Who We Are
We are a club made up of a diverse group of people. We have members who work in the sciences, members who work in the arts and members who do everything in between. Some of our members wear a white shirt to work and some wear blue – most of us actually wear mostly earth tones. Personality testing would probably put most of us on the introverted side of the scale but we have extroverts too – you’ll get to know them right away. A glance at the parking lot during one of our summer meetings will likely reveal at least one kayak or canoe strapped to a roof rack. Some of us sometimes get sidetracked at meetings and tell fishing or hunting stories. Most of us get great satisfaction from our ability to go into the wilds and find… food. Some of our members are extremely knowledgeable about mushrooms and can pull their scientific names and identifying features from memory. Others of us are still trying to figure out how to use our guidebooks. We often disagree about politics and religion and many other things but we are united in our love of the outdoors, our curiosity about the natural world, and our particular fascination with most things fungal.
What We Do
The club typically meets once a month from February through November. The very early and very late meetings are usually held indoors and involve a program of some sort and, usually, food. In March we usually hold a members only mushroom cultivation workshop. The majority of our meetings are held outdoors (mostly at state parks) where we organize into groups to look for mushrooms. These mushroom walks usually last anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. At the conclusion of the walk we meet back at our starting place to work on identifying what we have found. Our more knowledgeable members talk about the identifying features of the mushrooms that they know and when they are stumped the guidebooks are consulted. Beginning and intermediate level mushroom enthusiasts can learn a lot during these ID sessions. Books are great learning tools but nothing is as good as seeing, touching, and smelling the actual mushroom and getting an accurate identification from an expert in the field.
In July or August the club holds the Bill Russell Foray, which is a three day event consisting of camping, mushroom hunting and identification, expert speakers, good food, lots of fun, and great camaraderie around the campfire.
We welcome visitors to our regular walks. If any of the information above sounds intriguing we urge you to come out to a walk. If you enjoy the group and the activity… join the club.