BULLETIN OF THE PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICALSOCIETY
Number 340, March 1998
Electronic Edition is published monthly, September through Juneby the
Puget Sound Mycological Society
Center for Urban Horticulture, Box 354115
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
(206) 522-6031
Agnes A. Sieger, Editor
Dick Sieger, HTML Editor
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
This month is the Annual Meeting and Survivors’ Banquet, tobe held Friday, March 13 (only for members with reservations andguests).
CALENDAR
March 13 Banquet & annual meeting
March 16 Board meeting
March 21 Field trip
March 27 Spore Prints deadline
April 6 Basic ID class (for members who registered)
April 10–12 Field trip
SPRING FIELD TRIPS Mike Lovelady
We urge those of you who are new to PSMS to attend the fieldtrips if you can. Some people stay overnight; some just stay forthe day. Register with the hosts when you arrive, and be sure tostay over for the potluck Saturday afternoon. To participate, bringone dish (hot dish, salad, or dessert) to feed the number ofpersons in your party. PSMS furnishes coffee.
One or more hosts will be at each field trip all day to welcomeour members, give them encouragement, send them out to collectingsites, keep them warm with coffee, and sustain them with cookies.There is also an identifier to identify your finds. Unless thedirections indicate otherwise, new members should try to arrive by9:00 AM, so they can be taken along by an experienced member.
Please bring a basket, knife, wax paper, compass, whistle,water, lunch, and a dish to share if you wish to join the potluck.Wear warm clothes. Include rain gear in your car or pack and wearhiking shoes or boots. Feel free to bring your friends, family, andsociable dog.
The spring field trip season starts with our traditionalhalf-day hunt for Verpa bohemica that introduces beginnersto mushroom hunting. Six weekend trips follow. The completeschedule and directions are in the printed edition of thenewsletter.
FIELD TRIP TIPS Agnes Sieger
For those who joined PSMS at the Annual Exhibit in October, Ithought it might be nice to review some basic mushrooming tipsregarding the upcoming Spring field trips.
Apparel: The Pacific Northwest is wet. Wear warmclothing, preferably in layers, and waterproof shoes or boots andbring your rain gear. The general deer-hunting season starts themiddle of October. The fashionable mushroom-hunting colors areinternational orange, fluorescent pink, and canary yellow. PacificNorthwest vegetation is usually thick, and the sky is frequentlyovercast. Bring a compass and whistle and a map of thearea—and remember to use them.
Mushrooming gear: You will need a wide-bottomed containerfor your mushrooms. This can be a basket or bucket. Do not useplastic sacks; they tend to condense moisture and turn mushroomsinto slime. You will need a sturdy knife suitable for cutting andprying and perhaps a soft brush to clean up the edibles; somepeople even bring a small garden trowel for digging. To protectindividual specimens for identification, take some wax papersandwich bags or aluminum foil.
Collecting: If you know you have a good edible, cut offthe steam cleanly and brush off as much soil and debris aspossible. Store like species in a rigid container where theywon’t get crushed or pick up more dirt. Try to keep themushrooms cool and dry, and process them as soon as possible.
Field trip format: PSMS field trips are planned forSaturdays, since this is the most convenient time for many people.It is possible to come early on Friday and stay over to Sunday. Thecampgrounds, unless otherwise specified, have camping facilities.Almost all field trips have hosts, who set up by 9:00 am onSaturday with hot coffee and snacks. The hosts greet and sign inmembers, relay general tips on what is up and where to find it, andintroduce newcomers to more experienced members. They also have amap of the area. After signing in, participants gather their gearand head for their favorite hunting grounds. In the afternoon, theycome back to the campsite to identify their finds, compare notes,and prepare for the potluck.
Potluck: The potluck starts at 4:00 pm (or sometimeslater when days are longer). You need to bring your own eatingutensils and beverage and a dish to contribute to the table. Thiscan be an appetizer, salad, main dish, or dessert. The food isusually delicious, and it is a great time to swap tales, collectrecipes, and share mushroom information with friends old andnew.
COLLECTING TIPS Dick Sieger
People collect mushrooms for two main reasons, to eat or tostudy—and the best way to collect for one is not the best wayto collect for the other.
Collecting for Identification or Study
If you don’t know what it is, don’t collect all youcan find in the hope that it might turn out to be edible. Collectonly a few specimens, including both young and mature mushrooms ifpossible, and handle them carefully. Ascomycetes (morels, cupfungi, etc.), which are plentiful in the spring, are frequentlyslow to mature, so for those try to include some over-the-hillsamples.
Identifiers need to see whole fruiting bodies in good condition.How do you do that? First, be nice to your prizes. Keep speciesseparate. Handle them gently so you don’t destroy fragilefeatures like scales and rings. Don’t cut the stalk! Discardmost of the debris but leave “roots,” cups, and a fewscraps of whatever the mushroom was attached to. Instead ofgrabbing the stem, spread your finger and thumb and hold themushroom at the bottom of the stalk and on top of the cap. Put itinto a waxed paper sandwich bag, box, or aluminum foil. Do not useplastic; because it is nonporous, it tends to turn mushrooms tomush.
Tree associations may be important, so slip in a sample leaf,cone, or branch from nearby plants. Slide in a note with your name,phone number, collection date, and county where the collection wasmade. That will help the identifier gather information aboutunusual finds.
Finally, don’t expect names for everything. Some mushroomstake hours to name. Others can’t be named at all.
Collecting for the Pot
Collect only mushrooms you can positively identify. Pick onlythose in choice condition and leave those past their prime todistribute spores for next year’s crop. Some people pull upthe whole mushroom; others cut it off at the stem. The limitedstudies to date indicate that neither method is better for themycelium. In either case, cut off the stem cleanly and brush off asmuch soil and debris as possible. Store like species in a rigidcontainer where they won’t get crushed or pick up more dirt.Try to keep the mushrooms cool and dry, and process them as soon aspossible.
BOARD NEWS D.V. Corey
The budget for 1998 proposed by Dan Tanabe was accepted. The Marchboard meeting with new officers will be held on March 16. TheMembership Chair reported 414 paying members; 216 previous membershave not renewed. Owing to a conflict with Husky football, theAnnual Exhibit will be moved to November 6–8. The Flower Showbooth went off well, with over 20 members manning the booth.Preliminary work continues to get a computer for the office.
THE PSMS SURVIVORS’ BARBECUE: NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED D.V. Corey
Courage, Honor, Country—what’s true for the UnitedStates Marine Corps is pretty much true for the 1998 PSMS SurvivorsBarbecue; where we celebrate Courage, because it takes a specialkind of grit to stalk the wild mushroom in its home territory andtake it on mano a mano; where we Honor those who have gone before,blazing the trail in the early years; where we celebrate Country,because gosh darn it, its just the best dang music there is!
Now, I know a lot of you have been thinking about going to aMonster Truck Competition at the Kingdome that night, but sometimesin life we have to decide what is really important. I hope you willdo the right thing and join me on March 13 to celebrate Courage,Honor, Country.
Tickets: $25 till March 6 (only for members and guests). See theprinted edition of the newsletter for details.
1998 NAMA FORAY Agnes Sieger
This year’s annual meeting of the North AmericanMycological Association—the Dr. Harry D. Thiers Foray—washeld at the Asilomar Conference Center on Monterey Peninsula southof San Francisco on February 13–16. After listening to reportsof disastrous California floods for the past week, we flew into theSan Jose airport on Friday anticipating 36 hours of pouring rain.Yes, there was evidence of El Niño everywhere: overflowing,chocolate-brown streams, flooded fields, fallen trees, mud slides,and closed roads. But the weather gods must have smiled at thethought of all those crazy mushroomers. The weekend’s weatheractually ranged from light drizzle to broken clouds to hazy bluesunshine, with one short downpour.
As might have been predicted, foraging was less than ideal.Mushroom hunters slogged through mud and damp, were shuttled to newsites when the roads to planned field trips washed out, and cameback with few (and very soggy) specimens. In all, about 200 specieswere recorded for the weekend, far fewer than would have beenexpected normally.
All this paled, however, compared to the beauty of the site, thecomfort of the housing, and the shear number, variety, andexcellence of the lectures, programs, and workshops. Asilomar(“refuge by the sea”) is a 90 acre State Park located onthe Pacific Ocean in the town of Pacific Grove. Originally built inthe early 1900’s as a YWCA camp, it is a mix of historicbuildings (designed by JuliaMorgan, architect of Hearst Castle) and newer, architecturallycompatible structures. Both the traditional chalets and the newdormitories come complete with maid service, individual showers,and group living rooms with fire places. The dining hall can feed1000 (in two shifts), and there is even a small jitney to transportguests and their luggage to and fro.
Forty-five “presenters” were listed on the program.They ranged from professional mycologists (18) to commercialmushroom pickers to the host of a syndicated television cookingshow and everything in-between. Off-site activities included afive-course luncheon with wines, a tour of a commercial mushroomgrower, and a tasting of regional wines.
Understandably, the foray was sold out, with 450 attendees.Four, including PSMS Education Chair Brandon Matheny, were graduatestudents sponsored by NAMA and eight, including Sharmin Gamiet andMichelle Seidl of the University of Washington, students of Dr.Ammirati, were sponsored by the NAMA ’98 Foray.
Many thanks to our hosts, the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruzand the Mycological Society of San Francisco, for a memorableweekend. Special thanks to Foray Chairs Lee Yamada and Phyllis Colefor their hard work, inspiration, and terrific organization.
BASIC MUSHROOM ID CLASS Brandon Matheny
A Basic Mushroom Identification class will be held on sixconsecutive Monday evenings, 7–9 PM, April 6 through May 11.This class will introduce participants to the identification ofgilled and non-gilled fungi and will include information on thebiology of fungi, collecting and cooking edible mushrooms, andrecognizing toxic look-alikes. Mushrooms Demystified, 2nded., by David Arora, will be the text. Some copies will beavailable for purchase before the first session.
Please note the class will be limited to the first 24registrants (the class will be offered again in the fall). The costis $30. See the printed edition of the newsletter for registrationinformation.
SOME 1997 OREGON MATSUTAKE STATISTICS Mushroomer,Sno. Co. Myco. Soc., Feb. 1998
The 1997 matsutake mushroom season on the Deschutes and Winema NationalForest and in Klamath County officially ended Friday, October 31.It was the best season ever for permit revenues and was marked by anotable lack of violence among the pickers and in the camps.Mushroom prices remained low throughout the season, but the cropwas abundant, possibly the biggest crop since 1989. Here are a fewstatistics.
Season: Opened Sept. 2, closed Oct. 31, 60 days.
Who got Permits: 69% of permits were sold to Californians;16% to Washingtonians; 10% to Oregonians; and 5% toOther-onians.
Biggest Days: The Chemult Ranger District’s biggest daywas Sept. 8, when 237 permits worth $34,080 were sold. The CrescentRanger District’s biggest day was Sept. 11, when 58 permitsworth $4,030 were sold.
Highest Price: $30/lb for #1’s, week of Sept. 1.
Lowest Price: $3/lb (or lower) for #1’s, week of Oct.5.
Value of Confiscated Mushrooms: About $9,500.
Citations issued: 250 (Forest Service only; not all aretallied).
Searches and Rescues: Less than a dozen (30 last year).
Quantity of Mushrooms Sold: 1 to 1.2 million pounds(estimated by Jerry Smith from discussions with buyers).
MUSHROOM ASTROLOGY Bob Lehman, LAMS
Pisces (Feb. 19–Mar. 20): You love the idyllicromanticism of hunting mushrooms. You like mushrooms for being partof the wonder of nature and are little concerned about theirdetails. Your examination of a mushroom is more apt to lead to apoem or a song than a taxonomic description. You don’t havethe physical endurance of other mushroomers and so you don’tend up with as many mushrooms, but it doesn’t matter becauseyou can rhapsodize about one mushroom as well as about ten.Besides, you find plenty of wonderful mushrooms in yourfantasies.
A FUNGUS COMES OF AGE
Behold the mushroom bulging from the ground,
Old maple leaves pressed to its dampened cap,
Across the glade two siblings make no sound
While swelling from the same mycelial mat.
A fragile veil, pulled taut with age, now breaks
Clean childhood with a rip; attracted flies
Explore the cave this ceremony makes
And gently tuck white eggs inside the prize.
Asleep in gills and curled in tender meat,
The larvae swell the sagging, weighted cap
Until the opalescent figures eat
The rotting flesh in which they took their nap.
In truth, the acme of a mushroom’s life
Brings only rot, decay, and maggots rife.
— Sarah Cobey, Mycena News, 1/98
CRUSTY BOLETES Dick Sieger
½” thick slices of Boletus edulis
Milk
Flour seasoned with salt and pepper
Eggs, lightly beaten
Bread crumbs
Chopped hazel nuts
Oil
Mix equal amounts of bread crumbs and chopped hazel nuts. Heat¼” of oil in a frying pan over medium low heat. Put themilk, seasoned flour, beaten eggs, and nut mixture in four separatedishes. Dip the mushroom slices into the milk and then dredge themin the seasoned flour. Using a fork, dip the floured mushroomslices into the egg mixture and then into the nut and bread crumbmixture, coating the slices thickly and completely. Fry on bothsides until the crust is golden brown and the mushrooms are cooked.The crust masks the slippery texture of fresh boletes that somepeople find objectionable.
PORK-CINI Dick Sieger
2 pork loin chops, 1" thick
¼ cup dried porcini (Boletus edulis), broken into pieces
2 slices of sweet apple with core and skin removed
¾ cup chopped onion
Oil, salt, and lots of fresh ground pepper
Lightly brown one side of the pork chops over medium-highheat in a lightly oiled pan. Turn and reduce the heat. Add the drymushrooms, apple, and onion. Cover the pan. Keep the mushroompieces in the bottom of the pan so they rest in the moisture thatforms. Cook for a half hour over low heat. The mushrooms may becomegolden but should not brown. Uncover and turn the chops so they arecolored by the brown pan juices. Continue cooking until themoisture in the pan evaporates. Season the vegetable mixture withsalt and pepper and spread it on the chops.
TRUE OR FALSE?
