WITH SUCH BOUNTY available for harvest here on the North Olympic Peninsula, mushrooms can be relegated to the rear of the line when compared to salmon, crab, clams or even homegrown fruits and vegetables.
But as a firm believer in fungus, a core spore supporter, if you will, it’s time to shed a little light on organisms that love the dark and damp.
Fall is prime time for more than buddy comedy sitcom rehashes and dramatic duds on your television lineup. Fall is the best time for fungi.
And the place to go for education and appreciation of all things mushroom, is the annual Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society Mushroom Show.
The free event runs Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sequim Elks Lodge, 143 Port Williams Road.
Displays of more than 100 wild mushrooms are planned, including many species that grow on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Examples of edible and poisonous mushrooms will be showcased, and attendees can learn how to cultivate mushrooms, make dye for natural fibers and forage safely.
Mushroom growing kits will be for sale.
Attendees may bring in mushrooms they’ve found and have them identified by club members.
Experts will be on hand to answer fungus-focused questions.
For more information, visit www.olymushrooms.org.
Fungi foragers
I’ve had two good reports from fungal foragers in the past week.
My sister Kristin went for a picking trip above the Dosewallips River in south Jefferson County last week.
She piqued my interest with talk of the many chanterelles she encountered and had me salivating for Thanksgiving dinner when told of her success in finding ample amounts of lobster mushrooms.
The majority of those pretty parasitic fungi will be used in a special lobster mushroom stuffing on the big day.
Ward Norden, a Quilcene resident and Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society member, provided his own legal “shrooming” report.
He was out recently above Discovery Bay, encountering scattered chanterelles in the usual places, which he described as underneath mature fir trees on well-drained hillsides.
“Due to the drought, the mushrooms are rather smaller than usual and rarely in concentrations, but it still only took us about 45 minutes to gather the 3 pounds required for a serious mushroom feast,” Norden said.
He passed on other edible mushrooms like russulas for being too old, and said that boletes were “few and far between where we went.”
Mushroom fans also can save the date for “Fungi: Now You See Them — Now You Don’t,” a free talk at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30.
Mycologist Dr. Bryce Kendrick will investigate the mysterious lives of mushrooms and other fungi of the Pacific Northwest and also provide plenty of illustrated examples.
Based in Sidney, British Columbia, Kendrick is a retired university professor internationally recognized for his scientific work and teaching in the field of mycology.
In addition to studying fungi for more than 50 years and authoring more than 300 mycological publications, Kendrick was elected a Centenary Fellow of the British Mycological Society and received the Lawson Medal of Canadian Botanical Association for lifetime contributions.
Kendrick’s talk is the second in a series of nature talks planned at the Port Angeles Library.
All nature talks are free and begin at 6:30 p.m.
The series begins Tuesday with “Corvids in the Fall,” a discussion of how ravens, crows and jays prepare for winter.
Ken Wiersema of the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society and Dungeness River Audubon Center will offer new insights into these intelligent, crafty and sometimes pesky birds, while also addressing land stewardship and how to spot the birds in the wild.
The series wraps up Tuesday, Nov. 4, with a discussion of the Wilderness Act led by Ruth Scott of Olympic National Park.
During her presentation, “America’s Enduring Legacy of Wilderness,” Scott will summarize how and why the Wilderness Act came about, its legal implications and the wild landscapes it protects.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the legislation.
A natural resource specialist at Olympic National Park, Scott began working with the National Park Service in 1972 and her current responsibilities at Olympic National Park focus on wilderness monitoring, planning and re-vegetation with the assistance of hundreds of volunteers throughout the country.
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Outdoors columnist Michael Carman appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.