Vegetarian Bacon Recipe
Courtesy of David Pilz
Inspiration for recipe by Kim Kittredge.
Slice Leccinum ponderosum or Leccinum manzanitae about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thin and dry crispy. (Slices of uniform thiness work best.) When ready to prepare, soak until flexible but not fully imbibed (approximately 1 minute). Pat the suface dry with a towel. Sprinkle with a little salt. Fry in hot oil until brown while holding flat with a spatula for uniform browning. Serve. Yummy!
1998 Mt. Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Show and Fall Festival: Mushroom Display
By Peg Boulay
Last autumn, mushroom fans watched the weather with anticipation and foreboding. A prolonged summer drought and early freeze in the mountains did not promise a bountiful array of fungal fruitings. To seasoned collectors, the mushrooms seemed fewer and less diverse than in other years. We worried about how the display at the show would be. Would there be no mushrooms?
But our concern was unfounded. To everyone’s surprise, this year’s display had an
impressive 283 species, the 2nd highest number of species ever recorded at the Mt. Pisgah mushroom show. The 1997 show had the highest number of species ever collected, with a grand total of 310. The Mt. Pisgah Mushroom Show has become the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Visits by a mushroom expert from Washington, a mushroom photographer from California, a documentary film crew from Canada, and a mushroom fanatic from New Zealand reflected the growing fame of the show!Each year the number of volunteers helping out with the mushroom display increases, and the more people looking for unusual fungi and the more people identifying the odd mushrooms, the more intriguing the variety of species we have at the show! With some of the bigger mushrooms missing this year, dozens of volunteer collectors looked more diligently to find the smaller mushrooms that were fruiting. The diversity of mushrooms also reflected the expertise of visiting experts who worked on identifying some of the more mysterious and challenging groups of mushrooms. All these efforts resulted in 44 mushrooms species that were displayed at the show for the first time.
As usual, a table of experts identified mushrooms as they arrived and provided sage
advice to collectors with questions. Festival-goers who brought mushrooms from backyards, parks, and forests were given the name and interesting life history facts about their favorite fungi. We are grateful to the mushroom authorities who donated their time and expertise at the Identification table: Ankie Camacho, Freeman Rowe, Dan Luoma, Jamie Platt, Bruce Newhouse, Suzie Holmes, Molly Widmer, and Marcia Peeters.It was a difficult but fun task for “Best of Show” judge Freeman Rowe to choose the most spectacular specimens among hundreds of interesting, colorful and lovely mushrooms. The grand prize was awarded to a striking cluster of the rare Golden Phaeolepiota (Phaeolepiota aurea), collected by Dan Luoma. The first runner-up was given to a firm, juicy Beefsteak Fungus (Fistulina hepatica). It was the only specimen that came to the show and was collected by Jeani Sapienza. The second runner-up was won by a large, blushing Bitter Bolete (Boletus calopus), collected by Kendon Bright. The fortunate finders each won a framed display of Mexican postage stamps portraying beautifully-illustrated mushrooms.
Edible and Poisonous mushroom displays were popular displays again and included 18 common edible mushrooms and 12 poisonous mushrooms. Visitors were able to compare an edible Golden Chanterelle (Cantharellus formosus) right next to several poisonous look-alikes, including the False Chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) and Scaly Chanterelle (Gomphus floccosus). Knowledgeable volunteers (Cheshire Mayrsohn, Peg Boulay, Rebecca Meyer, and Russ Kelly) answered questions such as “Are there any deadly mushrooms in Oregon?,” “Are there any rules for telling a poisonous mushroom from an edible one?,” and “What is a good way to cook the Cauliflower Mushroom (Sprassis crispa)?” In addition to providing guidelines for safe consumption of fungi, the volunteers even shared a few of their favorite recipes.
The annual popularity of educational displays inspired us to expand the display section, making the show even more diverse and interesting. Members of the North American Truffling Society, based in Corvallis, answered questions about truffles and brought aromatic dried specimens and truffling tools. Lichens of all sorts of colors, shapes and textures were on display. Jamie Platt and Eric Peterson of Oregon State University chatted about the fascinating life cycles and ecology of lichens, which are actually 2 organisms (a fungus and either a algae or a bacteria) benefiting each other. The “Weird and Wonderful” table, created by Cheshire Mayrsohn, humorously presented some of the more unusual looking and named fungi. The U.S. Forest Service provided information on ecologically-responsible mushroom collecting and gave out collection permits. And once again, we were fortunate to have Maggie Rogers from the Oregon Mycological Society present her display on dying with mushrooms. Maggie was surrounded by a glowing rainbow of golds, pinks, purples, blues and greens, all samples of wool dyed using mushrooms for color.
We plan on having all this and more at the 1999 Mt. Pisgah Mushroom Show. The volunteer organizers have brain-stormed even more great ideas for new displays we would like to
attempt, such as a cooking demonstration and a “Smell and Touch” discovery table. Mark your calenders now for the best family fun event of the fall!
2000 Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and Cascade Mycological Society Mushroom Show and Fall Festival: Mushroom Display Article for Tree Times
By Peg Boulay and Marcia Peeters
Despite a crispy, crunchy, mushroom-unfriendly fall, new and expanded education and
activity tables made the mushroom display at the 2000 Mt. Pisgah Mushroom Show and Fall Festival one of the best ever! Cascade Mycological Society joined Mt. Pisgah Arboretum as show sponsors, which meant even more volunteers and creative energy to help produce one of the premier mushroom shows in the West! The dry Autumn caused sporadic and unpredicable mushroom fruitings in western Oregon. But the persistence and knowledge of volunteer collectors resulted in a respectable mushroom display of 290 species. Twenty-six of these species had not been previously identified at the show.
Once again, we were fortunate to have expert help in identifying mushrooms and
answering visitors’ questions. We are very grateful to Dan Luoma & Joyce Eberhart from Oregon State University, Ankie Camacho from University of California Berkeley, and our local specialists Freeman Rowe, Joe Spivack, and several CMS members for sharing their expertise.
There is always much speculation as to what muchrooms will win the coveted “Best of
Show” prize. This year Ryan Turner’s spectacularly large and intricate Daedalea quercina was deemed best of the best. The 1st prize was awarded to several Phallus impudicus,
ranging in age from egg to fully mature, collected by Kyle Hammon and his students, Tad
Butler, Travis Marep, and Darcy Hulse, and 2st place went to to an impressively large
Boletus edulis collected by Aubrey Carney. As if finding these treasures wasn’t exciting
enough, the lucky winners were awarded ribbons and beautiful framed mushroom stamps from Mexico. Freeman Rowe, founder and judge of the Best of Show contest, generously donated the prizes.
The expanded educational tent proved popular with show-goers. There was more room for the “Edible and Poisonous” display, which was always crowded. This display allowed viewers to compare edible mushrooms with their non-edible look-alikes and ask questions on identification, finding edibles, tips on habitat for different species, and even favorite
recipes.
“Fun Facts about Fungi” was a new display that included information on fungal ecology,
especially relationships between fungi and plants (mychorrizae, mycotrophic plants) and the role of these relationships in plant establishment and growth. The display also featured some hands-on activities that particularly engaged kids. The activity area called “A Closer Look” provided 10x power magnifying lens and mushrooms with interesting details and textures to examine. We used a microscope and a videoscope, kindly provided by Lane Community College, to project images of mushroom spores. Spores are normally invisible to the unaided eye but are often interesting and ornate, which piqued the interest of our visitors.
The Lichen display was also expanded this year, with over 60 species identified. This
year’s “Cultural Use of Mushrooms” focused on cultivated medicinal mushrooms and included commercially-grown blocks of Ling Chi (Ganoderma lucidum) and Maitake (Grifola frondosa).
With the help of dedicated and patient volunteers we achieved another first, we
digitally photographed all of the mushrooms on display. These photographs will serve as a reference library, will help with future identification, and will someday be available to
the public through CMS’s webpage. We would like to thank Action Rentall & Party Time, who loaned us a 20′ x 20′ canopy that we used for a “behind the scenes” work area for mushroom identification and digital photography. We also used the work area to store odd, peculiar, and rare fungi waiting to be identified. We always need a place to put those lonely boxes of generic brown mushrooms - often belonging to the difficult genera Cortinarius, Russula, and Ramaria!
North American Truffling Society (NATS) participated again this year, displaying
different kinds of truffles and answering questions. Terry Gatchell also joined us again
to demonstrate pasteurization and innoculation techniques for home-grown mushrooms and sold his cultivation kits. Other vendors sold wild mushrooms and other “grow your own” kits, including shitake logs. Representatives from the Willamette and Siuslaw National Forests and the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station gave out free mushroom picking permits and information on collecting mushrooms on public land.
Among our innovations this year, we decided to leave the show up an extra day, hoping to
provide a learning experience for school groups. The LCC mycology students took advantage of the extra opportunity to study the mushrooms, but we were not able to line up schools at short notice. We plan on leaving the display up longer next year, and will invite schools in advance. We also hope to explore funding possibilities to assist school participation, as we were told that school field trip budgets have been slashed.
We are planning even more new displays and activities for next year, and perhaps a few surprises to celebrate the 20th Mt. Pisgah Mushroom Show and Fall Festival. See you next year!
The Cascade Mycology Society is grateful for the great energy, hard work, dedication,
and commitment of so many volunteers. The following volunteers helped create, set up, and staff the mushroom displays: Cameron Bergen, Bob Blanchard, Peg Boulay, Jim Boyd, Kendon Bright, Ron Hamill, Kyle Hammon, Russ Kelly, Krista Kennard, Cheshire Mayrsohn, Chris Melloti, Rebecca Meyer, Bruce Newhouse, Marcia Peeters, Dave Pilz, Jena Price, Freeman Rowe, Jeani Sapienza, Orin Schumacher, Karen Tate, Ryan Turner, Molly Widmer, the LCC Mycology students, and the dozens of people who collect mushrooms for the show each year.
Mount Pisgah Arboretum honors Cascade Mycological Society: Twenty Years - And Fruiting More Abundantly Than Ever!
At the Arboretum’s annual meeting, on behalf of CMS, Marcia Peeters accepted a beautifully framed 2001 Mushroom Show poster. Cascade Mycological Society is grateful and honored to have received an award for extraordinary service from the Mount Pisgah Arboretum.
By Marcia Peters
Hundreds of volunteers and thousands of hours make the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and Cascade Mycological Society Mushroom Show what it is today - a Fantastic Fall Festival which must not be missed!
The Mt. Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Show was started in 1981 by Freeman Rowe and students of his Lane Community College Mushroom Class - along with former students and dedicated volunteers from the community. Created as a fundraiser for the Arboretum, the show grew to the stately stature it is today, spawning the Cascade Mycological Society in its wake. Every year, as the show grows, so do the opportunities one can indulge in.
Our mycotrophic plants display included Allatropa virgata (candy stick) and it’s fungal associate Tricholoma magnivelare (matsutake), Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe) with various Russula species, Hemitomes congestum (gnome plant) with various Hydnellum species, and Pleuricospora fimbriolata (fringed pinesap) with Gautieria monticola. This display was very nicely done to include a dried example of the plant, the fresh mushroom, and a poster explaining the relationship.
Other posters included information on ants and termites that ‘farm’ fungi for food, the largest known fungus on the planet, mushroom structure, spore prints, mychorrhizal relationships, truffles, poisonous mushrooms, edible mushrooms, the effects of commercial harvesting and more. One could peruse the books on fungi or use a handlens to take a closer look at the gills or pores of a mushroom. Thanks to Lane Community College, one could view spores and spore ornamentation via a monitor hooked to a phase contrast microscope, or look at those teeny tiny fungal parts with a dissecting scope.
A large lichen display, covering 2 1/2 tables was available, as were knowledgeable volunteers to answer those many many questions. Lichens consist of a fungus and an algae living in a symbiotic relationship. The fungus provides the structure while the algae provides the food.
Maggie Rogers brought her wonderful collection of mushroom-dyed wool, Taylor Lockwood signed and sold his new book, the Willamette National Forest issued personal use permits, commercial mushroom kits were available for purchase, and Terry Gatchell once again offered pasteurization demonstrations.
Freeman Rowe’s ‘Best of Show’ awards included: Lentinellus montanus (Best of Show), Auricularia auricula (First Place), and Catathelasma ventricosa (Second Place).
Representatives from Cascade Mycological Society (CMS), North American Truffling Society (NATS), Oregon Mycological Society (OMS), and Oregon State University were on hand to answer questions and identify mushrooms.
We had 328 mushrooms on display - an all time record high - with 44 of those ‘new to the show’. So far, over the 20 years, we’ve recorded 660 species on display. Now that’s fungal diversity!
Many thanks to Freeman Rowe - a most inspirational, charismatic and empowering person! For without his insight 20 years ago, we would not be here today.
Forays — General Information
Liability Waiver
Participants on all trips will be asked to sign a standard waiver form.
To save time, you can download the waiver now (click here), print, sign, and bring it on the foray.
You can also download a PDF copy of our edibility guidelines (click here).Equipment and Gear needed: *Always be prepared for wet conditions.*
*Most Important: A watch to keep track of the time.
*Rain gear, waterproof boots/shoes and a change of clothes and socks.
*Mushroom Basket, Pocket Knife, and/or soft brush for wiping mushrooms clean.
*Identification Books (optional, there will be identification on site),
*Lunch and some sweets or snacks that will give you energy to last through the day.
*A partner to survey with and help keep track of (can be assigned at foray).
Mushroom Picking Permits
You should always check with all the federal agencies on whose lands you may pick before the beginning of each mushroom season to find out what the latest regulations are. If you are not picking on federal lands, make sure that you have the correct type of permission from the landowner.
On CMS-sponsored forays we usually visit federal lands, and you may need a permit. Obtaining a FREE USE PERMIT from the Willamette National Forest office (downtown Eugene) or a Ranger District Office before the trip is strongly encouraged.(Click here for additional mushroom permit information)