Yuba Watershed Institute Mushroom Foray

The Yuba Watershed Institute is hosting a Mushroom Foray at the Shady Creek Outdoor School and Event Center (a few miles north of Nevada City) this weekend, and I just wanted to share some photos of the beautiful venue. First, there's the main hall's wooden dome ceiling, then a shot of the same from the outside, where you can see the Rammed Earth construction, a series of domes connected by rounded halls, and finally a naturally occuring boulder on the land. There's a constant roar of the river falls issuing from the hollow thicket below.

We arrived at the venue a few hours late because we thought it was starting later in the morning, and also Robin got a flat tire in Sacramento, where we had stopped at the Co-op to get a few groceries and more coffee.

But the vendors said it was no big deal as the forayers didn't tarry at the venue long. They set off into woods almost as soon as they arrived.

A series of speakers would start doing talks around 2pm, so we expected the mushroom hunters to begin returning about 1pm for lunch, which included a Bolete Potato Leek Soup, and a Herb Morel Onion Soup.

As you've already seen, it was quite the bonanza for those searching for mushrooms, the results of the hunt laid out on 5 picnic tables. Numerous experts on all things mycological were at hand, including my buddy Mike Wood, one of the authors of the definitive book, California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide.

Accounts from the mushroom gatherers all agreed, the land was generally pretty dry, as they searched around wooded paths at the foot of a hill. At long last, they rounded the other side of the hill, and came to a spot where there was ample evidence of underground water, then Eureka! Hundreds of mushrooms of all types, including many prized edibles.