Mushroom Identification 101: How to Forage Safely in California

Foraging for mushrooms can be fraught with danger, if you don’t know what you are doing. However, if you learn the fundamentals of identification, understand the risks, and follow a basic set of practices, you can quickly learn how to safely forage for mushrooms. Empower yourself with education instead of falling victim to fearmongering and mycophobia. This course will cover the basic categories of mushrooms and how to recognize them based on their morphology (how they look). We will discuss how to differentiate edible vs. toxic species in general, as well as what habitats and seasons that they occur here in California. This class is intended for beginners, but is also useful for experienced mushroom hunters who want to expand the scope of edible species that they forage for around the state.