Agnes A. Sieger, Editor
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Tuesday, December 12, at 7:30PM , Center for UrbanHorticulture, 3501 N.E. 41 st
Ho Ho Ho! It's that time of year again, time forour annual cookie bash, slide show, and mushroom art contest. Thereis no set program, just come and join us for some holiday cheer.Bring a plate of your favorite cookies, appetizer, fruit &cheese, etc. We'll eat, drink, socialize, and be merry!
People will be showing slides of interesting thingsor places they have been. They may or may not be mushroom related.Please limit your slides to 10.
If you wish to participate, we are having afungi/mushroom art contest. This could be of any medium as long asits theme is mycological: food, clothing, photography, candles,pottery, stationary, watercolor, drawings, jewelry¾use your imagination. Your creations will bejudged and admired (by fellow PSMS members) and prizes will begiven to four winners. Arrive by 7:15 to have your entry numberedand displayed. Questions? Call Marcia Hiltzheimer, (425)637-0631
CALENDAR
Dec. 12 Membership meeting and holiday ``cookiebash,''
7:30 PM,CUH
Dec. 15 Spore Prints deadline
Dec. 18 Board meeting, 7:30 PM , CUH Board Room
Jan. 9 Membership meeting, 7:30
BOARD NEWS Agnes Sieger
Lynn Phillips and Dick Sieger have cleaned out andreorganized the office and storage shed. PSMS made $997 on theannual exhibit this year, in spite of lower attendance, and gained78 new members. The Lake Quinault foray was a great success. NoelStruder has volunteered to keep the PSMS database and would like toinclude information on personal interests. She will generate a listof new members since the annual exhibit as a addendum to the PSMSroster. Membership renewal forms need to go out. Colin Meyerreports that the fall classes were a great success. He plans tooffer beginning and intermediate ID classes and perhaps amicroscopy class in the spring. Ways were discussed to streamlinethe duties of the field trip hosts. We are still in need of agraphics person for the Web site. The deadline for recommendedchanges to the bylaws is the December board meeting. The 200 copiesof Growing Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms, secondedition, donated to PSMS by Paul Stamets will be sold for $10 andthe proceeds used to start a scholarship fund. The Society's old486 laptop will be offered in a silent auction at the Decembermeeting.
QUINAULT FORAY
Well, the Fall 2000 Lake Quinault Foray is behindus now, fading into a fond memory. By all reports, the foray was asuccess! It provided a wonderful mycological experience for allbeginner, intermediate, and advanced PSMS members attending. We hadopportunities to meet great new folks and strengthen existing bondsof friendship. Wayne Elston, again, made each meal a culinaryadventure, where just about everyone had an opportunity to assistand learn in the kitchen. (He also earned a new title: ``Wayne theMagnificent.'') We managed to share two huge trays of ``Elstonlasagna'' and a bit of lovely mushroom soup at the Novembermembership meeting. Dr. Joe Ammirati and Brandon Matheny providedus with excellent evening presentations on local Quinault mushroomspecies and fundamental mycology. They and all the folks whoassisted Sunday, leading field groups and helping withidentification, were our heroes! We were blessed with a visit from(87 years young) ``The Lady of the Lake,'' Irene O'Connor Berg, whohas studied, cherished, and shared the ecology of the Quinault RainForest for the last 50 plus years. She provided copies of her twobooklets on Quinault mushrooms and flora at reduced prices for PSMSmembers. I will have a few copies available at the book sales tableat the December meeting.
So many folks helped before, during, and at theclose of the foray. I couldn't name them all, so I won't try
· Dick Sieger, whosaved the day by hauling the other two-thirds of the food andsupplies for the foray (which would not fit in my wagon) and forpicking up the keys for us at the last minute
· Marilyn Droege,who inspired and advised on our mushroom stamp and leaf printingart project, which all the kids attending (including me) especiallyenjoyed
· John Floberg andLisa Bellefond, who suffered incredible vehicular misfortunes andstill persevered to join us and lead a field group
· Cathy and DonLennebacker, who squeezed the last of the weekend refuse (whichwould not fit in my wagon) into their already loaded vehicle for aride to the dumpster and helped with all the stuff (shutting offthe water and electrical breakers, etc.) that I had no clueabout
· Cliff Hay, whoobtained permission for us to trek into the Quinault reservationand parks and led a field group.
PSMS E-Mail List
More than half of PSMS members have e-mailaddresses. To facilitate communication between members, I havecreated a mailing list. This list can be used to discuss anythingrelated to PSMS or fungi. Announcements regarding meetings andfield trips will also be sent to this list.
Using the list is easy. All communication is donethrough e-mail, using your favorite e-mail program. There areseveral important
e-mail addresses associated with the list:
In order to subscribe to the list, send an email tothis address. Do this first.
To post a message to the list, send it to thisaddress. Your message will be delivered to everyone who issubscribed to the list. Messages distributed from the list willautomatically be marked with [psms-members] in the subject line.You must subscribe to the list before you may post a message toit.
If you'd like to unsubscribe from the list, send ane-mail to this address.
If you have any questions, please e-mail me atcmeyer@helvelia.org or phone (206) 722-6687.
SOME INTERESTING MUSHROOMS FROMTHE LAKE QUINAULT FORAY BrandonMatheny
Approximately 130 different species of agarics andallied fleshy fungi made it to sorting tables at Kamp Kiwanis onthe north side of Lake Quinault at the PSMS fall foray November11- 13. Five field trip leaders ledparticipants to the following sites: (1) Copalis River Preserve(John Floberg); (2) Hunt Creek, Clear-water River (Cliff Hay); (3)Hoh River (Dr. Joe Ammirati); (4) Griffiths-Priday and Ocean Citystate parks (Brandon Matheny); (5) Kamp Kiwanis grounds (MikeLovelady). Attempts were made to collect mushrooms in varioushabitats such as old-growth spruce-hemlock forests, second-growthspruce stands, sandy pine and spruce areas, wet depressions, mixedareas including alder and maple, and roadsides.
Some of the more interesting species collected arelisted below. An asterisk (*) beside a name indicates that voucherspecimens of this species have been placed in the herbarium at theUniversity of Washington.
*Bankerafuligineoalba
*Cortinarius sebaceus group
*Cortinarius valgus group
*Cortinariusvanduzerensis
*Hebelomaolympianum
*Hygrophorus sp.
*Inocybe trechispora ss. Cooke
*Inocybexanthomelas
*Lactarius deliciosus var.
Martelia sp.
*Mucronellafusiformis
Neolentinus kauffmanii
*Rhodocybe sp.?
*Russula sp.
Stereopsis humphreyi
*Stropharia albivelata
*Tricholomamarquettense
*Tricholoma sp.
DUES ARE DUE
PSMS memberships are officially up the end of thismonth, so unless you joined at or after the Annual Exhibit, it'stime to renew. Fill out and send in the enclosed renewal formASAP.
BUY paul's book and support THEPSMS scholarship fund JoanneYoung
PSMS thanks Paul Stamets for his generous donationof 200 copies of his fine book Growing Gourmet & MedicinalMushrooms , second edition. The retail price for this book is$39.95. They will be for sale at the December meeting to PSMSmembers for $10 per copy. Money collected from the sale of thebooks will be used to support the PSMS scholarship fund which wasstarted earlier this year. Some copies are also available free toeducators planning mushroom-related programs for their students.(The third edition of Paul's book will be available soon at fullretail price.)
Web Site seeks artistJoanne Young
Our Web site, www.psms.org, is content rich, up todate, and user friendly thanks to the efforts of Colin Meyer andother dedicated volunteers. What it needs is a person with somegraphics talent to make it more beautiful. If that could be you,please email Colin at cmeyer@helvella.org.
MUSHROOM LOGS Patrice Benson
1/3 C cornstarch 5 egg whites
1/3 C flour 1/2 tsp salt
5 egg yolks 1/3 C granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract Confectioners sugar forsprinkling
Preheat oven to 400
Beat the egg whites and salt, gradually addingsugar un-til they are stiff but moist. Add a little of the whitesto the yolks and blend well. Then add the remaining yolk mixture tothe whites and fold gently while adding the flour mixture. Spreadthe batter evenly over the prepared pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutesor until top is lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into themid-dle comes out clean. Turn out the cake onto a thin towel thathas been sprinkled with powdered sugar sift-ed through a strainer.Peel off the waxed paper and trim away any crisp edges. Roll up thecake, including the towel, from the long side and let it rest aminute. Unroll and let it rest a minute. Then roll it up and let itcool completely. At this point, it may be frozen, towel and all,and then filled and frosted after thawing at a later date.
Chocolate Buttercream Filling and Frosting
(for 2 cakes, I found I needed 3 times thisrecipe)
3 oz (squares) unsweetened chocolate
3 C sifted confectioners sugar
6 Tbs milk
6 Tbs (3/4 stick) butter, softened
Dash of salt
1 Tbs vanilla extract
Melt the chocolate in a small bowl set in a pan ofsimmering water or microwave on 50% power for 2 min or longer.Bring the milk to a boil, then pour it over the sugar in a mixingbowl and beat vigorously until smooth. Add the melted chocolate andbeat well. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, then beat inthe butter, salt, and vanilla. If the frosting is too runny, addmore powdered sugar and beat. Use at once.
Carefully unroll mushroom log cake and spread alayer of frosting on the inside. Then roll up, place seam side downon a sturdy piece of cardboard covered with foil (then you won'thave a plate to fuss with afterward). Cut a 1-in. piece from eachend at an angle and reposi-tion these onto the ``log'' on the sidesor top using some frosting to make them stick. (These should nowlook like branch stumps.) Then frost the whole thing. You mightdrag a fork lengthwise along the frosted log to simulate a barktexture. Finally, sprinkle some pow-dered sugar lightly over it ifdesired to give it that frosted or dusty look.