Cowichan Lake Foray Registration 2022

by Uncategorized

COWICHAN LAKE FORAY – 2022

OCTOBER 21 – 23, 2022

 

August 25, 2022 

 

This much anticipated annual event is being held at the Cowichan Lake Education Centre (CLEC).  This is the same location as the 2021 Foray.

 

The Foray format allows participants to register for either the full weekend of activities or participate only on the Saturday.  The Foray participants (in small groups) will be lead by mycological experts through the forests and varying terrains of the Cowichan Valley. These groups will forage and collect a variety of fungi and return them to the CLEC site for further analysis and identification.  In 2021 over 115 different species were identified.

 

The Foray focuses on both novice and knowledgeable mushroom foragers.

 

More specific information about CLEC and the Foray, including the registration form and fees can be found under “Docs” in the SVIMS home page. Click on “Docs” and then on “Cowichan Foray 2022 Information” and “Cowichan Foray 2022 Registration Form”.

 

Space is limited and unfortunately we had to turn away some hopeful participants last year. So register early.

 

If you have any questions please contact Kurt Raeder at svims.treasurer@gmail.com

 

James Scott – the Whiskey Fungus

by Uncategorized

Myco-Consortium presentation

On the trail of the whiskey fungus

A talk by James Scott

Friday, April 1, 7pm Eastern 4:00 PM Pacific

SVIMS has joined the Myco-consortium and sharing in their presentations. This is for MEMBERS ONLY and not to be shared in any way as otherwise we lose the privilege of belonging to this group. 

Despite distillation having been practiced for over 3,000 years, only in the past few centuries have social wealth and agricultural bounty coincided to allow the stockpiling of spirits, with enhanced flavor and aroma characteristics accompanied by increased value as the emergent side benefits. The main downside to spirit aging has been the loss of alcohol over time to evapouration – the so-called ‘Angels’ Share’ – long known to perfume the neighbourhoods around barrel houses. The Angels’ Share, however, is not just for the angels.

 

Twenty years ago I answered a call from a large distillery to investigate a curious phenomenon of blackening on the outsides of homes, traffic signs, and patio furniture in areas near whiskey barrel houses. Incredulous at first, the unexpected journey that followed revealed a beautiful and physiologically intricate group of fungi that have long been hiding in plain sight, garnered popular press coverage at a level usually reserved for rock stars, and spawned a series of massive lawsuits against powerful multinational corporations. This is the story of the whiskey fungus.

 

Dr. James Scott is a faculty member in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto where is the Head of the Division of Occupational & Environmental Health, and the Director of the UAMH Centre for Global Microfungal Biodiversity. Dr. Scott’s research focuses on the interactions between people and microorganisms (fungi, bacteria and viruses). His mycological work studies the taxonomy, ecology and aerobiology of human-associated fungi responsible for infectious and allergic disease. His work on bacteria focuses on the influence of environmental exposures on the acquisition and maturation of the infant gut microbiome, and the airborne movement of pathogenic bacteria in healthcare buildings and outdoor air. Dr. Scott’s teaching deals with biological hazards in the workplace and community, public health sanitation, and medical and veterinary mycology. Most recently Dr. Scott joined the executive team of PsiloTech Health Solutions, a Canadian biotech start-up led by neuropsychiatrist and psychopharmacologist Dr. Peter Silverstone to commercialize the clinical use of psychedelic mushrooms in the treatment of PTSD and other psychiatric illnesses resistant to conventional therapy.

Richard Kerrigan – Agaricus presentation

by Uncategorized

A talk by Richard W. Kerrigan, author of the 2016 monograph Agaricus of North America.

Friday, March 25, 7:00 PM Eastern 4:00 PM Pacific

As you are aware by now, SVIMS has joined the Myco-consortium and sharing in their presentations. This is for MEMBERS ONLY and not to be shared in any way as otherwise we lose the privilege of belonging to this group.

 

Richard will introduce us to the Agaricus genus and how it is organized taxonomically and phylogenetically, followed by a series of interesting or representative examples of species in North America. Where possible, he’ll emphasize the Agaricus species local to the North East.

Richard W. Kerrigan was born and raised in California. He became interested in Agaricus in 1971, after meeting David Arora while both were undergraduates at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at San Francisco State University (1976, 1982, with mentor Harry Thiers), a doctorate from University of California, Santa Barbara (1989), and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto (1989-1991). From 1991-2017, Kerrigan held the position of Director of Research, USA, with Sylvan Inc, the world’s leading producer of cultivated mushroom spawn, where he worked on breeding improved strains of cultivated mushrooms.

His study of the diversity, taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny of wild species of Agaricus continues as a separate, independent area of research now extending over 50 years.

 

A Truffle Foray

by Uncategorized

An Immersive Truffle Experience
Saturday March 26, 2022
https://bilston.ca/collections/a-truffle-foray/products/a-truffle-foray
Some of the proceeds go to support the Truffle Association of BC truffle orchard
Featured Guests:
Robin Jackson – Wild Food Chef, Writer & Forager. Founder of Westcoast Mycology
Shannon Berch – President of the Truffle Association of BC
John Kelly & Machi –  Truffle Foraging Expedition
Heather Young – Under the Oak Farm in Duncan