Hey, I missed that one, but am excited about the mushroom workshop coming up, and I don't care for the things, lol,... but cool to learn how to do it and Don can have my share! :)

man- i wish there was a mushroom workshop out this way... i'd love to see a demo rather than just reading books.

I don't think I am going to the mushroom workshop due to conflicts, but I have three logs from the last workshop that still produced last summer. We'll see if they do this year. I did not eat them but all of my friends did and said they were yummy. Jeff, who leads the workshop, is really great with mushroom ID and is giving a talk at the Guilford Co. Horticultural Soc.'s May 19 (7:00 p.m. Greensboro)meeting. You don't have to be a member to attend.

so, is it about id'ing wild 'shrooms or starting up shiitake logs? it's the former i'm interested in - the latter we already do. i'd like to do some more this spring, but i think with the drought it is a bad year to do it. bummer, because that means i'll have a year or more with no fresh shiitakes. :(. fortunately, there's a farm not too far away, and i can get them there. we also are lucky enough to have natural bumper crops of oysters on some downed trees. for a time, we also had a maple that had lion's mane. and we get yearly crops of honeys on some stumps. trying to get some good blewit, almond agaricus and stropharia patches going- we'll see. it's the more adventurous wild ones that i'd like some hands - on experience with. it's like trying to learn the difference between an aquilegia canadensis seedling and an a. vulgaris seedling from a book vs. someone showing you in person. the subtleties just don't compare. i've been ID'ing now for 5 years (and very cautiously eating the super sure id's), but even with that it's all books and personal hands on experience- no learning at an expert's knee.

Tam, the workshop is about starting up shitake logs. The other I haven't heard anything about yet. Couldn't find a link on it either.

May 19 is just a talk with powerpoint. The only hands on workshop I ever knew about was at Cullowhee as part of the conference there in July. The staff at the cafeteria cooked them up for anyone to try. I actually did, but I would not dream of picking in the wild...I have no confidence in this area!