Elizabeth Simonson

We hosted another super successful MSSF Quick Start Foray on Sat April 27th in Golden Gate Park with a good turnout of over 30 people including some newly minted MSSF members at their inaugural event! Several club members turned out to lend support, thank you Paul Lufkin, Maria Pham, and Mickey Zeif. James McConchie and I lead the group through a rather challenging (due to the dry conditions) but educational and entertaining foray. While I know a few attendees were disappointed that we wouldn’t find morels in GGPark (me too!) we did manage to find a nice variety of mushroom types, conchs, turkey tail, inky caps, dried up Agaricus, and the ever-present stinkhorn, in all stages. I also brought some Shaggy parasols taken from a nearby spot in the park the night before to showcase our reliable edible this time of year. Overall it was a great experience, and it was wonderful to see the enthusiastic turnout from the community. Many people were also interested in learning more about foraged edible and medicinal plants in GGPark so it might be nice to involve a member or two in the future with more of that expertise. Also, many attendees were curious and eager to participate in future MSSF events so yay! for that! I look forward to the return of the Quick Starts after the summer hiatus and especially look forward to the return of more of our fruiting fungal friends in the fall!

Elizabeth Simonson
Volunteer Chair