Central Oregon Mushroom Club

Ron and I are heading to Eugene tomorrow for the mushroom show.  Such a great event and plenty to do. Check out Cascade Mycological Society’s website for the schedule of fun activities – hay rides, cider press, music, etc.

We were out collecting mushrooms for the show today and found interesting specimens to look at, but not many edibles. Just a few chanterelles.  This has been a strange fruitng season.   I think the coast is more consistent, but too far to drive  in one afternoon.

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We will be attending the Yachats Mushroom Festival at the coast this weekend. David Arora will be presenting his very entertaining and informative talk on Friday evening at 7:30 PM.  His talk is $13 per person and well worth it if you haven’t seen him before.  Saturday is filled with workshops and talks from highly respected and fascinating mycologists and mushroom specialists along with hourly mushroom walks during the day. I haven’t mentioned that all the local restaurants get involved and offer unique wild mushroom entres and appetizers that you can’t find anywhere else.  The mycologists’ talks (except Arora’s) and walks (except Arora’s) are free after buying a $5 wristband for transportation that will shuttle you to any of the walks and talks.  This is a great deal.  Try not to miss this!  Be sure to look at the schedule and plan before you go because there is too much to do it all.  Here is link for the full schedule:

http://www.yachats.org/MFest2011.html

Hope to see you there!

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Julie H. of the Central Oregon Mushroom Club has offered to lead a mushroom outing tomorrow, Weds., Oct. 19, if you get this message in time. Here is her post from the club’s yahoo site:

“Planning an outing for Wednesday the 19th. I know, short notice, we can always do it again soon. Jim and are thinking about going down to the Crane Prairie area. There are lots of places to check out close by. Come along if you can. Plan on the whole day. We’ll leave early, come back in the afternoon. Bring a lunch and water. We’ll meet at the 14th St. Safeway parking lot at 9:00. Let me know if you’re thinking of coming. ”

If you were a member of the club, you would have gotten this notice right to your email box.  To join, contact Julie at julabells@yahoo.com. She will send you a membership form and put you on the yahoo email list.

Meanwhile, post here to tell all of us what is up with this lousy mushroom season?

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Join Central Oregon Mushroom Club and get timely notices of meetings, mushroom finds and forays from their yahoo  group postings!  Contact Julie Hamiliton at julabells@yahoo.com

From Julie Hamilton of the Central Oregon Mushroom Club:

MUSHROOM CLUB MEETING AND POTLUCK

Mushroom Club meeting coming up on October 15^th. Meeting is from 2:00 to 5:00 in the Brooks Room at the downtown library.  Professor of mycology Dr. Jeffery Stone from OSU in Corvallis is coming to speak on basic mycology, local species habitat and ecology and much more.  Please bring a finger food item to share and as always any interesting mushrooms you’ve found out in the woods lately. Good or bad we want to see it.  Hoping for a fantastic turnout.  It’s high time we got to know each other better.  Did I mention food?

Julie

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Posted via email from Clair K.

“This is a response to your “Rain Dance” post on the COM site (re: “How are the rest of you doing in finding edibles or anything, for that matter?”). I wasn’t sure how to post photos, so I’m sending you an email instead.

I’ve only found a handful of chanterelles (white) in three days of hunting last week, in the Santiam and McKenzie areas. You’re right, we need some rain! Generally seeing very few mushrooms of any kind.

I did however find a nice clump of blue chanterelle (see photos attached) near Santiam Jct. last Monday. At first glance I thought they were dark pig’s ears (because of the brownish/grey cap) however the internal flesh was dark purple/grey, and spore print white, cinching them as Polyozellus multiplex. We tried them in a frittata, a Thai soup, and cream of mushroom soup (this was a large clump) and found them delicious.

It may be meager picking this fall unless we get some decent rain soon. I was fortunate to put up a substantial supply of dried spring kings and frozen morels which are tiding us over. Also have a few bags of frozen matsutake left over from last year.

I was hoping to take your class this fall, but we ended up in Germany, Italy, and France for most of Sept. (my son is stationed at Ramstein AFB in Germany). Interestingly, we had a fantastic dinner in a Rothenburg restaurant: fresh “pfifferling” (chanterelles) with venison. These were absolutely beautiful chanterelles, perfectly cooked, large portions, and delicious. We went back to the same restaurant the next day for a repeat!”

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Please put your best rain gear on and do an intense rain dance.  I was out in the woods for hours on Thursday in the Sisters ranger district and found 3 total mushrooms, of any kind.  No,  I wasn’t in the wet boggy spots this time, but something should be up just the same, but it is crispy dry up there away from springs. This has gotta change!

If you Google “rain dance”  you get to see these drawings of the zuni tribesmen’s rain dance costumes!  Too cool!  Where can I get these?

How are the rest of you doing in finding edibles or anything, for that matter?

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My fingers smell of wonderfully apricoty mushroom scent – the Yellow Chanterelle.  It has been too long since I tasted this delectable fungal fruit.  Ron and I went out on Sunday heading west over  Santiam Pass and found the low marshy spots where we have had luck before.  This old hot spot had small,  and a little dried out mushrooms and a few nice ones, but what really helped were the huckleberry bushes nearby where we hadn’t explored.  Underneath some of the bushes, loaded with berries, were large and meaty fresh yellow Chanterelles.  What to pick first?!  Feeling very supported and nourished in that beautiful place.

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Many thanks to Christina Veverka, USFS botanist, and Tami Kerr, USFS past Special Forest Products lead, for your presentation about the current research on Matsutakes in the Deschutes Nat. Forest.  What I remember most about the talk is

• A shiro is the mass of mycelium under the duff, usually forming an  arc or fan for Matsutakes.
• Matsies like 30-80 year old lodgepole pine tree habitat best
• The USFS has an extensive  10 year study now in progress and  uses sniffing soil samples to test for the presence of matsie mycelium (brown nosers.)
• Our soil and habitat is very similar to Japan’s so the flavor of our particular matsie is most desirable.
• Average price for commercial pickers across the season is $15/ pound though it varies greatly even during the same day, with a $20 price being the best return for pickers.
• When the price gets $40/pound or more, pickers ignore rules and begin to rake the shiro for grade #1, ruining future fruitings.
• At the peak in the 1990s, Matsie prices reached $500-$700/pound!
• Allotropa  virgata – Candy Stick, is acutally a parasite on matsutake mycelium.  If you find Candy Stick in the woods,  matsutake mycelium is present.
• Temperature changes are much more important than moisture for matsies to fruit.  The soil must be below 50 degrees for about three days to begin. They come up first in cold frosty pockets in the forest.
• It costs $40 for a 5 day non-commercial matsie picking permit and the 5 days must be decided at the time you purchase the permit.
• All commercial harvesters must camp in a commercial camp in the National Forest.
• The culture of the commercial picking camps is fascinating and full of exotic smells, sounds, and tastes unknown to most Central Oregonians.

Thank both of you for your time and effort. I was especially glad to hear how professional and thorough the research seems to be when deciding how the USFS should thin stands of timber.

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The Central Oregon Mushroom Club, has set up an interesting meeting for September. Please attend this talk is you are at inclined to learn about the white pine mushroom, Matsutake, or Tricholoma magnivelare. This information could save someone’s life because this mushroom has been confused with the poisonous Amanita smithiana, which also grows in our area.

Date: Saturday 09-10-11

Time: 2pm
Venue: Brooks Room, Bend downtown library

Topics:
* Mushroom harvesting on your national forest, rules & regulations
* Matsutake Ecology/ biology
* Matsutake as a commercial product
* Proper harvesting techniques
* Ongoing Matsutake research

Speakers: Tami Kerr and Christina Veverka.
About Tami Kerr: until recently, Tami was the lead for the Special Forest Products Program at the Crescent Ranger District, where she was the coordinator for the commercial matsutake program. She is currently the Natural Resources & Vegetation Program Analyst at the Deschutes & Ochoco National Forest.
About Christina Veverka: Christina is our District Botanist here at the Deschutes National Forest. She has been involved with the on-going Matsutake research.

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In case you haven’t heard, COMC is having a  mushroom meeting this Thursday, June 16, at 7 pm at Combined Communications, 63088 NE 18, upstairs, in Bend off Empire St.

The highlight of the evening will be “Jim,” a commercial picker for 30 years who knows how to find amazing quantities of edibles. His field-tested techniques will greatly improve your chances for a successful hunt and help you make the best decisions on habitat, so less time gets wasted in the woods. (Not that time in the woods is ever “wasted.”)

As a member of Central Oregon Mushroom Club, you get to attend these talks for free.  Non-members pay $10 per talk.  Membership to the club costs $20 per person or $30 per family for a year.  The club will provide speakers on mushroom topics, mushroom identification, organized field trips, mycological learning opportunities, etc, and has a yahoo group site that makes it easy to post pictures, ask questions, and share mushroom adventures. The club has already had a couple of field trips and everyone went home happy with morels.  Another programmed mushroom talk will be on Matsutake, presented by botanists from the USFS who are intensively studying them. Please consider joining so that you don’t miss these opportunities.

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