News & Stories / Field Reports A Fruitful Fungal Foray One Sunday afternoon, after an unproductive morning searching all the right spots for mushrooms that weren’t there, I happened to stop... Richard Lyness • January 2, 2010 Rack of Lamb with Hen of the Woods. Photo by Richard Lyness Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Mushroom Soup Tip – Fried Dried Mushrooms Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Field Reports Albion I 2009 – A Great Time for All The Albion I foray was attended by 48 wonderful folks, including a first-time contingent of about ten from Russia. This great group of people really know how to work with mushrooms that we tend to kick instead of pick. Richard Rammer • January 2, 2010 Phil with a rare Plungeratus carpenteria verde from Albion. Photo by Lynn Williams Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Albion I, 2010 – A Great Time for All Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Writings Stories from the April 1, 2010 Issue of Duff Jim Maley found this awesome Craterellus Cubano on a recent foray to Havana... Rick & Ella Schwartzi • April 2, 2010 Jim Maley with a Craterellus Cubano Scientists Discover No Two Mushrooms Alike In a development that has thrown mushroom identification into a virtual tizzy, professional mycologists have discovered through a multilocus phylogenetic overview that the clades they’ve been accepting as fact are quite suspect. “We found that we were using such a small section of the DNA, we missed a lot of stuff ”, says Dr. Harry Lincough. An overview of the phylogeny of a six-gene region supermatrix reveals that two mushrooms growing side by side can look quite different. Bayesian analyses of 5611 nucleotide characters of ribosomal RNA genes recovered six major clades, which are all recognized informally and labeled as Cantharellus cascadensis . “Sometimes it’s chrome yellow; sometimes it’s lemon yellow,” says mushroom expert I. Buyzalot. “ Cantharellus cascadensis is genetically very similar to Cantharellus subalbidus . When Cantharellus cascadensis is completely covered with duff, it is all white. Who can tell them apart, really, when acidification is a possible cause of fading?” adds Buyzalot. This debate will go on for some time, experts in the field have boldly predicted. “We don’t know for sure if they’re hybridizing or cross-breeding, but we can’t tell one from another,” says Dr. Lincough. “There is no happy ending.” Next month : Care and breeding of Cornish game hens. Fungus Federation Opens New Office Thanks to a generous grant from the FourOne Foundation, FFSC has opened an office in the Costco Santa Cruz. “We’re here every day anyway, buying supplies for some club event, so why not just make it an official place for Fungus Federators to come visit while we’re shopping,” says Debbie Johnson. Dried wild mushrooms, $10 per bag, benefits the FFSC In addition to a great way to recruit new members, the FFSC office has other benefits. “We can sell mushrooms that people collect on commission, and 10% of sales benefit the club treasury,” says Minister of Stores Toni Gillespie. “We’ve even started a line of dried mushrooms, which is quite popular.” According to CEO Bob Sellers, staffing is no problem since there’s almost always an FFSC member in Costco. “The new office has been very successful,” says Sellers. “Come see us soon.” Get Certified in Mushroom ID Groceries and farmers markets all over California are gearing up for a new program to have staff-certified mushroom identifiers on site beginning in 2011. No more messy poisonings: trained identifiers will be available to give a thumbs up or finger down the throat for novice mushroom collectors everywhere. Learn the difference between “Edibles,” the “Lose your lunch bunch” and “Call 911 NOW” types of fungi. Promotional ad for this venerable program Looflirpa College is offering Master Identifier certificate classes starting in June. Their knowledgeable, high-powered instructors, Dr. Henry Gnuoy and Dr. Philip Retneprac, have years of experience in this exacting yet profitable field. To take advantage of this exciting opportunity, sign up today and get a jump start on your next career! No prior training required. Looflirpa College is an equal opportunity institution. We’re an accredited university offering on-campus and online college degree programs. Visit us at www.looflirpa.edu. New Species from Lockheed Fire Area These pics just in from the Lockheed Fire Area. This new species is being named Californicus gigantorel . Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Stories from the April 1, 2011 Issue of Duff Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Take a Closer Look at your Black Trumpets Phil Carpenter brought me a bag of Craterellus calicornucopioides the other day. He’s a really nice, thoughful guy, isn’t he? Deb • March 2, 2010 Craterellus calicornucopioides. © Alan Rockefeller (from mushroomobserver.org) But that’s not all. He placed a lovely little bouquet of Craterellus atrocinereus on top. They’re similar, but not identical. The C. atrocinereus have a veiny underside, like our Golden Chanterelles, whereas the C. calicornucopioides have a smoother hymenium. Check it out in these pictures and keep an eye open for them in the woods. I’ve found them occasionally in the past, and they always get lost in my basket with the dominant species. My comparison: they taste basically the same, but the C. atrocinereus have a slightly softer and more luscious texture. See what you think. Bon appétit! Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Field Reports Account of Todd Spanier's 15th Annual Winter Chef's Foray Hugh and Sandi Smith were the proud FFSC Fungus Fair Raffle winners for the 15th Annual Winter Chef ’s Foray led by Todd Spanier of King of Mushrooms. Hugh provided the following vignette of their weekend. Hugh Smith • April 2, 2010 Coastal Redwood. Photo by Hugh Smith Wow, was that the 15th Annual Winter Chef ’s Foray? I can’t imagine what the other 14 were like! This was the first one I attended though, so I wish I hadn’t missed the others. I hadn’t heard of it before, but Todd Spanier puts on this annual event ... every year. Three Januarys ago, Sandi and I entered the raffle at the FFSC 34th Fungus Fair. Todd had been more than generous to offer such a weekend of Hunting, Wining and Dining in the Anderson Valley. Pretty generous, Todd. All of us (you and me) are very busy of course, and Sandi and I weren’t able to collect on our prize until now. It was certainly worth the wait. We arrived at the Screaming Lizard Ranch (a private property) to meet up with everyone at the house where we would be staying. Sandi and I took the cabin away from the main house. There are Redwood, Oak, Fir, Pine, and many other types of trees on the 40 acres. Our bathroom was inside, but our shower was outside. Imagine me, in my outside shower, with hot running water, in the woods, naked ... OK, don’t. Hungry? We picked greens from the back yard for our salad. But the first thing I did when we arrived was to get out of the car and start the hunt. There is always something to find at this time of year. Lots of things! Exciting things! Gyromitra esculenta , Ganoderma applanatum , Craterellus cinereus , Phlogiotus helvelloides , Helvella compressa , and far too many other mushrooms to name here. Y’know, really great stuff. There were also Cantharellus californicus , Craterellus cornucopioides , Spring Coccora , Hydnum umbilicatum ... the usual. We went to the Yorkville Winery, Todd showed us a place where Oak Trees have been inoculated and French truffles are being propagated, and there’s a grove of virgin Coastal Redwoods (Hendy Woods). But the real treat came Saturday night. After a day of hunting, wine tasting, sack lunches and sunshine, we picked some more of our salad in the yard, had a campfire, and had some of the most awesome dishes created for us that I have ever tasted. Although Todd is a great chef in his own right (he was the head chef Friday night), he invited a man named Marc Vogel for Saturday night. Marc, I had no idea mushrooms could taste that good. I don’t really like mushrooms, y’know. I’d usually rather trade them for Chicken. It’s about the hunt, y’know? The discovery! But with cooking like that, I’m rethinking if I know what I have talked myself into, or out of. Could mushrooms really taste this great? That was a terrific weekend, Todd. Thank you very much! Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Mushroom Soup Tip – Fried Dried Mushrooms Here is an idea that I recently came up with based on something I got from the Italian American Heritage Foundation of San Jose during a recent talk. Jim Maley • November 1, 2010 Craterellus tubaeformis. © Alan Rockefeller (from mushroomobserver.org) The Italians fry dried peppers in olive oil and garnish with kosher or sea salt. I have done this with fresh peppers, but never dried. Anyway, I experimented with throwing dried mushrooms in the mix and it worked great! Recently I served Chanterelle Soup from a recent trip to Oregon and garnished with fried dry mushrooms (instead of croutons). I tried dried Craterellus and Winter Chanterelles (Yellowfoot) and both worked very well. Since the mushrooms were not reconstituted in water, there was a little grit from the horns, so I have decided that dried Winter Chanterelles are best for this as they are a bit cleaner. Just a few minutes in the hot olive oil until they puff up a bit is enough. Any way, try putting a little crunch in your soup with this idea. I certainly will do this again and have a large amount of dried Yellowfoot and expect to get more in January. Enjoy! --Jim Maley Note: Visit our Recipes page for more ideas! Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / New Illustrator in the FFSC Fold – Angela Mele You’ll find a number of beautifully rendered illustrations in the Duff. They’re the work of Angela Mele, evidence of her love for all things fungal. Get acquainted with her below. Melanie Leuca • May 1, 2010 Identifying Agrocybe praecox. Illustration by Angela Mele After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Florida State University, I wasn’t sure what to do next. That’s when I found mushrooms — chanterelles, to be exact! In the summer they covered the hills in the woods near my house. As I flipped through pages of beautiful illustrations in my mom’s 1987 Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms, I not only determined that I was sitting on a pile of gold, I also fell in love with fungi and realized I wanted to paint them for a living. With no fungus club in Tallahassee I had only banana spiders to contend with as I filled basket upon basket with beautiful orange mushrooms. Two years later, I’m finishing up a degree in Science Illustration at CSU Monterey Bay. In the program we learn how to create informative, accurate, and beautiful illustrations. My dream is to work with mycologists to create a field guide to mushrooms. Illustrations by me and my classmates can be seen in the exhibit Illustrating Nature at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History until June 5, 2010. Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Cam Cam by Taylor Lockwood Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Fungus Fair Raffle sends FFSC Member to Todd Spanier Weekend One of the highlights of the Fungus Fair is our Raffle with many awesome items raffled off during the two day event. Rene Barone • February 1, 2011 Our new poster series, a cooperative effort by Erin Page Blanchard, Christian Schwarz, Noah Siegel, and Marje Young. Photo by Hugh Smith This years raffle included many generous donors (listed below). The Grand Prize was a trip to Todd Spanier’s Anderson Valley Culinary Weekend – won this year by FFSC Member Austin Stowell. A special thank-you also to Monterey Mushrooms for their generous donation of mushrooms utilized during the cooking demonstrations. Raffle Donors Carpenter’s Custom Cutlery FUNGI Magazine Gelato Massimo India Joze JustMushroomStuff.Com King of Mushrooms La Posta Restaurant Light Energy Glass Lucy Martin Art Angela Mele Ma Maison Restaurant Fred Molnar Shea Moss Monterey Mushrooms Jeannine Niehaus Oswald Restaurant Brian & Ruth Salisbury Nate & Erika Seagraves Gale Lee Still The True Olive Connection Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Stories from the April 1, 2011 Issue of Duff FFSC Members who foraged far fetched a number of fun stories for the April 2011 issue of Duff ... Wendy Wells • April 1, 2011 The constellation Mycelius Kepler Telescope Finds More Than New Planets in Distant Space For a year and a half now, NASA’s Kepler space telescope has been staring at a group of about 146,000 stars located near the constellation Mycelius. In all that time, month in and month out, Kepler’s digital eyes have barely blinked. But some of the stars have. NASA believes this is due to solar winds carrying clouds of mushroom spores through space. And that’s exactly what Kepler was designed to see. During one of these close up sessions near the Amyloidia Galaxy, scientists were startled to see a fairy ring galaxy, perhaps the source of the clouds of mushroom spores. --Submitted by David Rust Rare and Exotic Mushrooms Found in Scotts Valley Many people were awed by the presence of rare and beautiful mushrooms in the Cacaoaceae family at the Scotts Valley Community Center on Saturday, 19 March 2011. Of all colors and shapes, these exotic mushrooms evoked many “ooooohs” and “aaaaahs” from the gala revelers assembled that evening. Especially memorable were big and beautiful specimens of Theobrominus chinsonensis and Caffinocybe molnarii . Edibility of these rare species was confirmed by the ravenous crowd, seemingly unconcerned with the possibility of confusion with poisonous species. Finding these fabulous fungi was a favorably fitting finale for a fun-filled fête of feasting and frolicking. --Submitted by Phil Carpenter, FFSC CEO and Science Advisor Button Mushrooms Found Growing in Trees In a rare moment for science, these Agaricus bisporus were found on a new host in an Oakland back yard. They are not believed to be parasitic. This remarkable discovery implies that common button mushrooms may be evolving to meet market demand for America’s salads. These mushrooms were sautéed with onions and chicken for a delightful dinner. The excited tree owners are looking forward to the next crop. --Submitted by David Rust Giant Snow Morels Found Near Pioneer The first Giant Snow Morels of the season were found near Pioneer on the Spring Equinox. You can clearly see them in the photo... --Submitted by Bill McGuire Brandi Discovers ‘Shrooms: A UCSC Student Adventure Follow Brandi’s spellbinding journey of mycological enlightenment on the BAMS website . Our sincere thanks to David Rust, who never fails to make us smile. We wait with bated breath for Part 2! Will Hugh Ever Find Himself? Hugh Smith Looking for Hugh Smith. Photo by Hugh Smith --Submitted by Hugh Smith Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article

News & Stories / Field Reports Field Report on January 2015 Local Foray We had a great foray last Saturday on our foray! A big thanks to the all the great folks who participated! Cass Fuentes • January 5, 2015 Craterellus cornucopioides (from another foray). Photo by Hugh Smith Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts 2015 January Local Foray Wrap Up 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 collection; 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 Mushrooms of Russia and Finland Thanks to the Deweys for sharing details of their recent trip! Tony Dewey • December 1, 2012 Matryoshka Doll on a Mushroom. Photo by the Deweys Members Only Content Login Join FFSC Related Posts Previous Article All News & Stories Next Article