Mushroaming Online Classes
by Daniel Winkler - link to bio
Mushroaming Online Classes:
Fungal Fruits of the Forest
Spring 2023
Three Classes in April:
Wednesdays April 5 and 12 & Tuesday April 18
all at 7-8.30 pm PDT
Note: recording is accessible on demand for 2 weeks after each class.
Admission per talk is $10, each class needs its own signing up.
Introduction to Mushroom Foraging, Identification & Refining your ID Skills
Wednesday April 5, 7 pm
Link to sign up
This class will help people new to mushroom foraging identify wild mushrooms, but also contains abundant information to improve identification skills for more experienced mushroom hunters. Daniel will present mushrooms from many perspectives: morphology-how they look, how to identify them safely and the diverse resources available in the PNW (online, books, clubs etc.) to help you successfully forage. We will look in detail at a wide variety of mushrooms growing in the PNW with a bias toward edible fungi, highlighting characteristics important for safe identification. We will address questions like, what are they made of (incl. nutritional value), when, where and why they grow, or, in other words, what is their role in the ecosystem. Understanding mushrooms is very helpful for finding them! All this will be illustrated with Daniel's stunning mushroom photography.
The Best Edible Spring Mushrooms of the PNW
Part 1:
Natural & Fire Morels, False Morels, as well as Corals and Puffballs - Wednesday April 12, 7 pm
Link to sign up
Spring mushrooms are starting to fruit in the Pacific Northwest now! The first Wrinkled thimble caps (Verpa bohemica) are pushing up around cottonwoods; if it is a riparian forest a bit later Blonde morels (Morchella americana) might grow, if you are very lucky! Laddered landscape morels (Morchella importuna) grace beauty bark and other suburban sites. Up in the mountains a wide range of morels await; “Naturals”, such as Snyder’s morel and Brown morel (Morchella snyderi & M. brunnea) and Fire morels such as the Exceptional morel (M. eximia), Luxuriant morel (M. exuberans), Sexy morel (M. sextelata), and Gray or Fuzzy foot morel (M. tomentosa) will follow, if the weather cooperates. You might read some of these common names for the first time; All the mushrooms in Daniel’s book “Fruits of the Forest”- projected to be available in early fall, will have common names along with their scientific names. Daniel will also share how to access burned area maps online that let you plan your morel forays. In addition, edible Spring corals and Puffballs will be presented.
Part 2:
Spring King Boletes & Oyster mushrooms, and other pored and gilled mushrooms - Tuesday, Apr. 18, 7 pm
Link to sign up
The first Oyster mushrooms we already enjoyed in February; they were growing in big clusters right after the frosts out of a dead cottonwood in Kirkland WA. Soon spring abundance of Pale Oysters (P. pulmonarius) growing on dead alders will delight in the lowlands. Oysters are fairly easy to identify when sticking at first with at least hand sized mushrooms laterally attached, with short or no stem, growing in clusters on wood. Learning to identify them is such an enrichment, they grow year round in many environments! Other gilled spring mushrooms to enjoy are Mica caps (Coprinellus micaceus), Fairy ring mushrooms (Marasmius oreades) and Shaggy Parasols (Chlorophyllum spp.) and a bit later Deer Mushroom (Pluteus cervinus) and the Prince (Agaricus augustus). In the mountains, some of the first edible mushrooms are the snow white Subalpine Woodwax (Hygrophorus subalpinus) and Conifer Woodear (Auricularia americana), the later making great mushroom chips after marination. And then there are the delicious Spring kings (Boletus rex-veris) on the Eastern slope of the Cascades and down into the Sierra. Easy to identify once found, but they require some effort to get to their habitat. In addition, there are several other very enjoyable boletes, such as several Suede boletes (Xerocomellus spp.) and Butter boletes (Butyriboletus primiregius and B. abieticola).
Some Feedback Received for the Spring Mushroom Classes:
Daniel, thank you for the great webinar! It has proved very useful to me already. In a couple of places I now have found many mushrooms that I had not seen before and some I had seen but had not known much about. You covered them in your presentation and I subsequently checked out all the characteristics. Surprisingly, I found a Shaggy Parasol. I picked several of them today and they all checked out by your criteria, white pores, orange staining etc. Thanks again for the great information.
Ron K.
That was a terrific class, thank you for all that information, delivered so humorously....
by Anna W.
The Spring Edibles webinar on Zoom worked out very well, and was highly informative. Thank you! I'm looking forward to the Boletes webinar.
Patty C.
Really enjoyed your talk last night. It was fun and very informative,
Elizabeth C.
I thoroughly enjoyed your presentations. You are a very engaging presenter and a font of valuable information,
Amande F.
I caught your class last night on spring fungi. Great class! Lot's of great info that’s very hard to get out of field guides
Zachary C.
Thank you for the super fun and informative webinar last night. Will definitely join for another!
Carrie V.
I just wanted to thank you for the spring mushroom talk on Wednesday this week. I learned a ton! I also have been enjoying your Bolete flashcards.
Dan L.
Admission per talk is $10
if you have questions, need to pay by check or need reduced rate send me an email.
My new book:
"Fruits of the Forest
A Field Guide to PNW Edible Mushrooms"
is available here
Below images from my Western Boletes presentation
Spring King - Boletus rex-veris in its habitat and in our basket.
Sample of Spring MushroomS
A nice nest of Morchella tridentina, a "Natural" blonde morel in the black morel clade.
What an awesome Oyster (Pleurotus pulmonarius) fruiting growing on a dead alder!
Beautiful Caloscypha fulgens fruits at the same time morels do, but is not edible.
Probably a young Snyder's morel (Morchella snyderi), one of our "Naturals", meaning they fruit without fire occurrence.
Morchella exima group, one of the common early fire morels
The Spring King, Boletus rex-veris, what an awesome mushroom!
Here front and back side from our new Boletes flash card deck that contains 55 Western species, available here
Gyromita montana, when well cooked a harmless and tasty Brain Mushroom aka False morel. My knife is available here
Stuffed morels! Filling made out of saffron rice, goat cheese, fried minced morel stems with onions & garlic, yummy!
A fresh Mica cap, Coprinellus micaceus. Mica refers to the fine grains that usually wash away with the first rain.
some more detailed bolete info for the PNW I published online 10 years ago
Edible Spring Mushrooms of the PNWby Daniel Winkler - link to bio
7 pm March 24, 2021
This PNW Spring Edible Mushrooms class is designed for people new to foraging as well as experienced mushroom hunters who will be able to learn new fungal facts and tricks that will enrich your life and fridge. Daniel will focus on how, when and where to find our best spring mushrooms and how to identify them safely recommending the best mushroom reference materials for the PNW and how to use these resources. All this will be illustrated with Daniel's stunning mushroom photography. Mushrooms covered will include Natural, Landscape, Blonde & Fire Morels (Morchella spp.), Spring morels or Thimble caps (Verpa bohemica) and False morels (Gyromitra montana) and how to tell them apart and safely process and prepare them. Daniel will share where to find online maps to locate last year’s burns that should burst forth in morels in a few months; Also, there will be plenty of snow melt humidity lavishly soaking mountain soils, which should not only benefit morels but also delicious Spring Kings (Boletus rex-veris) in the Cascades. A fairly easy to find low-land spring fruiter is the always abundant Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) that also has great medicinal qualities. Furthermore short-lived, but long loved Shaggy Manes (Coprinus comatus) can fruit in spring as well. The similar, but much smaller, less glorious, still enjoyable backyard & park edible Mica caps (Coprinellus micaceus) has already started to fruit and will be going for awhile. And there are several other spring & year-round mushrooms that will be covered.
Furthermore, Daniel will share ideas how to prepare your delicious spring mushrooms and will be open to questions.
Looking very much forward meeting you at the webinar!
Spots are limited and registration started already.
Admission is $10
if you have questions, need to pay by check or need reduced rate send me an email.
Registration Link
A review I received:
Daniel, thank you for the great webinar! It has proved very useful to me already. In a couple of places that regularly walk I now have found many mushrooms that I had not seen before and some I had seen but had not known much about. You covered them in your presentation and I subsequently checked out all the characteristics. Surprisingly, I found a Cauliflower mushroom (Sparassis radicata) that was in an unusual place - a knothole of a downed log. Another one that I had seen but knew little about was the Shaggy Parasol. I picked several of them today and they all checked out by your criteria and that of several books that I have - white pores, orange staining etc.
Thanks again for the great information. Ron K.
2 of Daniel's handy fold-out field guides, available here
