Go on a mushroom foraging tour (with an expert).

“Bellies full and lunch sacks packed, we separate into groups and head to the forest to see what we can find. As luck would have it, I am grouped with Daniel Winkler, renowned mycologist and author of Mountaineers Books publication, Fruits of the Forest. Donning a striped hat and gripping a foraging basket, Daniel lays down ground rules through the joyful lilt of his thick German accent. We forage from 9am to 4pm, and stop at three key locations near the lodge. Our first leap into the foraging world is at a nearby campsite. As we explore the area, Daniel trains our eyes to see the mushrooms around us. Every few steps, a mushroom seems to materialize before him. At first, I struggle to notice anything, but soon my eyes begin to recognize fungi everywhere, from tiny slime molds no bigger than pushpins to jelly-like witches’ butters to massive russulas and rotting boletes.”

“Climbing over logs and navigating a forest dense with saplings and low branches was indeed a workout, but not an impossible or unmanageable one. My size wasn’t a hindrance, which isn’t to say it was an advantage. For example, early on in the foraging experience in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Angela called out that she had found a matsutake, which can cost up to $1,000 a pound, and for us to come see. So much of the day was spent looking down at the lichen and fallen leaves and saplings, searching for navigable courses taking me from where I was to where I wanted to go that I rarely looked up. Sometimes, other foragers were around me. Sometimes, not. (That’s when I knew to yoo-hoo to the others and get moving.)”

“The first time I felt confident foraging was after taking an in-person mushroom foraging expedition class with a local foraging expert. It taught me things I could have never experienced just by reading books or reading things online (I.e. confirming the smell or the texture of mushroom, or point out the ecosystems we were in and the very specific growing conditions for the types of mushrooms we were looking for). And I could ask questions and get real life experience actually out in the field, and if I had doubts, the instructor was there to confirm, or steer me in the right direction.”