WHAT’S INSIDE:President’s Message ..................................................................................... 2Sign up for the Victor Gambino Foray 2016 ...................................... 3-4Editor’s Notes ............................................................................................... 5Shiitake Cultivation Workshop (Fun with Fungus) ............................... 5Update on Outreach ..................................................................................... 6Ocean County BioBlitz ................................................................................ 7Bytes, Bits, & Bites ............................................................. begins on page 8Culinary Group Mushroom Soup Sampler recap ................................. 9Calendar of Upcoming Events ................................................................. 10Who’s In A Name? ..................................................................................... 11Mycophagy 2016 report ........................................................................... 13Book Reviews ............................................................................................. 14Oyster Mushroom Cultivation workshop ............................................ 16Who Owns the ‘Shrooms? ....................................................................... 17e Fragrant Matsutake ............................................................................ 19Coloring Contest artwork ........................................................................ 20

NJMA OFFICERS

President - John BurghardtVice-President - Luke SmithsonSecretary - Sharon SterlingTreasurer - Igor Safonov

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Payable for calendar yearIndividual: $10.00 (online newsletter)

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$40.00 (hardcopy newsletter)Mail checks (payable to NJMA) to:Igor Safonov115 E. Kings Hwy., Unit #348Maple Shade, NJ 08052-3478

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www.njmyco.orgJim Barg, Jack Barnett, Bob Hosh

NJMA NEWS

Editor:Jim Richards211 Washington StreetHackettstown, NJ 07840-2145njmaeditor@gmail.com

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Printing:Castle Printing, Ledgewood, NJ

Deadline for submissions:10th of even-numbered months.

Send newsletter submissions ONLY to the Editor.

All other correspondence should besent to the Secretary:Sharon Sterling9 Fir CourtFlemington, NJ 08822sterlingsharon6@gmail.com

NJMA EVENTS HOTLINE

908-227-0872 for information onNJMA events or cancellations due tobad weather. It is NOT for generalinquiries or to contact officers!

VOLUME 46-3 MAY-JUNE 2016

PHOTO BY JIM BARG

Coprinellus micaceus

2NJMA NEWS

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

I have always enjoyed the seasonal cycle of NJMA activ-ities. Winter is a time to document last year’s collec-tions, enjoy the interesting speakers and fellowship ofour monthly meetings and education workshops, andplan for next collecting season. Spring is warm-up timefor the forthcoming foray season. Summer and fall aredevoted to collecting and identifying.

Spring warm-up continues with three workshops inJune. A Shiitake Cultivation workshop has been addedthanks to Ray and Gemma Pescevich. ey completed arigorous course on the topic at Cornell University andhave been cultivating shiitakes for several years. eyare eager to share with other NJMA members what theyhave learned from their studies and their personal expe-rience cultivating Shiitake mushrooms. If you are inter-ested, please see details on page 5, and sign up for theworkshop which will be held on June 4.

A second set of two workshops scheduled for June 5, isan excellent warm-up activity for new members.Patricia McNaught will present an “Introduction toMushrooms” in the morning. Jim Barg will discuss“Collection and Field Identification of Mushrooms” inthe afternoon. I found similar workshops offered 16years ago enormously valuable in helping me begin tounderstand how to go about identifying a mushroom. Ifyou are new to NJMA and interested in identifyingmushrooms, I hope you will attend these workshops.

Our 2016 foray season starts officially this year onSunday, May 1st at the Princeton Institute Woods. Weusually find an interesting array of spring fungi on thisforay, and sometimes, with luck, a Morel or two. Ourwarm-up continues on June 10th with the Bob PeabodyWild Foods Foray at Deer Path Park. e foray seasonfinally begins in earnest with our foray at Stokes LakeOcquittunk on Saturday June 18th. ereafter, we havea foray each weekend through the end of October.Please keep your NJMA name tag with your foraybasket. And don’t forget to wear it!

I wanted to highlight two particularly interesting newcollecting opportunities this season: First, the VictorGambino Foray on June 24-26 is moving about 30 milesto the south. (See page 4 for details.) For many years, itwas held at the Pocono Environmental EducationCenter (PEEC) in the northern part of what is now theDelaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Ournew location is near the southernmost part of theNational Recreation Area, not far from where theDelaware River cuts through the Kittatiny Ridge. egeology and the forests of the two areas are quitedifferent, so it will be interesting to compare their fungifruiting in late June.

Our lodging at Kirkridge Retreat Center is very close tothe Appalachian Trail. In fact, following the AT northfrom Kirkridge for about two miles brings the hiker to thesoutheastern boundary of the Delaware Water GapNational Recreation Area. is is on a rocky ridge whichmay not have a lot of fungi fruiting in late June. But, it willbe worth having a look and documenting what we find.

We plan to do much of our collecting near Kirkridge, inlocal parks, and on Pennsylvania State Gamelands nearWind Gap, PA. Also, near the southern boundary ofDelaware Water Gap NRA, some moist, lower lyingareas with mature hardwood forests look like promisingareas for collecting fungi in late June. Except for walksalong the Appalachian Trail, most of the walking will beon rolling to fairly flat terrain. So don’t be deterred fromsigning up for Victor Gambino, if walking theAppalachian Trail is not for you. You can enjoycollecting at Kirkridge without hiking. ere will becollecting opportunities that offer easier walking andprobably more mushrooms. But come prepared toexplore an area that is new to all of us.

A second new foray location is the Ted Stiles Preserve atBaldpate Mountain in Mercer County) on July 17th. It ispart of the Sourlands, a series of forested ridges inCentral New Jersey. e preserve covers 1200 acres witha mix of fields, stands of young hardwoods, and someareas with fairly mature, mixed hardwood forest. A goodsystem of trails links the various sections of the preserve.At 470 feet above sea level, the summit offers good viewsof the Delaware River and the Trenton sky line. At onespot, Philadelphia is faintly visible on a clear day.

Our family has found a lot of fungi on this ridge overthe years we have lived in Hopewell Township. In fact, Iowe two of my most vivid mushroom collecting memo-ries to Baldpate Mountain. On a very cold winter dayfollowing a brief warm spell, my son Benjamin and Ionce found some flash-frozen oyster mushrooms on thenorth slope of Baldpate. ey had fruited during arecent warm spell and then were flash frozen when thetemperature dropped nearly 40 degrees over a fewhours. Still frozen when they hit the frying pan, thesewere the best oyster mushrooms I have eaten (well,maybe just the most memorable).

WELCOME TO THEONLINE EDITION OF NJMANEWSFor the great majority of you who are viewing the online PDF of thisnewsletter, please note that most web links and email addressesare clickable. Clicking on a blue web or email address will launchyour web browser and take you to the specified page or open youremail software so you can send an instant email. Just look for the “clickfinger” when you hover your mouse over these items.

(continues on next page)

OH NO!NOT ANOTHER ‘POISONING’!by Michaeline. Reprinted from Spore Prints, newsletter of thePuget Sound Mycological Society.

R. reports that after ‘fairly severe stomach cramps, diar-rhea and headache’ three to four hours after eatingchicken mushroom (Laetiporus sulphureus) that lastedthe day into the night, he now has a ‘slight’ case ofmycophobia!

Let’s backtrack. R. had found a ‘nice, tender, 3 lb. spec-imen on oak’ about ten days before this last meal. Hedidn’t say, but I suspect that he had refrigerated it as ‘itlooked as fresh as when I picked it’ on the day he ate thelast of it. He ate a 3" cube for breakfast for five days. enext day he also had a couple of Strobilomyces and felt a‘bit upset’ but blamed it on the Strobilomyces. He didn’teat mushrooms the next day. e following day, he hadanother meal, and had symptoms as described above.He had been at a wedding the night before, so blamed iton food poisoning. e next day, he had the rest of ‘thestash’ for breakfast, and ‘gradually’ got very sick the restof the day and night, but was feeling better the next day,with a trace of a headache.

Was it too much in too few days? Did he sensitize to it?Why could he eat it for five days without symptoms? Idon’t have the answers to these questions, but sulphurshelf is a mushroom that causes symptoms in a numberof people.

Please use caution when eating edible wild mushrooms.Eat a reasonable portion, and don't eat the same speciesevery day for a stretch.

SIGN UP NOW FOR THEVICTOR GAMBINO MEMORIALWEEKEND FORAYJUNE 24, 25, and 26Join us for the Victor Gambino Memorial WeekendForay which will be held June 24, 25 and 26 at theKirkridge Retreat Center in the beautiful KittatinnyMountains. e retreat center is adjacent to theAppalachian Trail and near the southern border of theDelaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. If youare a new member, this is an opportunity to increaseyour understanding of mycology through a weekendfungal immersion with experienced club members.Longtime members will be able to get together with oldfriends, and foray in beautiful habitats. We are excitedto have Dave Wasilewski as our guest mycologist. Hewill giving a presentation on the importance of fungi toour ecosystems. Jim Barg, our graphics expert, will bepresenting a field workshop on photographing fungi.

To register, please send the registration form (includedin this newsletter on page 4, along with your payment,to Igor Safonov.

Email Liz Broderick you have any questions atmedhead72@gmail.com.

A second memorable mushroom trip to Baldpate wason the eve of Hurricane Sandy. e hard rainspreceding Sandy had started, but the high winds werenot due for several hours. Curious to see what fungi hadfruited with all the recent rain, Nina and I hiked up tolook at our favorite spot. We found a stunning display oflate fall mycorrhizal fungi – fresh, robust fruit bodies,vivid colors, and a great variety. So we know BaldpatePreserve has a lot of interesting fungi. Please mark yourcalendar and join us for the foray at Ted Stiles Preserveat Baldpate Mountain on July 17.

We hope to initiate an inventory of the macro-fungi atBaldpate, similar to the one being conducted at FranklinParker Preserve in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. eFriends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FOHVOS con-tacted NJMA last year to request that we conduct an in-ventory of the fungi at the Ted Stiles Preserve atBaldpate. FOHVOS is a local citizens group dedicatedto promoting conservation. ey were instrumental inpreserving Baldpate Mountain. Patricia McNaught anda committee of interested NJMA members worked withmembers of FOHVOS to define the project. FOHVOShas secured permissions to carry out the inventory, andNJMA’s participation is now in the planning stages.

Please stay tuned for more details about this project inthe coming months. It is a wonderful new opportunityfor our members to collect, identify and document thefungi of a unique New Jersey place.

– John Burghardt

3NJMA NEWS

JAPAN REPORTS BUMPER CROPOF MATSUTAKE MUSHROOMSreprinted from Spore Prints, newsletter of the Puget Sound Mycolog-ical Society, November 2015. From The Atlanta Journal Constitu-tion, October 15, 2015

anks to a lot of rainy days in mid-summer and a quickend to late summer, Japan has seen a rich harvest thisyear of matsutake mushrooms, dubbed “the king ofautumn foods.” is has pushed the luxury item’s pricedown compared to an average year.

At the Kyoto Yaoichi produce corner in the Takashimayadepartment store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, an about-300gram package of four or five matsutake mushrooms fromIwate Prefecture costs 35,000 yen (about $291), about 30percent cheaper than usual.At the Seibu Ikebukuro department store in Tokyo, theprices of domestically produced matsutake are 20 percentto 30 percent lower than last year. Sales are up 20 percent.

According to Tokyo Seika Co., a major wholesaler ofvegetables and fruits, the amount of Japanese matsutake it

4NJMA NEWS

NAME: ___________________________________ADDRESS: ___________________________________ DIETARY RESTRICTIONS:___________________

PHONE: ___________________________________ROOMMATE PREFERENCE:

If no preference is indicated you willbe assigned a roommate.

Male / Female

EMAIL: ___________________________________ ROOMMATE NAME(s):___________________

EMERGENCYCONTACT: ___________________ PHONE: __________ ___________________

Liability waiver: By signing below, I release New Jersey Mycological Association and Kirkridge Retreat Center,and their officers, members, and employees from any and all liability and loss arising from any accident, injury,or illness which may result from activities of the June 24, 25, & 26, 2016 weekend foray.

Make your check payable to “NJMA” and send it, along with this completed form, before June 1,to:Igor Safonov, 115 East Kings Highway, #348, Maple Shade, NJ 08052-3478

For more info: Liz Broderick, 609-298-4383 medhead72@gmail.com(Cancellations must be made before June 3 in order to receive a refund.)

Total number of people attending: _______ x $235.00 = $___________

SIGNATURE: _________________________________________________________

NJMA 2016 VICTOR GAMBINO WEEKEND REGISTRATION FORM

PHOTO BY JIM BARG

5NJMA NEWS

EDITOR’S NOTESRecently, I have been thinking about the high level ofcreativity that many of you have: whether taking greatphotographs, dyeing fabrics with mushroom-baseddyes, jewelry making, sketching your finds, etc. Ithought that, coupled with the increasing popularity ofadult coloring books, now is the perfect time to haveNJMA’s very first

MUSHROOM COLORING CONTEST!Using Jeannette Bower’s design of Leccinums from herMushrooms of the World Coloring Book (DoverPublications, 1984), we are conducting a two-partcontest.

Print out the last page of this newsletter and then coloraway! ere will be two winners: One for the Best“Natural” Design and one for the Most Creative Design.For the latter category, anything goes! Wild colors,“Photoshop” effects, manipulations – you name it. etwo winning designs (chosen by a panel of three judges)will be used on a tee shirt which will be sold at FungusFest 2016. e winner in each category will each receivea complimentary tee shirt. All NJMA members (adultsand kids alike) are eligible to submit one entry in eachcategory. Scan your completed design to .jpg formatand email it to njmaeditor@gmail.com with the subject“Coloring” by July 1st. We will ask that the winnerssubmit their originals for use in printing the shirts. eart will be returned, unharmed, to the artists.

e text which will be added on the tee shirt design willread: “NJMA – More than one way to look at fungi!”

We will still be looking for your foray reports, bookreviews, and other articles for the next issue of NJMANews (#46-4, July-August 2016) by the June 10th deadline.

Have a great collecting season! – Jim Richards

Part of the NJMA Education Workshops series

FUN WITH FUNGUSShiitake Mushroom

Outdoor Cultivation WorkshopLearn to grow Shiitake Mushrooms!

In this hands-on workshop, we’ll inoculate mush-room logs with certified organic mycelium and teachyou the steps involved in growing shiitakes. RayPescevich, NJMA Cultivation Chair, along with hiswife Gemma, will serve light refreshments, featuringshiitake paté. Everyone will leave with a mushroomlog to fruit at home.

June 4th 10:00am-12:00pm Rain date June 25th

Adults: $30.00 per personChildren 10-16: $8.00

Price includes food

Mushroom GrowersDenville, New Jersey

973-986-4800Directions will be sent to registrants.

Space is limited to 10.Register now! Visit

www.njmyco.org/education.htmlby May 27th

Please dress for the weather as we’ll be outsidefor the entire workshop.

No skills necessary,and all ages are welcome!

....

Visit the NJMADiscussion Group

http://tinyurl.com/jjualgz

ATTENTION BEGINNERS!Register TODAY for our beginners’ workshops

Introduction to MushroomsCollection & Field Identification of Mushrooms

Sunday, June 5thwww.njmyco.org/education.html

6NJMA NEWS

UPDATE ON NJMA OUTREACHACTIVITIESby John Burghardt

Outreach to the public is one of NJMA’s importantongoing activities. People interested in eating mushroomsor collecting them can search on the web and find us.Many of these folks come to our forays or other eventsonce they explore our website. But what about people whomight be interested in mushrooms, but have neverthought about fungi or their role in the environment?

NJMA’s public outreach efforts seek to bring awarenessof fungi and their role in the environment to peoplewho might be interested in learning more. We receiveinvitations each season from diverse organizationsinterested in some aspect of environmental educationto participate in their outreach to the public. Below arebrief descriptions of the outreach events we havealready attended or currently plan to attend in 2016.

Mercer County Living Local Exposition (March 19)Sponsored by the Mercer County SustainabilityCouncil, the Expo was held at Rider University inLawrenceville, NJ. Virginia Tomat, Richard Kelly, theirdaughter Aluen, and members of Aluen’s Girl Scouttroop attended. Richard piggy-backed a display aboutfungi with the Girl Scout’s display about bats.

Pequest Open House and Sportsmen’s Flea Market(April 2 and 3) Sponsored by the New Jersey Divisionof Fish and Wildlife at the Pequest Fish Hatchery inWarren County, the Open House coincides with thestart of fishing season. Jim Richards and Mike Rubinattended both days, since, in past years, this has been anenjoyable event and excellent opportunity to meet folksinterested in the outdoors. Unfortunately this year, hardrain on the first day thinned the usually enthusiasticcrowds who visit this event; high winds and cold madeconditions even worse on the second day.

Kinnelon Public Library Earth Day Celebration(April 17) is event is organized by the local publiclibrary. is is the first time NJMA has participated. RayPescevich and John Burghardt represented NJMA.

Bridgewater Township Eco-Blast Fair (May 7) isevent draws many residents of all ages fromBridgewater and nearby towns. Melanie Spock andNancy Addotta will attend this year.

Ocean County Park Bio-Blitz (May 28)is is the firstof our 2016 outreach events at which we expect to findfungi. It is also our first visit to this Ocean County Parkwhich formerly was a large summer estate borderingdowntown Lakewood. Park staff have requested that weconduct walks for the public, as well as collect anddisplay fungi at our table. John and Nina Burghardt,Melanie Spock, and Liz Broderick have signed up toparticipate. is is a big park with extensive century-oldstands of planted pine forest, so more NJMA membersare welcome to participate. See the Ocean CountyBioBlitz brochure on the next page, and if you needadditional information, call 732-506-5122. ey will beusing the mobile app iNaturalist to record the finds, soyou can prepare yourself by installing the app beforeyou arrive. (Instructions for downloading and usingiNaturalist are on page 8.)

Union County Bio Blitz (June 11) is is a large, 24-hour survey of all living things in three Union Countyparks. As in past years, NJMA members DorothySmullen and Marc Grobman are responsible for identi-fying the fungi collected. Other NJMA members whowish to participate in collecting and/or identifying areurged to sign up as scientists and naturalists at theUnion County Bio-Blitz website (ucnj.org/bio-blitz/)before June 1.New Jersey WILD Outdoor Expo (September 10 and11) is event is sponsored by the New Jersey Divisionof Fish and Wildlife. It is held at the Colliers MillWildlife Management Area in Jackson NJ, at thenorthern edge of New Jersey’s pinelands. It is an oppor-tunity to meet people with diverse interests in NewJersey’s wild outdoors. Phil Layton leads this effort.

Additional outreach events may be added as the yearprogresses. anks to all our participating members fortheir efforts to bring awareness of fungi to New Jerseyresidents.

Mike Rubin greets a guest at Pequest

PHOTO BY RAY PESCEVICH

PHOTO BY JIM RICHARDS

7NJMA NEWS

8NJMA NEWS

Instructions for Downloadingand Using iNaturalistfor the Ocean County BioBlitz

Record what you find in the park on the mobile appiNaturalist!

1. Download the app:Scan this code using your Android:

Or scan this code using your iPhone:

2. Create an account3. Open app and tap “My Observations”4. Select “Projects”5. Select the “Nearby” tab

(location settings must be enabled)

6. Select “2016 Bio Blitz Ocean County Park”7. Tap “Join” in the top right corner8. Select “Checklist” tab to add an observation!

tell it here!tell it here!

Got a mushroom story to tell?Got a mushroom story to tell?

Send your articles and photos to njmaeditor@gmail.comSend your articles and photos to njmaeditor@gmail.com

Share your experience with fellow mushroomers!Share your experience with fellow mushroomers!

BYTES, BITS, & BITESTASTY LITTLE TIDBITS FROM OUR MEMBERS

from the Editor:

Moving art: A recap of “Mushrooms for Bees, Trees,People, and Planet” presentation by Paul Stamets andLouie Schwartzberg at the Directors Guild of America:

http://tinyurl.com/jngtepv

from Tasting Table.com:

A method to produce perfectly crisp mushrooms:We throw them on a wire rack, instead of directly on asheet pan, which keeps them from sitting in their ownjuices. Start by trimming and quartering 1 pound of cleancremini mushrooms . In a large bowl, toss the mushroomsin 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon offresh thyme leaves, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 2teaspoons of freshly cracked black pepper. Place a wirecooling rack on top of a half sheet pan and spread themushrooms. Bake at 375° for 35 to 40 minutes or until themushrooms are golden brown and crispy.

from e Wall Street Journal:

Blended burgers:http://tinyurl.com/jlpfmpu

from Judy Glattstein:

In e New York Times – Morel Hunting:http://tinyurl.com/jswhu4r

from the James Beard Foundation:

From the kitchen cameras in the James Beard Housekitchen, a special mushroom event is coming:

http://tinyurl.com/zqgpjsp

from Judy Glattstein:

Using CRISPR to snip genes in mushrooms:http://tinyurl.com/znmc8jn

from Salvatore Turdo:

A selection of his finds from 2015. “One of the bestyears for mushrooms, ever”

(more photos from Salvatore Turdo on page 17)

PHOTO BY SALVATORE TURDO

CULINARY GROUP MUSHROOMSOUP SAMPLERreported by Faith Perrin

e NJMA Culinary Group met Saturday, March 12 fortheir most recent dinner event entitled “A MushroomSoup Sampler”. Twenty-eight participants, includingseven new guests, enjoyed a selection of mushroom-based soups accompanied by assorted breads, appe-tizers, salads and desserts.

e meal began when the eager diners were presented withvarious appetizers, which included Mushroom Croustadeswith Morels, Anchovy and Red Pepper Antipasto, andKalamata Olive and Goat Cheese Tapenade.

Next came the first of two rounds of soup. HungarianMushroom Soup, Mushroom and Barley Soup, and aTofu Mushroom Broth were set alongside a presentationof delicious bread: “Balthazar” Sourdough Rye, HerbedWhole Wheat, and two flavors of homemade crackers.

e salad course followed with a large fresh GardenSalad and a delightfully creative Potato Salad withChicken, which was decorated with “mushrooms”hand-crafted from different vegetables. e saladcourse ushered in the next round of three soups:Mushroom Soup Gratinee, Indian Mushroom andPotato Soup, and Polish Porcini Soup.

e fortunate members who had left room for dessertwere treated to the final table of culinary creations: aFruit Platter, Baked Rice Pudding, Pecan Candy CapCookies, New Orleans Bourbon Bread Pudding, andNeiman Marcus $250 Cookies. Dessert was accompa-nied by a selection of fine teas and coffee.

All guests enjoyed conversing with old and new friends,and look forward to the next culinary dinner – acookout at Harry Dunham Park in Basking Ridge from1:00pm to 5:00pm on Saturday, August 13th. e plan-ning committee is working on the theme. To register,contact Marja (pamarjavo@gmail.com).

Mushroom broth with Tofu

9NJMA NEWS

PHOTO BY BOB HOSH

PHOTO BY BOB HOSH

SONG OF THE MUSHROOM KINGfrom The Sporeprint, Los Angeles Mycological Society

I am the Cep – the Mushroom King.My praises mushroom pickers sing.

I am so easy to discover.I look like me – not any other.

I’m very tasty fresh or dryTo you and to the mushroom fly.

So pick me when I’m firm and young.Just finding me is HALF THE FUN!

— Joe Lenart

SONG OF THE MUSHROOM KINGfrom The Sporeprint, Los Angeles Mycological Society

I am the Cep – the Mushroom King.My praises mushroom pickers sing.

I am so easy to discover.I look like me – not any other.

I’m very tasty fresh or dryTo you and to the mushroom fly.

So pick me when I’m firm and young.Just finding me is HALF THE FUN!

— Joe Lenart

10NJMA NEWS

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday, June 410:00am - 12:00pm

ShIITAKE MUShrOOM OUTDOOr CULTIVATION WOrKShOPwith ray & Gemma PescevichDetails and registration are on page 5.

Sunday, June 1210:00am

BOB PEABODy WILD FOODS FOrAy AND PICNICDeer Path Park, readington, NJrandi Eckel, Leader Randi owns Toadshade Wildflower farm in Frenchtown, NJ.She grows and propagates her own plants. As an entomologist, she is especiallyinterested in native plant and insect interactions.Members only! – Bring food to share and your picnic gear.

Saturday, June 1810:00am

FOrAy: LAKE OCqUITTUNK FAMILy CAMPING ArEAStokes State ForestLeader: Jim Barg

June 24 - 26NJMA VICTOr GAMBINO FOrAy WEEKENDKirkridge retreat Center, Bangor, PARegistration required. See details page 4 for info and registration form.

Saturday, July 1010:00am FOrAy: rANCOCAS NATUrE CENTEr AND STATE PArK

Saturday, July 1710:00am

FOrAy: BALDPATE MOUNTAIN – TED STILES PrESErVELeaders: Nina Burghardt and Patricia McNaught

July 28 - 31NEMF SAMUEL rISTICh FOrAyFITChBUrG STATE UNIVErSITy, Fitchburg, MATo register, visit www.nemf.org.

Saturday, August 13 1:00pm - 5:00pm

CULINAry GrOUP COOKOUT (eme to be decided)harry Dunham Park, Basking ridgeTo register, contact Marja Von Ouwerkerk (pamarjavo@gmail.com)

September 8 - 11NAMA ShENANDOAh FOrAy 2016Front royal, VARegistration for this foray is on the NAMA website. Go to www.nama.org for info.

Sunday, September 2510:00am - 4:00pm

NJMA FUNGUS FEST 2016Liz Broderick, chair

NJMA News is published bimonthly bythe New Jersey Mycological Association.Annual subscription price is includedin NJMA membership annual dues.

Except where noted, articles may be copiedor reprinted with credit given tothe author(s) and NJMA News.

Views expressed herein do not implyNew Jersey Mycological Association endorsement.

DON’T FORGET TOSIGN UP FOR THE

NJMA VICTOR GAMBINOWEEKEND FORAYJUNE 24-26

Go back to page 4 for detailsand registration form!

WHO’S IN A NAME?Leccinum snelliiby John Dawson (fifty-fourth in a series)

Leccinum snellii is an edible bolete, one of the firstboletes to appear in the spring. Its specific epithet, likethat of Tylopilus snellii, pays tribute to Walter HenrySnell, whose books A Glossary of Mycology and eBoleti of Northeastern North America, both co-authored with Esther Dick, are mycological classics.

Snell, however, was more than just amycologist; he was, “as far as can beascertained, … the only majorleague baseball player who was alsoa college professor”1 (and a verydistinguished one: He was theStephen T. Olney Professor ofNatural History at BrownUniversity from 1942 until hisretirement in 1959). For, in 1913,Snell played in six games for theBoston Red Sox, as a pinch hitterand reserve catcher;2 and had it notbeen for an injury that he sufferedon the day he graduated fromcollege, his athletic career mighthave been an illustrious one and hismycological career non-existent.Even so, he played minor leaguebaseball during the summers of1914 and 1915 and served as varsitybaseball coach at Brown from1922–26, as freshman baseball coach from 1936–39, asassistant football coach from 1921–39, and as Brown’sAthletic Director during the war years 1943-46.

Snell was born 19 May 1889 in West Bridgewater,Massachusetts and died at age 91 on 23 July 1980 inProvidence, Rhode Island. e eldest of the five childrenof Alton Snell, a butcher, and his wife Clara, he grew upin Brockton, Massachusetts, attended public schoolsthere and graduated in 1907 from Brockton HighSchool, where he played football and was captain of thebaseball and basketball teams. After two furtherpreparatory years at Phillips Andover Academy, hechose to enroll at Brown University, “based on theopportunity…to be a catcher on the[ir] baseball team.”3

ere, too, he excelled in both athletics and academics,graduating in 1913 with a bachelor’s degree with honorsin biology, romance literature and history and as an All-American catcher with an offer to play professionalbaseball with the Philadelphia Athletics. Alas, however,

11NJMA NEWS

while playing in an alumni game on commencementday, his thumb was broken by a foul tip. e injurypermanently damaged his thumb and caused theAthletics to trade him to the Boston Red Sox.

Consequently, in the fall of 1913, Snell returned toBrown, intending to earn a Master’s degree in bacteri-ology. (at October, he also married Adelaide Scott,who bore him three sons during the first eight years oftheir 62-year marriage.) Why he enrolled in a botany

course in graduate school is unclear,but in 1914, he was offered a positionas assistant in botany, and under theinfluence of Harlan York, a forestpathologist at Brown, he developed aninterest in fungi. He received his A.M.in botany the next year, but stayed onas an assistant at Brown one more yearbefore embarking on doctoral studiesin plant pathology at the University ofWisconsin in Madison.

While working toward his doctorate,Snell was employed by the U.S.Department of Agriculture, workingfirst on white pine blister rust andlater, at the Forest ProductsLaboratory in Madison, on agentscausing decay in structural timbers.His doctoral dissertation, “Studies ofcertain fungi of economic impor-tance in the decay of buildingtimbers, with special reference to the

factors which favor their development and dissemina-tion”, completed in 1920 and published two years lateras U.S.D.A. Bulletin 1053, was based on the latter work.

Fortuitously, Snell’s mentor at Brown, Dr. York, leftBrown halfway through the 1919–20 academic year, atwhich point Snell was invited to return to Brown asinstructor in botany. Upon receipt of his doctorate, hewas then promoted to assistant professor (and head ofthe department, a position he held until his retirement38 years later!).

e work that culminated in the Glossary of Mycologygrew out of Snell’s realization that no suitable referenceon mycological terms was available to his students. Atypescript preliminary version, ree ousandMycological Terms, was prepared in 1936 by his long-time assistant (later co-author and second wife4) EstherDick, and that same year, the Rhode Island BotanicalClub published Snell’s Tentative Keys to the Boletaceae

1 According to the glowing obituary tribute to him by David J. McLaughlin in Mycologia 75:6 (Dec. 1983), pp. 941–948, the source for most of the information in this profile and for the accompanying photograph of Snell..

2 For more details on Snell’s brief career as a major league baseball player, see the article about him by Charlie Bevis on the website of the Society for American Baseball Research (http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/a8e3cebc).

3 McLaughlin, op.cit., p. 941.4 Snell married Dick in 1975, when he was 86, shortly after the death of his first wife.

Walter H Snell

of the United States and Canada. (e Glossary itselfwas published in 1957, with illustrations by Snell’s goodfriend H.A.C. Jackson, profiled earlier in this series.)

Snell had begun studying boletes (a term he is said tohave “popularized, and perhaps introduced”) in 1925,and “by the mid 1930s, was recognized as the NorthAmerican authority” on the Boletaceae. “His magnumopus, e Boleti of Northeastern North America,” illus-trated with 400 of his own life-sized watercolor paint-ings of those fungi, was published in 1970.5

Snell also contributed to the taxonomy of hydnums, onwhich he contributed a series of six articles to thejournal Lloydia (out of a total of 72 items in the bibliog-raphy of Snell’s publications given in McLaughlin’s obit-uary memoir of him).

Snell was a charter member of the Mycological Societyof America, served as president of the Rhode IslandAudubon Society for thirteen years, and was also apresident of the Rhode Island Horticultural Society.

Snell donated his extensive mycological library toBrown University, and his specimens of boletes andhydnums, together with his notebooks and paintings,now reside in the National Fungus Collection.

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5 Quotations are from McLaughlin, op. cit., pp. 944–945.

Jillian Anderson Sussex, NJ

Kevin Blythe Frenchtown,NJ

Tyler Branham Pennington, NJ

Heather Ciociola Lawrenceville, NJ

Amanda DeAngelis Millville, NJ

Eric Duch Andover, NJ

Daniel Feldman Roselle, NJ

Anita & Frank Gerath Cream Ridge, NJ

Sharon Hill Flanders, NJ

Justina Jackson Williamstown, NJ

GraceMarie Keaton-Stasi Minneapolis, MN

Cyrille Labourel Skillman, NJ

Barbara Lee Annandale, NJ

Jay Mann Ship Bottom, NJ

Gary & Shelley Michel Washington, NJ

Maricel Patino Lumberton, NJ

Kimberly Ramos Fanwood, NJ

Jessica Ruland Iselin, NJ

David Scarinci Pittstown, NJ

Felicia Sonsini Tabernacle, NJ

Michelle Wallace Philadelphia, PA

Ryan Wesley Clark, NJ

Aneatra Williams Trenton, NJ

WELCOME TO ALL OF OURNEW NJMA MEMBERS!We’d like to extend a warm welcome

to the following members who joined usbetween February 15, 2016 and April 24, 2016.

We look forward to seeing you at lectures, forays, and other NJMA events.

Happy ’shrooming!

HAVE YOU BEEN DRAWING MUSHROOMS?We are always interested in receiving accurate hand drawings,sketches, or artwork in any variety of media to grace our pages.While we cannot guarantee that your work will be published, we dofile each submission and consider it for use either in conjunction withspecific articles or for use as backgrounds or supplemental art whenneeded. You retain your copyrights and you’ll be credited in all cases.

Contact our Art Director Jim Barg at jimbarg@bssmedia.com formore information or to submit your work.

AMADOU(FOMES FOMENTARIUS)MUSINGSreprinted from Mainely Mushrooms, newsletter of the MaineMycological Association, April-June 2016

While spending time standing around, waiting, in abeech woods, I noticed quite a lot of Fomes fomentariuson a beech log.

I began to wonder how often one could be found thatwas large enough, and of the proper shape, to make thehat that Paul Stamets often wears.

If you further researched Elizabeth Noyes’ article in thelast [MMS] newsletter, you would know that the bestcollections are made in the autumn and are first yearfruiting bodies. What would happen if, finding a treebeginning to fruit in the spring, the tree was felled tohave the fruiting body on the underside, making itdevelop the proper bell shape? What if all but one of theothers was removed? Would that concentrate growth inthe one remaining?

Would it grow large enough in one season to be workedinto a hat?

13NJMA NEWS

MYCOPHAGY 2016WITH GUEST CHEF JAY CHAIreported by Liz Broderick

Fifty-seven hungry NJMAmembers gathered on February21 at the Unitarian Society forour eagerly- anticipatedmycophagy event. Jim Richardsbegan this tradition back in themid 1970s so club memberscould move beyond butter andgarlic, and get some innovativeideas on how to prepare fungifrom a professional chef. isyear, our guest chef was JayChai, the owner and chef of thePandan Room and TOPO inHackettstown. Jay demonstratedsome of his ai- and Indo-nesian-inspired specialties, andtreated us to some new tastes.He was born in Burma, andlearned his cooking skills from his mother and otherfamily members while growing up. TraditionalIndonesian food incorporates a great variety of nutri-tious local fungi into its recipes, so it was a terrificchoice for our demonstration.

Several folks had signed up as assistants to help our chefprepare the food for our members to sample. Jay arrivedwith some of his vegetables already chopped, but every-thing else was prepared fresh. He was extremely organ-ized, and quickly had us prepping the fresh mushroomsand other ingredients. Although Mark K. and Marja,our vegetarian volunteers, pointed out that the majormeat groups (including crab, chicken, beef and pork)were all represented, the animal protein was just a smallcomponent of each dish. Beautiful fresh mushrooms,vegetables and rice were the primary ingredients in thefood we prepared. After the chopping and mixing weredone, Jay patiently taught us how to form dumplingsand bean-curd-skin-wrapped delicacies that he said hisMother continues to prepare in his restaurant kitchen.Once the prep work was done, I was amazed at howquickly his recipes came together. Jay prepared thecurry mixture and instructed us to sequentially add theveggies and chicken so everything was perfectly done atone time. Most of the things we prepared could be donewith one burner and a pot. We didn’t sauté the mush-rooms first as is commonly done in Western cooking,but added them at the last minute to stew in the deli-cious sauces. Jay said he made “friendly” curry for us,but provided some spicy chili sauce for those whowanted to amp up the heat. Other than the bean curdwrappers, most of the ingredients used in these recipescould be purchased at any decent supermarket – orsome of them can even found in the woods. is tasty,

nutrient-packed cuisine could easily be adapted tovegan or gluten-free diets.

A shout out (andmaybe a GoldenSponge) goes to MikeRubin for doing thedishes for 10 years ina row. Anotherspecial thank yougoes to Igor Safonovwho drove to Ken-nett Square to pickup the beautiful fungithat Phillips Mush-room Farms donatedto our event. A veryspecial thanks to JimRichards for arrang-ing our mycophagyprograms over theyears. anks also toChef Jay for expertly

preparing four won-derful dishes for 57 people in a littleover 2 ½ hours with a bit of help from Luke Smithson,Mike Rubin, Marja van Ouwerkerk, Mark Kubinak,Nina Marra, Mark Streitman and Liz Broderick.

Recipes are posted at www.njmyco.org/recipes.html.

If you are near Hackettstown, you may want to visit ePandan Room at 100 E. Moore Street to sample Jay’smade-to-order Indonesian and ai food.

Crab-stuffed cremini, one of the treats demoed by Chef Jay Chai

PHOTO BY STEVE STERLING

PHOTO BY STEVE STERLING

• What is the lichen growing on?• What is its growth form (these are clearly

explained in the introduction)?• What is the main color of the upper surface?

Technical terms are kept to a minimum, but there aresome that you cannot escape. A fairly in-depth intro-duction and a glossary help sort out the differencesbetween insidia, soredia, apothecia and the like.

Being a compact book, the color photos are small, butclear. ere are some simple line drawings and detailed,black and white magnification drawings of pertinentdetails. One thing that quickly becomes obvious whentrying to identify lichens is the need for a hand lens;many of the details are extremely small!

Like most well-written guides, it lists all of the details ina standardized format: scientific name, common name,name origin, substrate, color, etc. It includes some“distinctive features” that serve to quickly tell youwhether you are the right path or not. Some detailednotes are also included with each species that mayinclude lookalikes, interesting facts, abnormalities thatyou may come across, etc. Lastly, the final pages of thebook contain some recommended materials andwebsites for further reading.

At $39.00 (from Amazon.com), it is not a cheap book.But it is well written, durable and not overly complex,making it useful both as a field guide and as an introduc-tion for anybody who is interesting in learning moreabout the local lichen flora. As a lichen enthusiast, I feelthat I’m allowed to say that I’m “lichen” this book!(Sorry!). I will most likely be adding a copy to my library.

Editor’s note: is book and others reviewed in NJMANews are added to NJMA’s Robert Peabody Library andare available for club members to use. Contact IgorSafonov (njmycomember@gmail.com) to arrange toborrow this and other books in our collection.

14NJMA NEWS

BOOK REVIEWSCOMMON LICHENS OFNORTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICAa book review by Luke Smithson

Common Lichens of NortheasternNorth Americaby Troy McMullin and Frances Anderson

Published by e New York Botanical Garden,2014. 192 pagesISBN 13: 978-0893275112ISBN-10: 0893275115

Before I start with the review of this book, let me answera couple of quick questions. #1) Why is a mushroomclub publishing a review of a book about lichens? Well,the quick answer is that lichens are symbiotic organismscomposed of two distinct life forms; a fungus (hence themushroom angle) and either an algae or cyanobac-terium, living together as a single unit. e fungi arealmost always ascomycetes, and often produce fruitingbodies reminiscent of little “mushrooms”. Recall thatmany people’s favorite mushroom, the morel, is also anascomycete. #2) Why would I want to try to identifythem? Well, they are around all year long, and are quitebeautiful in the late winter and early spring before the“real” mushrooms come along. In other words, they area great reason to get out in the woods!

So here is a recent (2014) book: Common Lichens ofNortheastern North America. It is a lovely volume thatcontains descriptions and photos of 138 lichen species.It is a field guide, not a comprehensive survey of north-eastern lichens, and it’s meant to be used outdoors. It issmall, so it is not a burden in your backpack. It is alsospiral bound, which helps keep the page open to whereyou need it, and printed on heavy paper that appears tobe water resistant (I didn’t actually test this part out).But I did take it for a test drive in the Pinelands of NewJersey and was able to use it to make a couple of identi-fications without too much difficulty. I was alsostumped on more than a few specimens… I didn’t saythis book was going to make it easy! One note that didcatch my attention is that the authors are based in NovaScotia, a bit north of our region. While we likely sharemany of the same species, the authors state that theyfocused on field-identifiable species common to theMaritimes and surrounding regions. I cannot say withany certainty how many Mid-Atlantic lichens will berepresented in this book, although I can say that at leastnine species of lichen that are found in the Pinelandsare in this book. (I base this statement on a quick cross-reference of a recent Pinelands species list and thespecies list in the book).

e book does not contain keys per se, but is organizedinto sections that keep narrowing down what a spec-imen may be, using the following questions:

RADICAL MYCOLOGY:A TREATISE ON SEEING ANDWORKING WITH FUNGUSa book review by Liz Broderick

Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing andWorking With Fungusby Peter McCoyPublished by Chthaeus Press, 2016.672 pages. Book art: Black and white illustrations with a 16-pqge color insert

Radical Mycology is a fantastic compendium of infor-mation about how fungi enrich and detoxify all livingsystems in our world. is 672-page paperback waswritten by Peter McCoy, a self trained mycologist, who

(continues on next page)

15NJMA NEWS

together with a circle of friends pioneered the RadicalMycology movement that originated in 2006 in thefungally infused Olympia, Washington area. is philo-sophical framework blends science, politics, art,theology and ecology based on the growth patterns ofmycelium, and the premise that all life is intercon-nected. “Fungi challenge us to look beneath the surface,live on the edge, explore the unknown, adapt, respectimperfections and differences, and to always look foranother way forward.”

Peter’s enthusiasm is contagious, yet the book is well-researched and has many practical applications forthose interested in mycorrhizal relationships, thehistory of mycology and taxonomy, cultivation,mycophagy, responsible stewardship, historical andreligious applications. It is not a field guide, althoughthere is a 50-page species profile in the back of thebook. As most university departments become morefocused on genetic analysis, they lose sight of whole-organism mycology and how it interrelates to theecosystem that it is an integral part of. Citizen scientistsare becoming increasingly important because they tendto see not just the mushroom, but the ecosystem it ispart of. He points out that unlike most sciences,mycology is one of the fields that a citizen scientist canactively contribute to. Unfortunately for many of us,much scientific research is inaccessibly housed inuniversity libraries or published in costly journals. Oneof this book’s strong points is how it presents currentscientific research in an understandable format.Arbuscular (Endo) mycorrhizas, ectomycorrhizas andother mutualistic relationships are clearly explained andillustrated with some terrific black and white electronmicroscopy photos. e life cycles of basidiomycetesand ascomycetes are covered, as well as how hyphalgrowth of the mycelium occurs. Ethnomycology tradi-tions are also covered along with the history ofmycology. Instead of the Kingdom of Fungi, Peterdescribes the Queendom of Fungi, since most of theearliest knowledge about the fungal world was discov-ered and passed on by women who gathered fungi forfood and medicine to help their families survive, and bythe alewives who were the original brew masters.

e section on Mycoswag discusses the equipmentneeded to start foraging and collecting fungi, andincludes a section on noting nuances in appearance.e appendix contains useful ID tags for recording fieldinformation for various species. Microscopy and plansfor a $10.00 DIY microscope are included.

e chapter on Radical Lichenology clearly presentedthe symbiotic microbiont relationship between a fungusand an algae or a photosynthesizing bacteria. Differenttypes of lichens and their habitat and life cycles areincluded in this section of the book.

e Pharmycopeia section covers the history of medicinalfungi dating back to Otzi, the Iceman who carried

Amadou and the Birch Polypore to treat his intestinalparasites. He discusses how some compounds that makeup fungi stimulate our immune system helping our bodiesto overcome disease. Although some plants have beencredited with medicinal properties, he points out that thetherapeutic effects are sometimes found to be a result ofthe endophytic fungi that are part of their makeup.Scientists studying Taxol, which is derived from PacificYew bark, found that it was actually produced byTaxomyces andreanae, an endophytic fungi within thetree. An overview of notable medicinal species and theiruses are included along with explicit instructions formaking cold soak extracts, tinctures and decoctions forthose who wish to make their own fungal medicines.

“Working with Fungi” is one of the most valuable andextensive chapters for anyone who is interested in culti-vation or mycoremediation. Peter enthusiasticallyprovides in depth, clearly presented directions for culti-vation and spore propagation. e appendix encom-passes cultivation parameters for different species andonline resources for home cultivation. How to start andmaintain outdoor mushroom beds, and how to enrichcompost are also covered.

Mycoremediation is also discussed as a way to breakdown toxic chemical and oil spills, and the plastic thatis clogging our landfills. A few projects that his grouphas been involved in are covered.

ere is even a short section on cooking and fermentingwith fungi including a few interesting recipes like BlackTrumpet Nettle Quiche or for mycotonics like Kombuchaand Kefir. Myco-brew recipes for Heather Mead andReishi Ginger Turmeric Pale Ale look interesting.

Mushroom-related crafts like myco-pigment dyes andpapermaking are also incorporated into this treatise.Activities for children, like a fungal scavenger hunt,teach about mushrooms and spur their interest in thefungal Queendom. ere even is a format for a mush-room board game called Salv-age that gets you to thinklike a fungus long after the collapse of civilization inorder to heal the world.

Just in case things were getting too serious, the bookends with a page of myco-jokes: “What did the Reishimushroom say to Turkey Tail? Do you want to take ashelfie?”

Peter McCoy’s Radical Mycology would be a great addi-tion to a citizen mycologist’s library. As he points out:We have much to learn from the Queendom of Fungi as“teachers and allies in a more just and equal world.”

Editor’s note: is book and others reviewed in NJMANews are added to NJMA’s Robert Peabody Library andare available for club members to use. Contact IgorSafonov (njmycomember@gmail.com) to arrange toborrow this and other books in our collection).

16NJMA NEWS

(continues on next page)

OYSTER MUSHROOMCULTIVATION WORKSHOP (with full apologies to Will)by J. Pisciotta

Bubble bubble substrate crumble;Oysters spawn, mycelium double.Round about the bucket go; In the hardwood pellets throw.-- Measur’d water, ready got, Boil thou first, then i’ the pot! Hours to wait, ten, twelve or so Help a tasty fungus grow.Sawdust twill the wood become Round about, mix it some.Bubble bubble substrate crumble;Oysters spawn, mycelium double.To bag of plastic, polypro In the side ear spawn will go. Oyster white, be good to eatOstreatus; sawdust soon to meet.Wood dust ready, scoop it in12 in number, then bag to spin.Twist it clos’d with air insidegive room to churn, now mix and slideBubble bubble substrate crumble Oysters spawn, mycelium double.Mixing done, tis time to formA dense block easy to keep warm.Press out air, compress with zealTwist and close, 2 ties to seal!On each side, a hole to prick,In number 5, t’will do the trick.At home, a place of warm and darkIs where to bring your block to park.Mist it, turn it when you shoulden the shroom is firm and good.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. e New JerseyMycological Association’s banner warmly beckoned theparticipants of the Oyster Cultivation Workshop on aSunday in March. On entering upstairs at the hut,seeing our instructor, Frank Kushnir, for the first time,the witches’ scene of Macbeth immediately came tomind, with a plastic bucket substituting for the caldronand the Warming Hut at Pleasant Valley Park substi-tuting for a dark cave. ere was Frank peering downand vigorously stirring a large somewhat steamy bucketof “something,” just like one of the three witches. Whichis exactly what myself and about 20 other NJMAmembers and guests were there to find out about.

Frank is a member of NJMA and of GroupGrowing, andis really passionate about growing mushrooms. Hisenthusiasm really came through as he took us throughthe process of turning hardwood pellets normally usedas fuel to produce heat, into sawdust that we would theninoculate with oyster mushroom spawn.

After everyone had assembled and had a chance to chatover coffee and cookies, we all sat down at a set of longtables with several plastic buckets spaced out along thelength of the tables. Frank was set up at one end withhis bucket, several implements and many jars full ofsterilized grain that had been fully colonized withvarious oyster mycelium. We went around the roomand introduced ourselves. en Frank began to take usthrough the steps we were there to learn.

He gave us a jump start on the process, as normallyafter boiling water is added to a bucket containing thehardwood fuel pellets, it takes at least 12 hours for thepellets to break apart into the sawdust. is becomesthe growing medium for the mushrooms. For our work-shop, Frank had done this ahead of time and oursawdust was ready for us in the buckets spaced out onthe tables in front of us. We worked in teams of aboutfour to a bucket. Next, Frank explained how 70%isopropyl alcohol is used to sterilize anything thatcomes into contact with the growing medium: thestainless steel mixing implements, a skewer for pokingholes, and us! One brave member of each team rolledup their sleeves and misted their arms with the alcoholand let them air dry. I say brave because it was, after all,a chilly day in March and not what you’d call toasty inthe somewhat misnamed “Warming Hut.”

After arms were dry, it was time then to spray the spoonwith alcohol before it could be used to touch the sawdust.

en we each got a sterile, clean polypropylene plastic bagwhich we dated and labeled with the name of themycelium that we were about to introduce: Pleurotusostreatus. e particular strain that we used Frank

PHOTO BY FRANK KUSHNIR

explained was “Chief Niwot.” Each of the plastic bags care-fully got about a pint of spawn that had been growing in ajar of sterilized grain. is is more than we would use athome, as our current workspace with the large number ofstudents was likely more contaminated than what wouldoccur in a more controlled area at home. Since this wasadvertised as a “hands on” workshop, now was the time wegot to use our hands as we massaged the bags to break upthe grain as much as possible into individual kernels. iswould facilitate a good distribution of the inoculatedgrains into the growing medium. en our slightly chilled,but sterilized, team member, opened the bucket at ourtable and began spooning out sawdust into the plasticbags that we had prepared. Once the sawdust was added,we twisted the tops of the bags closed being careful to trapsome air also. is makes it easier to mix the spawn andsawdust together. e goal is to get the grain distributedevenly throughout the sawdust so the mycelium will fullycolonize the bag, leading to the fruiting (and eating mush-rooms!) stage. is really was a “hands on” workshopbecause our hands were working very hard now to mix thesawdust and grain together.

When the mixing was done, Frank instructed us to formthe bags into dense uniform blocks with firm pressuregetting as much air out as possible. en we sealed thebags closed with twist ties as tight as possible. en apoking tool was sterilized with the alcohol and holes werepoked into the plastic. ese holes will eventually becomethe places where the mycelium will, if we are lucky, pushout a fruit and (Ta Da!) yummy oyster mushrooms to eat!

Frank was super at answering all our questions during theworkshop and at demonstrating proper mixing tech-niques. He sent us home with instructions on how to carefor the blocks and what to expect over the next fewmonths of growing. We all got a written set of instructionsemailed to us. And a few participants have been sharingphotos of how their blocks are progressing at home. Myown mycelia are colonizing nicely and I look forward toseeing (and eating) my first homegrown oyster! Hmmm, Ishould have asked Frank what the odds were of findingany with a pearl…

handled in September rose 13 percent. e per-kilogramprice for matsutake grown in Iwate Prefecture was about24,000 yen — about 10 percent lower than last year.

“We had sufficient rainfall in August, then it quicklybecame cooler. ose were good conditions for thehealthy growth of matsutake,” said a spokesperson atNaganoken Rengo Seika Co., a vegetable and fruitswholesaler headquartered in Ueda, Nagano Prefecture.

Kyoto and other areas are also expected to enjoy a richharvest of the mushrooms this autumn, according toFumihiko Yoshimura, a representative of the Kyoto-based citizens group Matsutakeyama Fukkatsu Sase-tai(Matsutake Forest Revival Troop).

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The completed bag of Pleurotus ostreatus (Oysters) in fruit.

PHOTO BY FRANK KUSHNIR

PHOTOS BY SALVATORE TURDO

BYTES, BITS, & BITES (continued from page 8)

MATSUTAKE BUMPER CROP (continued from page 3)

18NJMA NEWS

WHO OWNS THE ‘SHROOMS?by Susan Goldhorreprinted from the Boston Mycological Club Bulletin, Vol. 69-2,June 2014

Put it down to my having arrived at mycology late inlife. Or maybe it's because I’ve been a solitary collectoruntil recently. On the other hand, it could be due to myhaving pot-hunted mostly on trails that don’t see a lot ofuse. And then again, maybe I’m just dense. Whatever itis, it’s only recently that I’ve become aware of thetendency of my fellow mushroom hunters to believe(and we're talking pretty deep level belief here) that theyown or somehow have a right to certain ’shrooms.

I first heard it from Ken, who makes his living selling thethings. He claimed that someone had stolen his Hen of theWoods that he’d left to grow larger. Stolen? His? Pardonme? Is this like a fisherman cussing out the guy whocatches the cod he let go last year because it was under-sized? en my pal Larry did the same thing. ere wewere, collecting on Concord conservation land, not too farfrom Walden Pond, and Larry was not happy becausesomeone had come in since he was last there and taken hismushrooms. Another pal, Sarah, chimed in that she hadhad her eye on some nice little Hens but someone hadtaken them before she judged them mature. But Sarahdidn’t say they were hers. (Is this a male/female thing?)Meanwhile, we were trawling the woods in a no-mush-room-left-behind foray, taking every edible for miles,including some delicious young sulphur shelfs that somepoor clod had probably left to grow larger.

And then Larry introduced me to a further riff on thissubject. He announced that his mushrooms had beenstolen by Russians. is sounded to me like somethingleft over from the Cold War. “How do you know?”, Iasked him. “Because they took all the boletes and all theRussulas. And they left the Entolomas and theSulphureus. at’s what Russians do.” I liked this idea –the concept of a mushroom detective. A ’shroomingSherlock. is person could ID not only the fungi (bytheir crumbs and stumps) but their takers. Ethnicityalone would not be enough. A really good FI (FungalInvestigator) would be able to pin down the individual.“Aha! look at how this stem has been cut! is is thework of Boris; I recognize the nick in his knife blade!”

e problem is, once we knew who took it, what couldwe do about it? Could we confront Boris and demandour Russulas back? (ey’d probably be eaten by thattime anyway.) Could we sue for damages? Or mentalcruelty? Of course not. We’re all collecting off the samepublic land. And, for those of us who live in mega-lopolitan sprawl, there’s a lot of foot traffic on anythingresembling a trail through the woods.

oreau thought that he was living in an era whenwilderness was being destroyed. In fact, he was. But hewas able to get away from civilization and its discon-

tents by moving two miles out of Concord to WaldenPond. By 1935, as many as 25,000 people a day werevisiting Walden Pond. Forty years later, when DEMtook over management, they put a limit on the numberof people visiting (I suppose to maintain our sense ofsolitude and wilderness). e number they chose was1,000 at any one time. Since folks cycle in and out, thenumber of annual visitors is actually about half amillion; most during prime mushrooming season. Andmind you, Walden Pond Reservation is no Yosemite. It’stiny. So – taking all of this into consideration – 1 havetwo suggestions.

e first is that I suppose we should be thankful that weget any mushrooms. When I think about the number ofpeople tramping through the woods hereabouts, I can’tbelieve that I filled my basket as full as I did, or that wegot eight species of edibles. It’s true that we didn’t getmany of most of those species. It's true that only four ofthose species were choice. It’s true that I live in constantenvy of those mycophiles in the Pacific Northwest whoget giant baskets of chanterelles or those in Michiganwho get hundreds of morels. I also live in envy of peoplewho are Olympic skiers or Nobel laureates. Big deal. If,as I learned in high school, the primary characteristic ofprotoplasm is irritability, the primary characteristic ofsentient life is probably envy. You know – “I think,therefore I envy”?

e second is that when I examine the cause of ourdiscontent, it’s really that there are too many mushroomcollectors out there. (In fact, there are too many peopleout there, but that’s another issue.) ere probably wassome pre-lapsarian time when the Iron Curtain heldentire nations of mycophiles at bay, and local collectorswere few and far between. If you were lucky enough tobe pot-hunting then, you really could wait for yourHens to grow without anxiety, and regard all flushes asyours. ose days are gone. But, fellow mycophiles, letme ask you a tough question. Every mushroom club inAmerica (probably in the world) is working hard tocreate new collectors. We hold classes. We invite anyand all to become members. We lead forays over ourentire region in our self-defeating attempt to showeveryone every possible collecting area. We push mush-rooming! What is wrong with us? Don’t we see theconnection between the burgeoning of our member-ships and the emptiness of our baskets?

ere is only one solution. Dissolve the clubs. Take themycosites off the Web. Compost the books (except forthose we own, of course). Or burn them, if you thinkthat will add to the morel population next spring. Stoptalking publically about the joys of ’shrooming. Do yourealize that Larry – that same Larry who mourned thedisappearance of his mushrooms – told me that he wasoffering a lecture on fungi and a walk in the very woodsin which the disappearance had occurred? Doesn’t hesee the cause and effect?

19NJMA NEWS

Friends, we must take our cue from the fungi we love sowell. We must go underground. No more loose lips. Nomore club PR. No more exhibiting at the garden showor holding mushroom fairs. No more proselytizingeveryone we meet in the woods. If you must talk aboutmushrooms, you might wish to discuss the variety ofsymptoms caused by the toxic ones. Liver transplantsare always a good topic. Let’s bring back the fine oldexpression, “toadstool,” with all of its unsavory connota-tions. And for goodness sake, stop using those openbaskets where everyone can see what you’re doing. Inshort, no more self-destructive, masochistic behavior. Adecade or more of this and the tide will have turned. Wewill own the ’shrooms!

EXPLORING THEFRAGRANT MATSUTAKEby Constance Greenreprinted from Spore Prints, newsletter of the Puget Sound Myco-logical Society, November 2015. From http://fantasticfungi.com,October 10, 2015

is legendary mushroom is probably the greatestbarely explored ingredient in the kitchens of westernculture. In terms of preciousness, dollars, and demand;only Italian white and Perigord truffles surpass it in theworld. e face of any Japanese person to whom I’vehanded a matsutake always looks much like ours whenwe got our first bicycle. Every single time, with glowingface, they hold the matsutake with great care, lift it totheir nose, and inhale deeply with closed eyes. Nothingin the world smells like matsutake.

ree things have unnecessarily slowed the progress ofthis great mushroom into western kitchens. e first issimply money. Historically, matsutake have com-manded knee-buckling prices. is is no longer thecase, owing both to the weakening Japanese economyand to the increasing numbers of countries harvestingmatsutake for export to Japan. Even now, over 95% of

these mushrooms are shipped to Japan. In years like2003, Korea, China, and Mexico have had huge crops ofthe brown matsutake preferred by Japan. is has leftthe white matsutake of Canada and the U.S.A. asbargains in a more and more flooded marketplace. Evenin years of high prices, however, the open-capped (#3—#5 grade quality) are affordable for Americans. Sinceprices are based on Japanese auction prices, they canvary significantly based on demand and the importantJapanese holiday schedule. ese variants are nowdiminishing to the point that price should no longer bea major barricade to our kitchens.

e insidious second reason is cooking technique. Ahorribly boring date could be had with the sexiest andmost fascinating person if you chose to take thembowling, for instance. Likewise, chefs have sauteedmatsutake and wondered what the hoopla is about. istechnique is not the path to the marvelous matsutake.

A final obstacle is the unique character of this mush-room. It is not for the faint-hearted chef. Its flavor is sounlike most familiar western mushrooms that itdemands a different cooking vocabulary.

It is eagerly sought by my customers who are chefs ofgreat imagination (omas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Tracides Jardin, Kory Lee, etc.), but it remains puzzling tomost others. is is a terrible shame.

Matsutakes from the NJ Pine Barrens

PHOTO BY JIM BARG

Mycelium

The mole has it at her fingertips, the slug finds itdelicious, the chipmunk is a connoisseur of its

networks, under the deer's sharp hooves, it isbroken and healed.

It is a blanket woven in the bed of the earth.

It is patient as the desert, willing to wait a monthor a season for the engorgement of rain, the carnalurgency of fruit, the ethereal casting of spores.

Some believe they know about the longings of trees,

their reachings for the sky, their intimacy with the

air, but a tree meets its true lover in a secret tryst

under the earth, in the clasping of root tips the

sheathing, the enfolding, the flowing back and

forth, the quenchings and bodily gifts of the

mycorrhyzal embrace.

– Kathie Fiveash, author, Island Naturalist

A poem reprinted from Mainely Mushrooms,Maine Mycological Association, April-June 2016

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