NMMS News - May 1998
Myxomycete Workshop a
Success
Thank you Dr. Keller for
driving up from Texas and giving an excellent
Slime Mold Workshop. We feel fortunate and honored that you chose to share
with us your time and expertise. Thanks also to Ted for providing tools
and for scouting out likely habitats. And thanks particularly to Doris,
whose inspiration and energy brought it all together and made it such a
success.
Although we spent a good part of our time in the laboratory (thanks
also to the UNM Biology Dept),
we did get out for a refreshing field
session on the east side of the Sandias. Rooting around the fringes of
snowbanks, we did manage to find abundant sporangia, though not much in
the plasmodial stage. (In fact, we enjoyed those snowbanks so much, that
this last weekend we decided to make some more.) I confess that I was
somewhat enthusiastic: scraping away snow, overturning boulders, uprooting
trees, and so on. As an aside, I did find fruiting under the snow a nice
specimen of Discina perlata. We began our search at around 7300
feet and after driving up the road a bit, we hit pay dirt (or is that pay
slime?) at about 8300.
One of the more amusing aspects of the workshop was Dr. Keller's
response to one or two of Ruth's Petri dish mini-myxo gardens. Her juniper
bark had become host to a small universe of tiny organisms. Dr. Keller
could could scarcely quell his exclamations of enthusiasm as he discovered
one after another.
Last Month's Talk
While we're distributing Thank you's, we have a big one for
Paul Chan, who at our last meeting gave a very informative talk about his
experience with Matsutake harvesting in the Pacific Northwest. Paul spent
five years with the Forest Service, and came prepared with both stories and
statistics.
He presented the pickers as latter day 49'ers, rushing in from all
parts of the U.S. and Canada, as well as from other parts of the world.
They arrive in droves, many harboring visions of easy wealth. Some do
well, but most are lucky to make enough pay for their expenses.
Mr. Chan discounted the horror stories of zealous mushroomers engaging
in bloody turf wars. He exposed it as so much Media hype. Some folks carry
a firearm, usually used only for signaling. And the massive knives people
carry work quite well as harvesting tools. As he said, if there had
been any bloodshed, the Forest Service would have ceased issuing permits
and just closed the areas to harvesting.
Larry's Cultivation Booklet on Web
Some members may have already seen Larry Weingarten's mushroom
cultivation paper entitled "I Grow Mushrooms." He has written an easy
to follow procession through the various steps of growing mushrooms, from
hauling in straw to picking the mushrooms. These steps he accompanies
with a collection of color photos. The paper lived for a while on
the
NAMA website and is still available on
MycoWest.net.
Recipe Books
We have received a couple of offers to buy Recipe books at a
reasonable cost. The first, which came to us just prior to the last
meeting, is for a work entitled From
Duff
to Dinner, offered by Seasonal Feasts in Los Gatos,
California. The flyer they sent offers us a 40% discount, which with
shipping charges puts the cost at about $10 a book. I'll bring the
information again to this month's meeting.
The other offer comes from a couple of members of the Minnesota club.
They've put together a booklet of "over 30 tips and recipes" entitled
The Mystical Morel. (They should visit New Mexico to discover
just how mystical the Morel can be.) Anyway, they're asking 5 bucks
for their little book. (For each five we buy, they'll even throw in number
six for free.) Such a deal. I'll have the info at the meeting for those
interested.
~c4x