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NYMSNew York Mycological Society Newsletter Fall 2015

As your new editor, it gives me great satisfaction to write this, my frst newsletter introduc- tion. In fact, this newsletter represents a great many frsts. Most importantly, we are republishing the frst newsletter ever distributed by the New York Mycological Society, with comments by Gary Lincof. Also, you’ll fnd below, a photo, descrip- tion and recipe for a I recently cooked for the frst time. There are several members who are contributing to the newsletter for the frst time, including Ethan Crenson writing about his frst trip to the Sam Ristich New England Mycological Federation Foray. It’s been an exciting late summer/early fall

season with a great climax of many edibles and interesting fnds. Not to Stalked Bolete Cort, Yellow Violet Viscid by Jacqui Wong ©Watercolor mention our upcoming mushroom book auction! Thank you to all of our readers, and a special thank you to those of you who have contributed to this issue. Keep your submissions coming! Juniper Perlis, Editor NYMS Newsletter Upcoming Book Auction Remember! By Dennis Aita Stay responsibly in touch with us. If your telephone number, mailing The New York Mycological Society will be having a mushroom book auction or email address changes, please on Saturday, December 5. It will be held at the New York Horticultural Society, contact Paul Sadowski, Secretary 148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor, NYC. We’ll start at 1pm with a social hour with your new information. On your including wine and cheese and an opportunity to look at the books, followed membership form, please consider by the auction starting at 1:45 pm. There is free street parking on the side going paperless when it comes to streets and the main avenues on Saturday afternoon. receiving these newsletters. Newslet- We now have close to 250 books that current members have ters sent via email (PDF fle format) donated as well as from the collections of deceased members. Books on fungi are in color, have live web links, for everyone and at various price levels: feld guides, cookbooks, monographs, help us contain costs, and use NYMS Newsletter books on cultivation, cofee table books, foreign language books, textbooks, fewer natural resources! some old books from the beginning of the last century, and more. Gary Lincof Editor—Juniper Perlis will be the auctioneer. Anyone who was at our last book auction back in 2001, NYMS walks policy: We meet when Copy editor—Paul Sadowski Design—Laurie Murphy when we raised a substantial amount of money for the club, knows what a public transportation arrives. Check A quarterly publication of the fun event it was, and with Gary as auctioneer, oh so interesting! the walks schedule for other trans- New York Mycological Society, The list of books will be posted on our website, alphabetically by author and portation notes. Walks last 5-6 hours distributed to its members. in categories. and are of moderate difculty except President—Eugenia Bone where noted. Bring your lunch, water, Vice President—Dennis Aita We don’t need any more books but we will need some volunteers to help knife, a whistle (in case you get lost or Secretary—Paul Sadowski out with the auction. If you would like to help out please contact Dennis Aita @ injured), and a basket for mushrooms. Treasurer—Kay Spurlock 212-962-6908 or HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]” Please let a walk leader know if you Walks Coordinator—Dennis Aita [email protected]. are going to leave early. Lecture Coordinator—Gary Lincof

©Watercolor by Jacqui Wong Viscid Violet Cort, Yellow Stalked Bolete Cort, Yellow Violet Viscid by Jacqui Wong ©Watercolor Study Group—Paul Sadowski Leaders have discretion to cancel Archivist—Ralph Cox walks in case of rain or very dry www.newyorkmyc.org I am taking the opportunity of this newsletter edition, to make a special conditions. Be sure to check your Articles should be sent to: thank you to John Ryan, who developed a beautiful template for our email or contact the walk leader Juniper Perlis emails and announcements. Thank you John!! before a walk to see if it has been CONTENTS 713 Classon Ave, Apt 505 canceled for some reason. Brooklyn, NY 11238 Nonmembers’ attendance is $5 for [email protected] an individual and $10 for a family. 4. Events Held by the NYMS in 347.743.9452 2015 Which You May Regret Membership inquiries: We ask that members refrain from Kay Spurlock—Treasurer- visiting walk sites two weeks prior Having Not Attended New York Mycological Society to the walk. P.O. Box 1162 Stuyvesant Sta. New York, NY 10009 Warning: Many mushrooms are toxic. 5. NYMS First Newsletter, 1977 [email protected] Neither the Society nor individual Address corrections: members are responsible for the iden- 8. Stewed Mushrooms Paul Sadowski tifcation or edibility of any . 205 E. 94 St., #9 New York, NY 10128-3780 [email protected] 10. NEMF All statements and opinions written in this newsletter belong solely to the individual author and in no way represent or refect the opinions or policies of the New York Mycological Society. To receive this publica- tion electronically contact Paul Sadowski at: UPCOMING EVENTS [email protected] Archive copies of the newsletter are available in the Downloads section of our website. Saturday, Dec. 5th Submissions for the next issue of the NYMS newsletter must reach the editor 2015 Book Auction by December 15, 2015. Various formats are acceptable for manuscripts. Address questions to Juniper Perlis, editor. See above for addresses. ©Cover Illustration by Jacqui Wong king Oyster and Shitake 2 3 ©2015 Photo by Jacqui Wong Aaron inspecting an Amanita. Aaron ©2015 Photo by Jacqui Wong Harriman State Park August 8th, 2015 ©Laurie Murphy The Sraying of Chemicals Events Held by the NYMS in NYMS First Newsletter, in New York City Parks 1977 By Claudine Michaud 2015 Which You May Regret By Gary Lincof The information is not easy to come Back in March, 1977, when the NYMS by, but we do know that NYC’s put out its frst issue of our newslet- Department of Health has renewed Having Not Attended ter, I had already been a member of its annual pesticide-spraying assault By Claudine Michaud the New York Mycological Society for in the Parks of all These 3 events are special, unique and refect the spirit of the New York 5 1/2 years. We had been managing 5 Boroughs. Mycological Society. The events were not only delightful to attend, they were with an annual printing of our walk also very productive. All this despite the dry spell of this spring and summer. The following have been in use: schedule, our winter lecture programs, Glycophase (Monsanto’s Roundup) #1 The Past, Present and Future of the Annual Weekend our annual business meeting, and our a pyrethroid and organo-phosphate The weekend in Vermont is part of the history of the NYMS. Back very popular end of the year banquet. pesticide Anvil 10+10, an endocrine in 1962, Laurette Reisman, who was taking classes on Mycology with John We felt, though, that a newsletter disruptor Garlon, is a triclopyr in the Cage at the New School, went to visit some friends in Vermont around Lon- would help us connect with our pyridine group And more that we donderry. There, she found a golden hill with plenty of this bright yellow mush- members on a regular basis, and don’t yet know about. room. Not yet knowing what it was, she took some samples for John to identify. allow us to ofer events through the Amazed by Reisman’s description of so many accessible chanterelles, a group Artist Conk and Amadou year that we could not otherwise A movement has started to build, and of interested people decided to go the following weekend to Londonderry VT By Ben Kingsley readily let all our members know since 2007 NO SPRAY COALITION and see for themselves. That was the frst chanterelle weekend, in 1962. about. One such event was the has been very active. The NSC has These two etched artist’s conks live in our cabin near Speculator, NY the Since then, not a summer has passed without the New York Mycological Soci- Monday night ID sessions at the protested to Mayor de Blasio and the Adirondack Park. The cabin was hand build by a family member in the 1930s, ety going to Vermont. John Cage and his friends continued to be a part of it for New York Botanical Garden, where City Council and is to be part of a and these two conks are dated 1935 and 1937. It is a tradition in the Adiron- several years. And Laurette has been organizing the event without interruption we presented programs on identifca- federal lawsuit. Among the arguments dacks to collect a fresh Ganoderma applanatum on a hike, and to make a for 53 years! Laurette is still an active member of the NYMS and she joined us tion and helped members identify of the NSC is that pesticides may commemorative drawing upon return, usually indicating the destination, names last summer, to everyone’s delight. The history maker in person. I myself have the mushrooms they found over remain in the environment beyond of hikers, and the date. Since we’ve been spending time there every summer been in charge of it for the last ten years, and in the words of Jason Cortlund, the previous weekend. At the time, their intended purpose, they cause for the past ten years, we’ve kept up this tradition and have a growing collec- “out with the old, in with the new. So it goes”, I have decided to pass the torch Dr. Clark Rogerson was the mycolo- adverse health efects, kill mosqui- tion of etched conks. This is actually how Jessica and I frst became interested to the new generation. This was my last year in charge. gist at the NYBG, and he not only toes’ predators such as dragon-fies, in mushroom foraging. In our search for artist’s conks we came across a world ofered his time and expertise but he bats, frogs and birds, increase mos- Ethan Crenson, following in the steps of John Cage, will continue the tradition. of mushrooms we knew nothing about. So we joined the NYMS and to learn taught a number of beginning mycolo- quitoes’ resistance to the spray and Thank you, Ethan! I am sure you will enjoy doing it. I myself have loved it. more, and now we’re addicted! gy classes for our members and those are not presently approved for direct We meet some of the most amazing people, who are all good cooks, While in the Adirondacks in late May of this year, I came across a birch tree of COMA. Now, years later we fnd application to waterways. mushrooms lovers, and eager to learn. covered in (aka Tinder conks). I learned about these while ourselves with a new generation of If you want to know more and be Thank you to Paul Sadowski who has been the mycologist for these past ten reading “Mycelium Running” by Paul Stamets. F. fomentarius was traditionally members interested in learning more more active, you can call Mayor years! And thank you to all of you who have made this weekend so special. used for tinder, as well as a way to transport fre (by boring a hole and inserting about the mushrooms we fnd, and de Blasio and your City Council I don’t know how many pounds of chanterelles we have found in the last 10 a hot ember, it would smolder all day). Amadou is the spongy layer between we are once again ofering Monday representatives. Here is the website years, certainly a lot with one incredible crop in 2014, even though it was such the hard upper surface and the pores, and if you can separate it, it is possible evening identifcation sessions. It for No Spray Coalition: a dry spring and summer with low expectations, a very signifcant amount came to make a felt-like material (still used to make things like hats and fy-drying should be apparent to anyone attend- http://www.NoSpray.org to the table. Enough for the banquet on Saturday and some left over to take pouches for fy fshing). I had about 20 conks, so I wanted to see what I could ing our walks that our members are So what about the mushrooms we home. The Green Mountains in Vermont are so beautiful. Don’t miss it next year. do. I used a wood carving tool to remove the hard upper surface and the pores, learning their mushrooms, even the pick in City Parks? Are they safe # 2 The Joint New York Mycological Society and Connecticut/Westchester and then soaked the amadou pieces for a week in a washing soda mixture. tiny, nearly hidden, and often clue- to eat? Should we be cooking with Mycological Association Picnic and Walk I hammered them fat and dried them out, and now I have a pile of soft, fexible less ones, by leaps and bounds. Our them? It is known that mushrooms A group of 20+ amateur mycologists assembled at the entrance of the Fahne- amadou. I think I may have started with conks that were too young, because predecessors would be very pleased are cleaners, do we know what stock State Park on Saturday, September 12. We all brought big baskets, hop- the usable pieces are pretty small and some fell apart while hammering. with our progress and amazed by the pesticides they have accumulated ing for the best. The weather was just perfect, sunny/cloudy, warm, bright, the I didn’t really know what to do from there, so I photographed them. diversity of fungi we have chosen to in their caps and stems? type of day in which one has to be out. The scenery was very inviting, a rocky collect and identify. “No” is the answer to these questions. bluf above a pond with a trail running around it. Since it called for us to go, we gladly complied. For about two hours we searched the ground, which was Elinoar Shavit has conducted a very very dry indeed. But , to our surprise, we found a log covered with a very fresh interesting study of lead and arsenic and beautiful Laetiporus sulphureus, (chicken mushroom) enough for each of in morels after one member of the us to eat a good meal at home. We also found one huge, very fresh Fistulina ©2015 Photos New Jersey Mycological Associa- hepatica (the park is known for having them), and many others fungus’s to be tion got very sick with arsenic found put on the table for identifcation after lunch (Gary Lincof was there). In the past in his body, should a research of the years, it is usual for a lot of diferent species of Boletus to be found, but sadly same type be done for mushrooms they weren’t out this year. picked in New York City parks before Amadou Cloud someone gets sick from them? cont. p. 9 cont. p. 8 4 5 Amadou and by Ben Kingsley 6 7 The Sraying of Chemicals Stewed Mushrooms Recipe Events Held by the NYMS By Eugenia Bone By Juiper Perlis in 2015 Which You May in New York City Parks Serves 4 This is almost the same as the chicken mushroom soaked in milk recipe Regret Having Not (cont’d from p. 4) I’ve never associated mushrooms much with Greek cuisine, but my friend that which Claudine Michaud developed and Dennis Aita wrote about some Should the NYMS join the NO SPRAY Neni Panourgia, a Greek anthropologist and terrifc home cook, explained to newsletters past. Soak only the tender edges of the mushroom in whole milk Attended (cont’d from p. 4) COALITION to stop the spraying me that they are frequently eaten in the north. I’ve been exploring some Greek for 24 hours. Thoroughly heat a pan, and add a tablespoon or two of butter. The lunch at this walk is a potluck, and fnd others alternatives to kill wines lately, and at a recent tasting, I tried what could be called the Nebbiolo of Add mushrooms and turn fame to high. After the mushrooms have cooked and what a bunch of interesting mosquitoes and invasive plants? Greece. Xinamavro, from the Naoussa region. My favorite was Boutari, a light- of their water, about 7 minutes, turn to low and continue to cook for 15 min- people were there! Above all, we had When you eat mushrooms which bodied red. It’s a bit salty, and wonderful with this delicious dish. utes, or until thoroughly browned. Return fame to high and add the milk in many excellent cooks. Really, it’s the which the mushrooms were cooked, stirring constantly. Reduce. Add Salt and you’ve collected in NYC parks which The trick to this recipe is to keep the vegetables chunky, otherwise they cook place to be for experiencing gourmet, Pepper to taste. are known to spray, do you have any down too much. Bucovo is a crushed red pepper from the eponymous town unexpected, delicious, and extremely doubts in your mind? in Macedonia. It has a slightly sour, smoky favor and is an essential in creative dishes, from appetizers, main dishes, to desert. I took home a new I have decided not to collect them Greek cooking. I got mine at Kalustyan’s on Lexington Avenue. recipe for soup, still warm on the for the table because of my own https://www.kalustyans.com/ table: Straciatella - Romana, spinach, experience : 1/4 cup olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the baking pan) eggs, oyster mushrooms, etc...I will In May 2013 in Inwood Hill park, we 2 ½ lbs mushrooms (various species) cleaned and chopped in bite-sized try it at home. Superb! collected along the paths, directly chunks The Park has 14,086 acres, which is behind people who had sprayed some ½ lb bell peppers, chopped in bite-sized pieces, a whole lot of ground to be explored. glyphosate (Roundup), the yellow or 1 long green sweet chile pepper The plan for the afternoon after the sign told us; adding not to walk in 1 cup chopped juicy seeded tomatoes, or about ½ cup chopped canned toma- lunch and identifcation, was to the wood. All over the woods, foor toes (see Note) continue the walk. Unfortunately, the of the woods and along the trails 1 cup thinly sliced shallots sunny/cloudy sky suddenly, decided was glistening with a bluish liquid, 1/2 cup white wine to generously grace us with a Ni- including the mature mushrooms 4-5 large garlic , thickly sliced (about 2 tablespoons) agara Fall type of rain. We waited for ready to be picked up. Of course, 1 tablespoon sweet bucovo, a while, but fnally had to give up and I didn’t touch them, but what about or 1 teaspoon smoked paprika go home. No regret, the Park needed the people coming the day after, 2 teaspoons hot bucovo, this rain. What a wonderful day ! when the glyphosate is dried? or ½ teaspoon hot paprika Thanks to Marc Palmer and Dennis Aita, A second time in September 2013, Big pinch of dried oregano the leaders and coordinators of this walk. in Vanderbilt Park, hunting with 2 Salt and freshly ground to taste other members of the NYMS we met 3 tablespoons chopped fat-leafed parsley ©2015 Photo by Tom Bigelow # 3 Catskills Weekend two men coming out of the trail with A common late summer/fall , Ischnoderma resinosum forms medium to large brackets on Once more, Paul Sadowski has done it, empty containers on their backs. Preheat the oven to 450°F. numerous hardwood trees. The brackets have zonate dark brown to blackish caps with a whitish leading this incredible foray in the Catskills! margin. The pore surface is whitish and quickly stains brown when bruised. The fesh is quite soft Talking to them, we found out that It’s best to make this is an earthenware pan. Otherwise, use a baking pan about at frst, becoming tough with age. There are many aspects which make they were spraying Garlon, to kill 9X12 inches that will hold the mushrooms snugly. Pour the oil in the bottom of this weekend special. First is the invasive plants, on the both sides of the pan. beauty of the Catskills; then the house the trail as well as 10 to 12 feet deep itself, which can accomadate 10-16 Combine all of the ingredients except for the parsley in a large bowl and mix into the woods. No sign of any kind people, has been used all these past gently. Mix everything well. Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Stab a few holes announced the spraying. We had years. It is a fully renovated 1860’s collected some mushrooms, which, in the foil with a knife to allow steam to vent. farm house, with a huge fre place, not surprisingly, I returned to the Place the mushrooms in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, then remove the woods. a perfect, spacious kitchen, and 2 pan and give the mushrooms a good stir. Return to the oven and cook for an very productive apples trees sitting Should we be collectively concern? additional 10 to 25 minutes, checking periodically, until the peppers are tender alongside a nice stream. This house and the mushrooms have given of all their liquid, about 45 minutes. has a lot of charm. Also, we have the You are looking for cooked vegetables with a nice sauce where the oil has just proximity to the YMCA at Frost Valley; barely started to separate. Remove from the oven, mix in the parsley, and leave and fnally a vast expanse of land, it to cool to warm. graciously put at our disposal for the weekend by one of our members. Serve with bread. As usual, an interesting group of very Note: Don’t use tomato puree. It makes the dish too tomatoey. dedicated mushroomers arrived on Friday afternoon, as enthusiastic as they could be! We had to fnd our rooms and then think about the

cont. p. 11

8 9 COMA On Friday evening there was a talk given by Ed Mena, a biochemical research Events Held by the NYMS NEMF scientist who has spent decades seeking compounds in mushrooms that might By Michael Rapp By Ethan Crenson be useful in combatting disease. His lab has investigated promising compounds in 2015 Which You May The Labor Weekend COMA Clark The Northeast Mycological Federation held its 2015 Sam Ristich foray at Con- in Leotia lubrica, Amanita franchetti and various Ramaria species, each time Regret Having Not Rogerson Foray was a great success. necticut College this past summer. Conn College in Southeastern Connecticut encountering setbacks which rendered the compounds unfeasible as drugs. Considering how dry it had been Attended (cont’d from p. 9) is a picturesque campus perched above the city of New London with sweeping Undaunted, he was appealing to NEMF attendees to provided him with other in the preceding months, I had low dinner. Paul, our chef for the kitchen, views of the Long Island Sound and an extensive arboretum that is the jewel of fungi which hold promise for future research, including species of Spathularia, expectations. I arrived at the Berk- had everything ready to put every this small liberal arts college campus. It is a truly beautiful place, where I hap- Albatrellus, Morganella and Ramaria. Also Panellus stipticus, Tylopilus plumbe- shire Hills Eisenberg Camp, Copake, body to work. Just the beginning pen to have spent (or perhaps misspent) my undergrad years. oviolaceus (hey, didn’t I fnd that at Devil’s Hopyard?), T. rubrobrunneus and New York, and registered with Joe Tricholomopsis decora. Later, John Plischke delivered a fascinating slideshow for the best to come on our and Kathy Brandt, who put so much NEMF is equal parts joy and conundrum to the mycophile, as I found out at- roundup of mushrooms that attack other mushrooms. Indeed, mushroom on Saturday evening dinner. tending this, my frst. The immediate issue for each participant to resolve is work into making this foray possible. mushroom violence was emphatically on display on the tables, too. Saturday morning we explored the whether to play outside or play inside. There are forays to attend in magnif- They informed me that the camp was grounds of the YMCA, all dry, but the cently wooded, diverse habitats. But, at the very same time, there are lectures, Finally, on Friday evening: mycophagy. The Three Foragers, a family of CVMS covered with Boletes and other mush- pond was our best choice. One trail workshops and presentations by world class mycologists. The laws of physics members who make their living preparing gourmet foraged foods, gave NEMF rooms, including Lactarius Indigo, on the West, and one on the East side, insist that a person cannot be in two places at once, so one must choose. After an unforgettable array of tastes that many of my NYMS friends still reminisce which was a good omen for the very I chose the wrong side. Interesting careful consideration and some consultation with NEMF veterans, I chose to about in elegiac tones. “Chicken” sausage on toasts with ramp pickles, maitake successful foray that followed. little fungi for the identifcation session split my time 50% inside - 50% outside. duchesse potatoes, morel and ramps biscuits, chaga tapioca pudding, porcini There were over 300 species col- polenta cubes, Thai king oyster skewers, “Hen” jerky! “HEN” JERKY! “HEN”! later on, but on the other side, that lected and a treasure trove of great In the weeks preceding NEMF, rainfall in the area had been sparse at best. During JERKY! H!E!N! J!E!R!K!Y! And it was all vegetarian! was where the trophy was. Boletus mycologists to lead hikes, help our drive to New London the skies had opened up and poured biblical amounts of edulis, Suillus americana, S. granulata, Saturday was my day to play inside and enjoy the presentations of myco-au- mushroomers to identify mushrooms, rain. But what mushrooms, I worried, might we encounter less than a day after the Leccinum auranciacum, L. scabrum, L. thorities in their respective felds of expertise. At a workshop concerning the ge- give lectures and teach. Gary Lincof, only rainfall in weeks? As it happens, there was little reason to worry. As Bill Yule holopus, baskets full! It was the same nus Lactarius, Alan Bessette began by detailing changes to the , including Bill Yule, Dr. Roz Lowen, Diana Smith, of CVMS (the sponsoring club) explained at NEMF’s opening night presentation, in the afternoon, that an abundance the creation of a new, related genus: Lactifuus. Lactifuus (pronounced just as Leon Chernof, Larry Evans, Tom the woodlands in the area usually produce mushrooms even in dry conditions. For of Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster) for the it is spelled) was separated from Lactarius based on macro-characteristics and Bigelow and Nova Patch all helped us instance, Devil’s Hopyard State Park, he explained, was a hollow, a topographical lunch was provided by the Y. basin, which is able to trap and hold moisture even in dry weather. I planned to visit encompasses 20-25% of the species that formerly made up the genus Lac- lesser knowledgeable fungi enthusi- We were among 400 other people at Devil’s Hopyard for the Friday afternoon foray, but frst a morning walk in Nehan- tarius. Most Lactifuus are not native to our continent, but you might get used asts go home much more knowledge- a table reserved just for us. The food tic State Forest, a park made up of predominantly 2nd growth hardwoods. The to calling Lactarius allardii, L. glaucescens, L. luteolus and a few others by their able than when we started. was quite acceptable, and the lunch walk would take us along the edge of Uncas Pond. I meandered in and out of the new genus name. Another new genus Multifurca will contain a clade of related Gary declared Phallogaster saccatus, went in a very organize way. Back sun-dappled woods, still wet from the previous day’s rain. My collection bags were formerly Lactarius and Russula species. There is only a single Multifurca species collected by Carol Macdonald, as the home to the farm house, where Paul soon flled up with tiny marasmioid mushrooms, Hydnellum species, some corals, (Furcata) native to our continent, so these changes will likely vex you very little. most interesting fnd. organized the dinner, and he prepared a Leccinum and my treasure for that morning, a pair of beautiful Lactarius peckii, Later, participants in the workshop divided into groups to attempt to identify an a delicious Coq au Vin. Also some- And then there was the food. The which Gary Lincof helpfully ID’d at a glance for me later. unknown Lactarius (from a heavily annotated laminated photo) using the dichot- COMA foray is a great culinary event, omous key in Mr. Bessette’s Lactarius monograph. thing new, a vegetarian paella, incred- We returned to the campus to provisionally ID our fnds, at the sorting tables, and the chief chefs and managers ibly beautiful and tasty. We had at our laying each collection in paper take-out trays, and providing as much informa- For my Saturday afternoon activity, I joined other Ascomycete enthusiasts for of the many volunteers were Joe and disposal to use for the dinner, a lot of tion as possible on the printed foray data slips. This process was attended to by a workshop with Roz Lowen and Jason Karakehian. After a short presentation Kathy Brandt. The Banquet had close the mushrooms found during the day. one of NEMF’s greatest resources: experts. In addition to our own Gary Lincof on the features of the ascos and methods of preparing them for microscopic to 20 diferent dishes to choose from. A nice fre in the chimney completed and Paul Sadowski, NEMF attendees had access to Roz Lowen and Jason examination, the top-notch microscopes in the Conn College lab were pressed Many of which are fondly remem- this beautiful day. Karakehian for ascomycetes, Rod Tulloss for Amanitas, John Plischke III for, into service to identify a number of ascos that were laid out before us. The slide bered. It a was a wonderful occasion Also, I should not forget, before din- among other felds, his expertise in fungi growing on fungi, Bill Yule, Renée Leb- I prepared of a Geoglossum (Earth Tongue) was as close to a work of micro- for gathering, learning, eating, and ner we had one hour of identifcation, euf, Walt Sturgeon, Dorothy Smullen, Alan Bessette… the list of experts is long scopic art as I have ever come. It revealed handsome, brown 7-septate spores, making friends. interesting as usual. There is always and the access to them at the sorting tables was an unparalleled asset. asci with developing spores inside rife with oil droplets within their tiny forms, and barrel shaped paraphyses—all of which I sketched in my notebook to pre- something to be learned. From the sorting tables our fnds might make their way to the lab, where tech- serve a record of their magnifed beauty. On Sunday, we had time to prepare nical mycologists scoped them until they surrendered their identity—or stub- to leave the house and to explore the bornly refused to give it up. After that, to the display tables, where mushrooms Later on Saturday was the NEMF banquet—sadly for me, not nearly as vegetar- property of our friend who joined us are exhibited with their closest genetic cousins—Boletes together, Amanitas ian friendly as the The Three Foragers mycophagy event from the night before. for lunch at their picnic table along with their own, Russulas united etc. A new innovation of this year’s NEMF was After dinner, some more presentations of awards and slides and ideas from the Neversink River. It was perfect to conduct “table talks” at the end of each day rather than just on the last day NEMF members. weather, and a perfect day. To fn- of the foray. This allowed participants to see the mushrooms in their just-picked As I prepared to leave on Sunday I had a moment to reminisce about the place ish the weekend, we had a last stop freshness, rather than as a grotesque glob of wriggling maggots which, as we that had been my home for 4 years in my college days. But NEMF was a much around the reservoir. In less than one all know, is never helpful for detecting key identifying features of a fruiting body. stronger draw to me than nostalgia. How marvelous it is for one weekend to hour, about 50 Boletus Edulis were put aside all distractions and concentrate on the pursuit of mycology in the Friday’s sunny afternoon, I ventured to the aforementioned Devil’s Hopyard, a flling our baskets. pleasant, rocky mixed-woods park where the Eightmile River (not named for company of like-minded obsessives. What I learned and what I experienced We left for home with our bags full of, the 2002 flm starring Eminem) cascades over the impressive Chapman Falls was invaluable to me. It is my intention to return to many future NEMF forays. Gigantea calvatia (giant pufball), ©Illustrations by Ethan Crenson (not named for John Lennon’s assassin). At Devil’s Hopyard I quickly found I gathered my passengers for the trip home and we left Conn College for New B. edulis, Leccinum, Calostoma cinnabarinus, the “Stalked Pufball-in-aspic” (a frst for me), Lactarius York, but we couldn’t help ourselves. We stopped for a fnal foray at Cocka- and Pleurotus ostreatus. deceptivus, more corals, cinnabarinus, Russula mariae, Tylopilus ponset State Forest… for another lovely walk in the woods and a hunt for plumbeoviolaceus and a number of Amanitas. Soon—too soon, actually—it was mushrooms. How could we not? And they were there: Cantharellus, Lactarius, A lovely weekend indeed. 10 time to board the bus to return to campus. Russula, Hydnellum, Amanita, Coltricia, Calocera, Xeromphalina… Thank you, Paul. 11

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