 37th Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith Kids at the 37th Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith 37th Santa Cruz Fungus Fair talk. Photo by Hugh Smith Volunteers at the 37th Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith FFSC gratefully acknowledges our Fair Co-Chairs, Phil Carpenter and Rene Barone for their many months of hard work and planning. Their tireless and cheerful leadership made this the best Fungus Fair ever. Providing supporting roles were the many members of the Fair Committee and the Group Coordinators. And, those amazing engineers of our new display island—Fred Molner and Ron Bader! And to our Many Many Enthusiastic Volunteers – We Can’t Do It Without You! Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts 40th Fungus Fair: Time lapse of the Island setup A Short History of the Fungus Fair Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

Vellany Pierce FFSC Prime Minister Vellany Pierce is the Prime Minister of the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz. She grew up in Santa Cruz County and, always having had an interest in fungi, is a self taught mushroom cultivator who currently works at Far West Fungi , propagating mushroom spawn from cultures grown in petri dishes. She serves the Fungus Federation as minister of digital media, helps lead local forays, and has taught cultivation classes with the Fungus Federation for many years. Vellany Pierce Upcoming Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Talks Buy Tickets An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Saturday, January 14, 2017 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Room 1 An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Sunday, January 14, 2018 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Room 1 An Introduction into Mushroom Cultivation Friday, January 11, 2019 4:45 PM - 5:45 PM Room 1 An introduction to home cultivation of edible mushrooms Friday, January 10, 2020 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM Room 3 An Introduction into Mushroom Cultivation Sunday, January 12, 2020 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Room 1 Introduction to mushroom cultivation Saturday, January 13, 2024 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Room 1 An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Saturday, January 11, 2025 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Room 1 Getting Started with Cultivation Saturday, January 10, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Room 1 Past Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Talks Getting Started with Cultivation Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Saturday, January 10, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Room 1 An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Saturday, January 11, 2025 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Room 1 Introduction to mushroom cultivation Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Saturday, January 13, 2024 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Room 1 An Introduction into Mushroom Cultivation Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Sunday, January 12, 2020 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Room 1 An introduction to home cultivation of edible mushrooms Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Friday, January 10, 2020 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM Room 3 An Introduction into Mushroom Cultivation Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Friday, January 11, 2019 4:45 PM - 5:45 PM Room 1 An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Sunday, January 14, 2018 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Room 1 An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Saturday, January 14, 2017 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Room 1

News & Stories / Field Reports 2002 Albion I Foray: Species List FFSC members can login to view the species list from the 2002 Winter Foray at Albion. Bill McGuire • January 1, 2003 Hydnellum peckii. © CC-BY-NC by ajbradley (from inaturalist.org, ID 99409043) Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

Agaricus Reflections When I was a boy, my father, sister and I would pick Agaricus cupreobrunneus, campestris, and sometimes bitorquis . We enjoyed them, by themselves, cooked in a little butter, or with other foods. They were a delicious part of early winter. by John Brown Agaricus californicus. © Noah Siegel (from mushroomobserver.org) I still pick them, but not with the enjoyment I had when little. I don’t know that xanthodermus and californicus weren’t then present, but we never agonized over our IDs. If it was growing in grasslands, had pink to brown gills, then it got collected and eaten. Now, every Fall and Winter, I use the below file, and eating them just isn’t the same. Cooking: my small pan likes 0.2 oz butter, mushroom pan should be covered, cooked on low heat until the juices turn blackish, serve lightly salted. Unwelcome Agaricus All of these have thick, pendant to skirt-like partial veils: californicus , praeclaresquamosus , hondensis , xanthodermus . The xanthodermus veil can be thin, and the ample and skirtlike veiled older caps don’t always yellow when margin is rubbed. If sliced in half lengthwise, the base of the stipe will yellow. Welcome Agaricus 1. Thick, flaring veils: bitorquis , bernardii , lilaceps (sometimes flaring). 2. Growth in fields : campestris (veil thin, variable in appearance), bernardii (veil thick but sheathlike), bitorquis (veil thick and often flaring), cupreobrunneus (veil thin, sometimes flaring): almondy smelling types: arvensis (veil thin, skirt-like), osecanus (veil thin, skirt-like). 3. Growth in manured, or enriched soils : bisporus ; subrufescens is almondy. 4. Growth in forests : brown cap breaking into brown scales is subrutilescens (but the more robust lilaceps is also brown and grows with trees and the collection in “recent experiences”, below, would fall here, too, though it had a pendant veil); augustus , perobscurus , silvicola , albolutescens are all almondy. 5. Almond or anise smelling : augustus , perobscurus , albolutescens , silvicola , arvensis , osecanus , subrufescens . 6. Red-stainers : fuscofibrillosus , arorae , lilaceps , bernardii . 7. Small, rarely in sufficient quantity to welcome collection : micromegathus and diminutivus groups. 8. Others fall under the above species. Resource: Agaricus section of Mushrooms Demystified, p. 310 Recent Experiences I spoke with Rick Kerrigan at the NAMA Santa Cruz conference, and later, at SOMA camp. He said that California has more species of Agaricus than have been described. My feeling: If you’re not comfortable with this, you shouldn’t eat Agaricus . A recent find cooked up with a slight taste of both phenol and iodine. I had a few bites of it, decided I didn’t really need to lose the contents of my stomach and tossed the rest out. But the tastes weren’t overpowering, the mushroom, whatever species it was, really wasn’t objectionable. The few mouthfuls I had produced no stomach distress. And when I later asked Rick Kerrigan, he re-affirmed my beliefs toward Agaricus toxicity: he knew of no one with gastric upset where symptoms lasted more than 24 hours. Mushrooms covered: Agaricus albolutescens Agaricus arvensis (horse mushroom) Agaricus augustus (The Prince) Agaricus bisporus (portobello, portabella, baby bella, cremini, crimini, white button) Agaricus californicus (mock meadow mushroom) Agaricus campestris (lawn mushroom, meadow mushroom, field mushroom) Agaricus diminutivus Agaricus hondensis Agaricus perobscurus (the princess) Agaricus xanthodermus (yellow stainer) Previous Description All Featured Fungi Next Description

News & Stories / Field Reports Long Distance Forays, 2000-2001 As your new Long Distance Foray Minister, I have put some thoughts into possibly adding some Forays besides our usual outstanding complement. Horst Kuhlmann • September 1, 2000 Boletus edulis. © gh0stsquirrel (CC-BY-NC) (from inaturalist.org, obs. 325585046) Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Field Reports NAMA Foray Kudos The North American Mycolocigal Association foray held in Scotts Valley in December was a resounding success. Wendy Wells • January 1, 2013 Photo by Hugh Smith The Mission Springs facility worked out wonderfully. The event was sponsored by NAMA under the aegis of ace Santa Cruz organizers Noah Seigel and Christian Schwarz. Their abundant energy, organizational skills and good cheer made for an educational and memorable foray. Thanks also to lead foray mycologist Else Vellinga and the many organizers and presenters who helped make it all possible! The recent rains produced bountiful collections that kept the ID and vouchering process busy all weekend. Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Field Reports Albion II 2003: Foray Recap and Species List Horst told us we had a small crowd. Phil Carpenter told me that I was the only ID person going. Now that was a little alarming... John Brown • April 1, 2003 Amanita novinupta. © Debbie Viess (from mushroomobserver.org) Unlike Phil and Henry, my memory window is pretty small: I like to have the book right in front of me, even for easy species. It sounded like we’d get 20 species ID’d. After Saturday night’s dinner, Richard Lyness asked for a show of hands for first timers. He asked for those attending 4 or more forays. He asked for people who had come from far away. And in asking for these, brought into our focus some interesting perspectives, and really made us more aware of one another. After dinner, I went to the ID table. Pretty soon, Bill White and Bill Moller were there, helping. We were at it for quite a while when I looked up and realized that there was another ID table: Doug Smith and Takeo Hamada. Putting names on all those mushrooms wasn’t impossible after all. Bill White and I were last to leave, about 1:30am. And, except for a few really difficult ones (and the polypores, which I had pointedly ignored), we ID’d everything. Friday night was incredibly warm. It rained most of Saturday while we collected. But ... we’re mushroom hunters. I won’t say we weren’t daunted by the rain, but most of us got thoroughly soaked before going back for the potluck. Dinner was just wonderful, and Sunday morning was sunny and beautiful. FFSC members can login to read more about the event, and for the species list. Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Albion II Foray Species List: January 23-25, 2004 Albion II Foray Species List — January 21-23, 2005 Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

2020 Speaker Schedule Here's a recap of the talks and demos held during the 2020 Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. You can also browse the list of speakers for the Fair, and visit their bios for more info about them. Include room(s): All Room 1 Room 3 Fair days Friday Saturday Sunday A Brief Introduction to the Ascomycetes Dr. Roo Vandegrift, PhD ... ... Friday, January 10, 2020 2:15 PM - 3:15 PM Room 1 Friday An introduction to home cultivation of edible mushrooms Vellany Pierce ... ... Friday, January 10, 2020 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM Room 3 Friday An Introduction To Mushroom Identification Phil Carpenter ... ... Friday, January 10, 2020 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM Room 1 Friday A Survey of Poisonous Mushrooms Henry Young ... ... Friday, January 10, 2020 4:45 PM - 5:45 PM Room 1 Friday Mushrooms for the Table: Myths, Facts, Culture and Cooking. Chef Chad Hyatt ... ... Saturday, January 11, 2020 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Room 1 Saturday Richer Than Gold Dr. Roo Vandegrift, PhD ... ... Fungal biodiversity and conservation in a threatened Andean cloud forest reserve. Saturday, January 11, 2020 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Room 3 Saturday The Most Dangerous Fungi in the World Christian Schwarz ... ... A Mycological Study in Risk Assessment in a world that is rapidly changing. Saturday, January 11, 2020 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Room 3 Saturday Snowbank Lovers and Fire Followers. Thea Chesney ... ... Spring Mushrooms of the Western Sierra. Saturday, January 11, 2020 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Room 1 Saturday Visionary Mushrooms Dr. Christopher Hobbs, Ph.D., L.Ac ... ... An overview of the benefits of psilocybin and of the genus of Psilocybe mushrooms for healing and health. Saturday, January 11, 2020 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Room 3 Saturday Mushrooms of Mexico Alan Rockefeller ... ... Saturday, January 11, 2020 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM Room 1 Saturday The Top Ten Edible and Poisonous Wild Mushrooms Douglas Smith ... ... Saturday, January 11, 2020 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Room 1 Saturday How to Sequence Fungi Alan Rockefeller ... ... How to turn a DNA sequence into useful information and demonstration of how to build a phylogenetic tree. Saturday, January 11, 2020 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM Room 3 Saturday An Introduction into Mushroom Cultivation Vellany Pierce ... ... Sunday, January 12, 2020 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Room 1 Sunday Practical Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms Featuring Reishi Dr. Christopher Hobbs, Ph.D., L.Ac ... ... Learn how to choose, prepare and make your own medicines with the best fungi for optimum health and how to evaluate products… Show More Sunday, January 12, 2020 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Room 3 Sunday The Mushrooms of Los Trancos Open Space Douglas Smith ... ... Sunday, January 12, 2020 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Room 1 Sunday What’s new in the mushrooming world of; taxonomy, ecology and citizen science. Christian Schwarz ... ... Learn about new species of boletes, hallucinogenic cicadas, matsutake taxonomy and discoveries of East coast mushrooms spreading into California. / Neurogenesis from… Show More Sunday, January 12, 2020 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Room 3 Sunday An Introduction into Mushroom Identification (Sunday) Phil Carpenter ... ... Sunday, January 12, 2020 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Room 1 Sunday Xylariales of the Boston Harbor Islands Dr. Roo Vandegrift, PhD ... ... Tea Party Teleomorphs: Dead-Man's Fingers and Allied Fungi of the Boston Harbor Islands. An introduction to Xylariales a very widely distributed a… Show More Sunday, January 12, 2020 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Room 3 Sunday The World's Most Dangerous Fungi Christian Schwarz ... ... Sunday, January 12, 2020 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Room 1 Sunday DNA Workshop Alan Rockefeller ... ... Participants will complete all the steps to generate DNA sequences of the interesting mushroom collections that have been brought into the fair, Sunday, January 12, 2020 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM Room 3 Sunday

Coddled Button Mushrooms Coddling is a hybrid between poaching and steaming, and keeps mushrooms plump, succulent, and infused with flavor. by Maria Reidelbach (NYMS) Agaricus bisporus. © James Chelin (CC-BY-NC) (from inaturalist.org, obs. 131955228) Method Cut the stems off the mushrooms, level with the bottom of the cap (leaving the stub of the stem). Beginning at the edge, peel the mushroom caps* with your fingers. Save and refrigerate the peels and the cut stems. (There should be about 1 cup of trimmings, and you can use them to make other dishes, like Beurre Composé aux Champignons or vegetarian soup stock. ) Put the peeled mushrooms, stubs up, in a nonstick skillet large enough to hold them in a single layer. (Use two skillets if necessary.) Pour the olive oil over the mushrooms and sprinkle with 1 tsp. coarse salt. Create a cartouche** by cutting a piece of baking parchment into a circle that fits inside the skillet, and poke or snip a dime-sized hole in the center of the circle. Lay the parchment directly on the mushrooms. Over a very low flame, heat the mushrooms slowly. Cook 5 minutes. Lift the far edge of the parchment with tongs (to ensure trapped steam releases away from your hands or face), and lay it upside down on a clean plate or cutting board (wet side up). Turn mushrooms onto the other side, then cover again with the parchment and cook 5 minutes. Repeat the process to steam the mushrooms (under the parchment) on each side for 4 to 5 minutes each, for a total cooking time of 18 to 20 minutes. Discard the parchment, remove the mushrooms with a slotted spoon, and place coddled mushrooms on a serving platter. Add vinegar and 12 whole black peppercorns to the remaining juices in the skillet. Cook over medium heat 2 to 3 minutes, then pour the sherry vinegar and peppercorns over the mushrooms.*** Serve at room temperature. * Maria said she also tried tried this recipe with the mushrooms unpeeled. They were both good, but the peeled caps absorbed more juices and were meltingly tender. ** A cartouche rests directly on the food to create a shallow environment that traps steam right at the surface of the mushrooms (rather than allowing vapor to rise to a lid and rain back down into the pan), while gently preventing the mushrooms from floating. This helps the mushrooms poach evenly in the oil. The hole in the middle allows a small, controlled amount of steam to escape, to prevent the liquid from boiling over. Make sure you cut the paper to fit inside the edges of the skillet, so that it won't catch fire from the burner. ** The acidity of the vinegar-infused oil helps to break up the greasy sensation vs. using the oily juices alone, helps the mushrooms absorb flavors, and acts as a short-term preservative. Recipe contributed: March 2011 Coddling works well with young agarics whose caps are still closed (such as cremini, white buttons, or young Prince mushrooms); and mushrooms that can hold their shape, like smaller hedgehog mushrooms. If you try this method with opened mushroom caps, slice them into small, thick pieces first. A version of this recipe was shared by Maria Reidelbach in the New York Mycological Society newsletter and reprinted with permission. Objective: Appetizer Total Time: 45 minutes Yield: 4 to 6 servings Suggested Mushrooms: Hedgehog (Hydnum olympicum, Hydnum repandum , Hydnum umbilicatum, Hydnum washintonianum) Portobello/portabella, champignon, cremini, button (Agaricus bisporus) The Prince (Agaricus augustus) Join FFSC or renew your membership to access the rest of this content. Join FFSC Login as an FFSC member to access the rest of this content. Login Ingredients 1 lb. young (button stage) mushrooms (about 18) ½ cup extra virgin olive oil 2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar (or 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar plus ½ Tbsp. soy sauce) Coarse salt 12 whole black peppercorns Baking parchment Previous Recipe All Recipes Next Recipe