We will be hosting a foray this weekend with our friends from the Arkansas Valley Mushroom Club on Saturday, June 12th. The fearless leader of AVMC, Irv Broudy was kind enough to ask us to lead an expedition into the high country to look for snow melt fungi and hopefully find some black morels! We will be gathering at the campground at the top of Kenosha Pass at 10 am and will be driving to our final hunting grounds. If you live in the Salida area, meet at 8:00am at Stop and Shop parking lot in town. For all the folks out in Buena Vista, meet at 8:30 at City Market in case there are people there who need a ride. Since it is a pretty long distance to Kensosha Pass, let’s try and maximize carpooling and chip in for gas for those who drive. If you are coming from Denver and would like to carpool or need directions to the meeting spot, shoot me an email at graham@amateurmycology.com and we will coordinate from there.

Weather conditions have been dry, so it’s likely that we will be looking for shrooms near or at the snow-melt zone, so dress accordingly and bring a lunch. James and I have recently found a few black morels, oysters, and many other snow melt fungi. We have been scouting and will select a specific location to hunt by Saturday. Hope to see you there!

SALIDA, CO- October 1st marked the beginning of Colorado’s newest mycological society, The Arkansas Valley Mushroom Club. James and I were lucky enough to get to introduce Amateur Mycology at their first meeting with our presentation on applications for mycelium beyond mycophagy. We also brought along with us 10 species of mushroom for the identification table that we found in Denver. Ellen Jacobson from the Colorado Mycological Society gave a wonderful introduction to fungi first, and then we progressed into my presentation on mushrooms as medicine, finishing with James lecture on mycoremediation. This meeting was held in the Salida Public Library and these three lectures were free for anyone who wanted to attend. Irv Broudy did an amazing job planning the first meeting for the Arkansas Valley Mushroom Club. It was absolutely spectacular. Everyone out there in Chaffee County who is interested in mushrooms should definitely check out these meetings and get to know these wonderful folks. Irv and his wife were such amazing people and we couldn’t thank them enough for letting us stay in their spectacular home. The cook and taste afterward was absolutely delicious! We hope to go up next year and plan some forays in conjunction with the Colorado Mycological Society and the Arkansas Valley Mushroom Club, so check back soon to see any updates or for contact information for the AVMC or CMS.