This week’s heavy rains, the shorter days of early September and the touch of fall in the air is a perfect storm of sorts for mushroom lovers.
“There is an abundant fruiting of mushrooms of all colours, shapes and sizes in Scout Valley right now,” said local naturalist Bob Bowles. “I walked my dogs in Scout Valley (a few days ago) and was able to observe more than two dozen species of mushrooms growing along the trails.”
Bowles collected two edible species, a giant puffball and a handful of oyster mushrooms growing on a log, and brought them home for dinner.
Bowles said this small harvest of “choice edible mushrooms” would have cost more than $60 if purchased at a trendy Toronto health food or wild edible food store and over $100 at a similar store in New York.
“But here, they are growing on my doorstep - for free. I had lots of opportunity to pick the best of the crop since they were so abundant.”
This is just the start of the season for edible wild mushrooms, Bowles noted. He said the honey mushroom and bear's head mushrooms that also grow in Scout Valley every year have not yet developed to their fruiting stage.
“They will be abundant in a few weeks,” said Bowles.
And that’s why the field portion of the Ontario Master Naturalist Program’s popular fall mushroom workshop is held at Scout Valley. The event starts with an in-class session at Lakehead University. A component of the workshop is a mushroom-based lunch!
And while the menu is mouth-watering, Bowles said mushrooms are more than just tasty treats. They are “truly amazing,” he said, noting they come in different sizes, shapes and colours and can appear overnight, covering lawns, meadows, woods and wetlands.
“Mushrooms help trees and plants communicate with each other, they remove toxins from the soil and they break down human waste and garbage,” said Bowles, who notes the educational workshop will shed a lot of light on these popular menu items that also play a key role in the ecosystem.
Although mushrooms have long been considered a culinary delicacy, some are poisonous and can be fatal if consumed.
In this workshop, participants will learn to identify mushrooms through examining spore colour, gill attachment and other factors. They will learn to appreciate not only the “incredible variety of local mushrooms”, but also the ways in which mushrooms support the ecosystem.
“The workshop is very informative and timely because this is shaping up to be an excellent year for the mushroom harvest,” said Bowles, who will lead the mushroom workshop on Saturday, Sept. 15.
The mushroom workshop is open to anyone interested in learning about mushrooms. You don't need any previous knowledge about mushrooms, since it is a learning experience, said Bowles. The cost is $79 (plus HST).
For more information or to register, click on this link: https://www.lakeheadu.ca/about/orillia-campus/community-programs/omnp/Workshops/fall-workshop-mushrooms
