Central Pennsylvania Mushroom Club

The third annual CPMC foray has come and gone and it seems all who attended agree it was another most excellent event.  The weather was pleasant, the food was great, the companionship was delightful, the experts were generous in sharing their knowledge and experience, and the mushrooms were plentiful.  Who could ask for more?  In addition to the beautiful new club sign produced by Allen, here are a few highlights of the event. 

We found a table full of mushroom Friday evening and John Plischke provided an amazing exhibition of his ID skills. 

We had a nice pot-luck dinner and Bob Sleigh presented an infomative slide show on the powerful nutritional and medicinal properties of wild and cultivated mushrooms. 

Barrie did another of his great interactive mushroom ID sessions employing macroscopic, chemical, and microscopic methods. 

Saturday morning was very pleasant and we filled the tables with mushrooms, several new to the site. 

Bev conducted a fascinating mushroom dyeing demonstration, producing a rainbow of colored yarns. 

We enjoyed an excellent dinner and Bob gave a humorous talk on mushrooming quirks.  Then Barrie enlightened the group on some surprising and alarming findings from recent research on a fungal disease currently affecting bats in North America and posing a potential threat to bat colonies around the world.

After the presentations we gathered around the campfire to socialize while roasting marshmallows.  Karen roasted fresh corn for the group and a good time was had by all. 

Sunday morning Chef Bren treated the group to a mushroom cooking demonstration, including recipes and samples of a couple of her delicious culinary creations. 

It was a good time indeed.  I would sincerely like to thank the above mentioned individuals and everyone who contributed to making the foray such a fun and educational event.  Planning is already underway for the 2013 foray and it promises to be even better.  Please mark your calendar and plan to join us. 

Dave