October Speaker
Mike McCurdy Speaker: Eugenia Bone
Talk Title: " The Kitchen Mycologist: The delicious surprises, the unfortunate flops, the great tips, and the ultimate lessons I learned about cooking mushrooms making the Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook."
Tuesday, October 17th, 2023 at the Randall Museum.
Doors open at 6pm - Hospitality hour and ID of mushroom specimens in the Buckley Room. At 6:50pm everyone moves to the Theater. General meeting and Zoom session start at 7pm.
Join the Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 891 8438 9640
Passcode: 608192
Eugenia Bone is an internationally known food and nature writer. Her work has appeared in many anthologies, magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, The National Lampoon, Saveur, Gourmet, BBC Science, and The Wall Street Journal, where she is a frequent book reviewer.
 She is a member of the American Society of Science Writers and former president of the New York Mycological Society. She is a member of the faculty at the New York Botanical Garden where she teaches classes on mycophagy and psychedelic mushrooms.
She is the author or co-author of eight books on food and nature, including the category staple Mycophilia, and the Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook (December, 2021). She has been nominated for a variety of awards, including the Colorado Book Award and James Beard Award.
Eugenia has been featured on many dozens of radio shows and podcasts, and has lectured widely in diverse venues like The New York Public Library, the Denver Botanical Garden, and the Reuben Museum. She is featured in the documentary directed by Louie Schwartzberg, Fantastic Fungi (2019), and in the Netflix children’s show about food, Waffles + Mochi (the mushroom episode, of course) produced by Michele Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.
She is currently wrapping up a book on psychedelic Psilocybe for Macmillan publishers.
Here is an Amazon link to purchase the book, though it is widely available on other sites. https://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Fungi-Community-Eugenia-Bone/dp/1647222958
President's Message
Natalie Wren Friends,
The mushroom hunting season is off with a bang! Or, maybe it never stopped in the Sierra after the snow melt-not sure which is true :). A few of us got together at the end of September and had a pretty epic porcini hunt up near Donner Pass. We found loads and loads of humongous porcini that were past their prime - some were almost 2 ft tall and had caps 18 inches across. I found one giant that was still fresh that weighed 7 lbs and only had 2 or 3 bug holes. That one by itself filled 8/10 trays in my dehydrator! It was one of those forays where everyone found mushrooms almost right away and everyone went home with plenty. I went back to the same location a few days ago and scored again. Conditions were dry and dusty, but we still found what we were looking for. An excellent reminder to keep patrolling your spots, even if you’ve already harvested from that spot earlier in the season. Our fungal friends just keep on giving :).
We are excited to have resumed in-person meetings at the Randall Museum. The first meeting was a bit of rough start, but it was so great to connect with people in person again. Our hospitality chair person Carol, provided lovely refreshments, including home made candy cap cookies. Brennan brought a porcini pate, too. The id table didn’t have a huge number of specimens, but what was there was cool and it was nice to gather around and look and learn together. Our next meeting will also feature a zoomed in speaker, but it will still be fun to meet new people and old friends while we gather together to share a snack, look at cool fungi, get your fungal finds identified and then enjoy an excellent presentation from our speaker. Hospitality starts at 6:30 out in front of the Randall Museum and our meeting will start at 7:00 in the auditorium. As always, we meet on the 3rd Tuesday of the month (Oct 17th). If you can’t make it in person, please join us on zoom. You can find that link on our website ( mssf.org).
Our fungus fair committee has been hard at work organizing our next fair. The fair will be held at the First Universalist Unitarian Church in San Francisco on December 16, 2023 . We are still looking for volunteers to staff the event. Volunteering will get you into the fair for free and is a great way to meet new people, catch up with old friends and learn more about fungi. Please email me at president@mssf.org if you are interested in volunteering at the fungus fair.
Here’s hoping for a wet winter and lots of time to get out in the forest : ).
Natalie
Culinary Corner
Hanna Docampo Pham Look up what to do if there are worms in your mushrooms and you’ll quickly find tips on how to cut worms out of the stalks, how to properly store fresh porcini, how long mushrooms can be stored in a refrigerator. But also? Those worms are completely harmless.
It’s not just how much porcini you’ve found, but how much of the porcini are buggy? Where’s the line between salvaging buggy porcini and leaving it for the worms? These questions definitely extend to forums. Lately they have been massive amounts of porcini in Mendocino, and it’s trickling into the coast. You’ve probably seen forums flooded with brag photos of porcini hauls, but in the last few weeks there’s also been lots of pictures of uncooked porcini sliced in half or into pieces, as people compare how buggy their porcini is.
For new porcini hunters, it might be appalling to find a seemingly pristine porcini to slice it open and discover it has been infested with maggots. One of the first times I went porcini hunting, when we got back home and cleaned the porcini, we realized some of the porcini had a few maggots. As soon as we saw even one worm, we were so horrified we threw the whole mushroom away. One of the porcini we found didn’t even have worms, but because it had a slightly mature sponge it seemed slightly slimy when we cooked it up, and so we threw that out too.
Are maggots in your mushrooms really a bad thing though? Today, if I found maggots in my porcini, I’d just cut out the bad spots and cook the rest. While I’m not keen on eating maggots, with very buggy porcini I recommend slicing it up and dehydrating it. Most of the maggots will fall out of the porcini onto the bottom of the dehydrator, and from there you can grind the dehydrated mushrooms to create porcini powder. If you don’t care whether your porcini has maggots though, you can always just fry up the buggy porcini as is. Some people couldn’t care less if there were maggots in their porcini and call it extra protein. Some people even see finding maggots in your porcini as a good sign, believing this indicates that the mushrooms are in their prime, as surely maggots love porcini just as much as we do.
If it’s any consolation, according to the FDA the average person already accidentally eats a whole pound of bugs every year. Some of these bugs come from maggots, found in not just mushrooms but canned fruit. There can be anywhere from 1 to 20 maggots per 100 grams of canned fruit for it to be considered meeting health regulations set by the FDA. In fact, the FDA calls maggots, small beetles, larvae, and other bugs, as “non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.” The same health regulations apply to commercially grown canned mushrooms, like buttons and straw mushrooms]; 20 maggots per 100 grams of mushrooms is allowed. Of course, for mushroom hunters who don’t collect mushrooms commercially, the number of maggots they are willing to eat in the mushrooms they find is left to their own discretion.
So, whether you want to eat buggy porcini is completely up to you, although you’re bound to find some buggy porcini eventually! Apart from making porcini powder, if you’re not up to eating buggy porcini or just find a porcini that has more maggots than you’re willing to eat you can also separate the spongy spore tubes. If you’re not sure how to cook with porcini spore tubes, read on. At the last culinary group dinner Natalie Wren cooked up garlic bread using porcini spore tubes, and she shared how to make it for this month’s culinary corner recipe as featured below!
“Ever find yourself with a big, super mature/ripe porcini that is just too buggy to dehydrate or cook? Don’t despair, you can still make delicious food from the spore tubes. These tubes seem to never get buggy like the rest of the cap and stalk and can usually be peeled off in one big donut shape for easy processing. In my opinion, the spore tubes have all the flavor. This works best when the spore tubes are empty-if you hold up the donut of spore tubes to the light, you can see they are all empty. If they’re not all empty, this will still yield something delicious.
After you separate the spore tubes from the rest of the fruiting body (rinse thoroughly in running water to get out any sand or tiny twigs or other forest debris), put into a pan and add enough water to cover. Lightly salt the water…just enough that you can taste the salt a bit. Then, you can either simmer on stove top (requires constant attention-you’ll be scraping of the pan continuously to avoid sticking and burning) or cover tightly and put it in a 350 degree oven. Both methods work well, but the oven lets you get other stuff done (you should open it a couple of times and stir it and scrape down anything sticking to the sides of the pan). The spore tubes and water need about 45 minutes of cooking to get them to the maximum flavor point and best consistency. If you use the oven method, open for the last 15 minutes to evaporate some of the water. If you simmer on stove top, you will need to add a bit of water as it cooks down. The mixture will be somewhat gelatinous and might not look appetizing, but it will smell really, really good. When cool, process in a blender or use an immersion blender to puree to a smooth consistency. At this point, you can either refrigerate or freeze or add to your dehydrator’s fruit roll tray and dehydrate on the lowest setting until fully dry. When fully cold, it will be thicker than jello. This can be used to thicken and flavor soups or sauces, it works great when diluted with a little cream and mixed into mashed potatoes or as the sauce in a potato gratin. Also yummy on hot buttered pasta, or smeared on toast. The fully dried puree (crispy dried) can be pulverized and used on popcorn or any other food that needs a kick of umami.” - Natalie Wren
**********************PORCINI SPORE TUBE GARLIC BREAD*********************
Ingredients:
- Baguette, ciabatta, or any bread you’d like made into garlic bread
- Porcini tube puree
- Fresh garlic
- Fresh or dried thyme
- Your choice of cheese; something that melts well (Trader Joe’s quattro formaggio is a go-to at my house)
- Salt & pepper
- Butter, olive oil; some for saute, some to dress the bread
As a reference for ingredients measurement-to make a whole baguette into garlic bread, you probably need around 1.5 cups of the tube/garlic puree and around ⅓-½ stick of butter or 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil, maybe 4 ounces cheese. The tube/garlic mix freezes well, so if you make too much or you find that you can use less, you’ll have more for later. Enjoy
Saute over low heat in butter or olive oil or a mixture of both: grated or chopped garlic (as much as you enjoy, as chunky or fine as you like) until fragrant. Then add fresh or dried thyme (to your taste).
When you can smell the thyme, add the black pepper and your porcini tube puree and heat to a simmer. Allow to cool slightly, then add salt to your taste.
Split a baguette or other whole loaf length wise and lightly toast in the oven. Remove, allow to cool, then slather with as much or as little butter or olive oil as you like, then smear your porcini/garlic/thyme mixture all over the bread, lightly top with shredded mozzarella or any other cheese you have on hand. Vegan cheese can work well with this, too. You are looking for something that melts well and will taste good with porcini and garlic.
Toast in 350 degree oven until bubbly and the whole house smells delicious. Enjoy!
MSSF Culinary Group November Dinner
Monday, November 6th, 2023 (6:00pm)
Hall of Flowers (County Fair Building)
9th Avenue & Lincoln Way; Golden Gate Park; San Francisco
( Register in the "members only" area of www.mssf.org .)
The MSSF Culinary Group's November 2023 Dinner event will be will be "A Fungal Thanksgiving", main dish a candycap glazed salmon. Head Chef: Heather Lunan.
Bring an appetizer to share. We will dine at the Hall of Flowers (County Fair Building; 9th Avenue & Lincoln Way) in Golden Gate Park. Please arrive between 5:30pm and 5:45pm to help set up tables and chairs.
As usual, BYOB. You will also need to bring your own tablecloth, glassware, place settings, napkins, etc. We will conduct a short business meeting (bring your fun fungal ideas!) at 6pm; potluck follows immediately. Everyone will be asked to help break down and clean up at the end of the evening ...since we need to be out of the building by 9:30 pm.
Covid protocols: In light of SF's current Covid surge, please do not attend this event if you are not feeling well, if you have any cold or flu symptoms, any symptoms of Covid-19, or if you are not fully vaccinated against Covid-19. ( Masking is optional and masks will be provided for those who wish to use them when not actually seated and eating.) Thank you very much for your cooperation!
Registration is required to attend, fee is $20 for members, $25 for guests, and children are half price. Only MSSF members whose dues are current may join the Culinary Group, however...so please make sure your MSSF dues are paid up before registering for this dinner. Questions? Problems registering? Call Paul 415-515-1593 or Maria 415-305-3316 (Culinary Group co-Chairs).
Cultivation Quarters
Ken Litchfield (repost from October 2004) October is the last month of real summer weather mushrooms before the end of daylight savings time kicks in, the short days, rainy weather, and the start of the regular mushroom season. In October around the Bay Area, there are the fog drippers, a group of mushrooms that grow and fruit well in the warm temperature and moisture from irrigation systems or fog drip.
One of the most reliable fog drippers is the brown shingled Shaggy Parasol, also commonly called “rachodes.” It is one of those fungal gems whose taxonomic ramblings have spanned so many genera that it is more reliably known by its common name or just the species. Currently it is Macrolepiota rachodes but soon is due to move to the genus Chlorophyllum. In its native habitat it likes the humus under Monterey cypress and is particularly fond of rotting horse manure or grass clippings, perhaps due to the extra nitrogen. They can be found in Golden Gate Park where mounted park police typically tie up the horses or where the gardeners regularly dump their grass clippings. In the East Bay they can be found around the side of the manure piles where the Oakland Zoo dumps their zoodoo. Make sure that they don’t have an olive green spore print and mature gills or you will have the look alike puker Chlorophyllum molybdites, which prefers grassy areas in the warmer inland valley. Once you find a patch of them it is easy to predict their fruiting. With a little regular moisture they will produce primordial babies with bulbous bases that, with as bit more water, can pop up quickly. When a fog bank is triggered to roll in after a hot day and the eucalyptus and cypress are sifting out the moisture and raining down drops all night, the next morning there will usually be several Shaggy Parasols scattered around or in clumps fully unfurled. Cut the stems, which stain orange-ish, to gather the tops for eating. Then dig around the bulbous bases to gather some of the mycelial mass to transfer with the bases to similar substrate in other parts of the park or your backyard. You can leave them in a plastic bag with substrate for as much as a week before planting out and the mycelium will begin to grow out to coalesce all the bases and substrate. The tops are a very tasty mushroom cooked fresh or, when dried, a jar full smells just like freshly hulled pecans.
The Shaggy Mane or Coprinus comatus is another excellent culinary mushroom that can be found much of the year but is one of the few found this time of the year. They will come up in the thatch of an irrigated lawn and can often be found on Crissy Field. They come up quickly and you usually have to get them in the morning as the heat of the day causes them to melt quickly into a drippy Inky Cap. They can be a foot tall and look like large white shaggy bullets sticking up above the grass. Sliced vertically through the stipe they can be ID’ed firmly by their pure white color and hollow stem with a white thread running down the middle of the hollow. They can be captured similarly to the Shaggy Parasol but seem to have a wider range of substrate likes. They often can be found in a seemingly unlikely place alongside a road erupting out of the barren dirt. But this is an indication that the area was disturbed, putting a layer of soil on top of a layer of organic matter substrate like grass, in effect “casing” it. You can transfer your captured basal mycelium into a dampened straw bale with regular successful fruiting, especially if you cover the infiltrated bale with a thin casing of soil on a thick layer of straw.
Another mushroom-not so easy to capture and transfer-is the Prince or Agaricus augustus. It is a large golden mushroom with thin chocolate brown shags found uniformly all over the cap. It likes sandy humusy soil under Monterey pine where it can get filtered fog for its slow development. It doesn’t pop overnight like other fog drippers but takes a week to 10 days to get from emergence to big meaty mass. It has a very tasty, almost sweet flavor with a rich anise almond aroma when cut. The clump usually erupts from so deep down in the dirt that is difficult to dig down to the level of the mycelial mass to transplant it. Even when captured by sterile techniques it is finicky about fruiting (though Don Simone has gotten it to produce out of a teacup of substrate).
Two other summertime wild mushrooms that have adapted well to human activity are Clathrus ruber and C. archeri, the Lattice Stinkhorn, (or Stinky Red Whiffle Ball,) and the Octopus Stinkhorn. Their favorite habitat is garden pathways strewn with tree trimmer’s wood chips, composed in the Bay area of Monterey cypress, Monterey pine, and eucalyptus. They are so easy to grow. You can often see them in dozens of eggs waiting for the next watering of the garden to crack open. The mycelium will be so infiltrated through the wood chips that you can lift a layer out and transfer it to newly chipped areas.
If you have never tried eating these, boy, are you in for a treat. Well, of course not when they’re mature. No, that’s when they attract flies to spread their spores. And so they smell like rotten meat, not the most palatable of dishes. But, you don’t eat past prime porcini, now do you? You like the firm, nubile flesh of a young tight piggy, not the blobby, maggoty mounds of rotten pork that you can find in the woods by their odor. Same with the Stinkhorns. Get ‘em in the egg stage, hummingbird to goose egg size, uncracked, firm and plump. You can easily get several dozen in clutches by free foraging. The “shell” is a leathery coat like a reptile egg or the dura mater of a monkey’s brain. Inside are the convolutions of the lattice or arms to be, just like the convolutions of the monkey’s cerebral cortex. In fact, slicing up the Clathrus eggs is just like slicing up monkey’s brains, but without the screeching. Between the grayish white convolutions in the slices you will see a kind of clear gooey gel that holds everything in the slice together. The slices can be cooked immediately or put into plastic ziplocks and frozen for later. Even at full smelly maturity the chemical constituents only simulate rotting flesh; there is nothing poisonous about them. They’re only pukers by smell, not by eating. And in the uncracked state they smell quite fine. Just don’t leave them laying around with warm temperatures in an enclosed area. Refrigeration will keep them for several days.
Cover the pan of a skillet with a layer of olive oil and heat it until water droplets sputter when finger flicked into the oil. Slide the slices from several eggs into the skillet and almost instantly the white convolutions will turn red, then cook them until the slime coagulates or disappears. They can be eaten while soft when the texture is like cheese or hard boiled eggs or cooked longer until crispy like bacon. They make a very good BLT, substituting the B with crispy vegetarian Clathrus bacon. Clathrus is a strong flavored mushroom with a flavor like a strong cheese. Some people are put off by the thought of eating Clathrus eggs, but only due to social aversion.
MSSF's 51st Annual Fungus Fair
Maria Pham 
MSSF 51st Annual Fungus Fair
Save the Date! Saturday, December 16, 2023
Location:
First Unitarian Universalist Church & Center 1187 Franklin Street, San Francisco
The December 2023 MSSF 51st Fungus Fair will display fungi collected in various California locations.
Fun mushroom activities, lectures and workshops for people of all ages. This years speakers David Arora, Alan Rockefeller, Christian Schwarz, Roberto Flores Arzu, Elsa Vellinga, Cat Adams and Dr. Kathryn Meier. Workshops by Christian Schwarz, JR Blair, Jack Laws, Eleana Hsu and Wilder Herbertson.
Check the mssf Fungus Fair Page for fungus fair info
Tickets on sale at Eventbrite
[Artwork by Maya Pham]
MSSF Mendocino Woodlands Camp
David Gardella A Few Spaces Remaining for….
MSSF MENDOCINO WOODLANDS CAMP
“A Return to Food - Forays - Fun”
November 10-12, 2023
Deep in the Mendocino Woodlands, MSSF members, friends, and family, gather once again for our annual north coast fungal rite of autumn. This weekend-long spectacular mycological event includes great mushroom themed dinners, guided forays, fun informative presentations, and plenty of mushrooms!
Thanks to all the attendees who signed up for Mendo Camp during the first week of registration! We still have a few spots remaining. If you know of anyone that may still be interested in signing up, tell them to do so soon. Please still use this Mendo Camp Registration Link to sign up for camp.
Friday evening presenter will be: Stephanie Jarvis
Saturday evening presenter will be: Maria Morrow
Additional mushroom workshops and talks by Elissa Callen, Stephanie Manara, Gayle Still, and Else Vellinga, Mendo Camp Mycologist.
2023 Mendo Camp Foray Leaders & Co-Leaders:
Norm Andersen, JR Blair, Jenna Hinshaw, Stephanie Jarvis, Ken Litchfield, Stephanie Manara, Maria Morrow, Pascal Pelous, Maria Pham, Enrique Sanchez, Brennan Wenck
All on-site meals and lodging (Friday night through Sunday lunch) are included in the basic $325 dollar per person member rate. To become a MSSF member, go to: http://www.mssf.org/membership/join.html
Please leave enough time (10-14 business days*) to apply for your Jackson Demonstration State Forest Mushroom Permit! Permits are issued by mail only! Here’s the link to the mail in application form on the JDSF Cal Fire Website: JDSF Mushroom Picking Permit - JDSF Mushroom Picking Permit
*The JDSF Calfire office has stated that if you are short on time, sending the application USPS Priority Mail with a Priority Mail return envelope will help cut down on the permit processing time.
CANCELATION/REFUND POLICY: A $20 processing fee will be applied to any cancellation requests made prior to Friday 11/3/23. Any cancellation requests made after 12:00am Friday 11/3 will receive a refund of 50% of the ticket price. The lesser refund amount available for cancellations made within one week of camp due to the fact that exact attendee numbers for our catering reservations and Woodlands fees leading up to camp will need to be confirmed at that point.
For more information about Mendo Camp, please visit in the Mendo Camp Info Page on the MSSF website or the Groups.io Mendo Camp Foray page
For registration questions, please e-mail Stephanie Wright at: mendoregistrar@mssf.org or call (510)-388-5009. For general camp questions, please email David Gardella at: mendodirector@mssf.org or call (602)-617-0150. The above e-mail addresses can also be used if you need help with the online reservation process.
IMPORTANT NOTES: We are at our usual location in Camp #1 this year. Anyone who would like to bring a camper or RV instead of utilizing a cabin is welcome to do so. (Please tell us if you would like to bring a camper or sleep in a vehicle instead of a cabin when you register for camp). The cabins are rustic but have fireplaces and limited wood is available. We suggest you bring a couple of presto logs if you plan to make a fire in your cabin, (much less smoke and much easier). You can also bring fire starters which help greatly in getting fires started. As we want to limit fire usage in the cabins this year, we encourage all campers to enjoy the group fires with your camping friends in the dining halls and dance hall after dinner and until you return to your cabin at bedtime. If you would like an alcoholic beverage with your dinners on Friday or Saturday night it will be BYOB. Also, please note that it is very important that every camper bring a flashlight to safely get back and forth to the cabins after dark. A complete list of what to bring, and directions to the camp will be sent to registered attendees at the end of October.
Additional information about the Mendocino Woodlands Camp can be found at: www.MendocinoWoodlands.org (FAQS, MAPS & DIRECTIONS).
Pics from a trip to Croatia and Italy
Mickey Zeif The mushroom journey begins...
St. Mark's Church under repairs after earthquake, Zagreb
Those Italians thinking about mushrooms - in Vicenza and Padua
Mushrooms found in Venice markets foraged well north
(Porcini, Chanterells, Yellow Foot)
 
Freshly foraged Porcini at a rest stop in the middle of Northern Croatia
Zigante Truffle Fair outside Motovun - white truffle land
Black Truffles
White Truffles
Black and white truffle pastas
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