[pct-l] HEY shroomer

[Scott Williams]

Thanks John, I love TED talks and this one is fascinating. I just got back
from a chanterelle hike, and it looks like another banner year in the East
Bay hills.  Gourmet if you're listening, get on out and we'll get you some
gourmet mushrooms for dinner.  We've had several great hits so far.

Paul Stamets is a fascinating guy, he's the person who wrote some of the
earliest books on growing your own mushrooms, and specific books on
Psilocybin mushrooms.  And he's written a book on what this talk is all
about called,* Mycelium Running, How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World*,
which I bought at a mushroom store in San Francisco.  I'm tellin' you,
picking mushrooms on trail is just one way to help save this poor old
planet.  I don't eat wild mushrooms on trail because I'm starved for
veggies in the wilderness, or even because those $80 per lb porcini buttons
we found under the lifts at Steven's Pass, are the most delicious thing
you've ever tasted.  I do it to help save the world, and the folks who hike
with me, those hungry, dirty, hiker trash masses, who will eat anything you
put in front of them, even if they think it may kill them.

But don't do this at home folks as you really can kill yourself if you're
not versed in it, and don't do it from pictures in books, as the colors can
be off, or local variants different from your pictures.  If you're really
interested, join a local mycological society and go on their forays.
 They're a bunch of mushroom geeks, much as we are a bunch of trail geeks,
and like us, they love to teach others.  These are usually friendly folks
and you'll get into some secret places with them. Or, find someone who
really knows mushrooms and hang around and hike with them.  I was lucky
enough to hike for years with the two time, past president of the SF
Mycological Society, which I joined years ago.  One on one is the best way
to learn.

My recommendation on the best book to buy if you're interested, is anything
by David Aurora, probably the most important mushroomer in America.  His
tome is *Mushrooms Demystified*, a wonderful, accurate and very funny
compendium, but he has a field guide out, *All that the Rain Promises and
More*, which is excellent too.  For the Western US, his stuff is the best.
*
*
*Mushrooms Demystified* is the text book for my daughter Sarah's California
Mushroom class this semester at Berkeley.   She had the gall to call me
from her class mushroom foray, camping trip in Yosemite, two weeks ago and
taunt me to guess who had just showed up at the campfire.  None other than
David Aurora himself.  Damn these kids and their great college years.

Shroomer

On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 6:55 AM, John Casterline <tnx4asking at gmail.com>wrote:

> I think all hikers and especially shoomer will get a kick out of the link
> below re mushrooms.
>
>
> http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html
>
> 3C
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