“Identifying New England’s Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms” is the subject of a two-part course: an evening virtual class will be followed by an afternoon at Midcoast Conservancy’s Hidden Valley on a foraging hike. The webinar will be held Friday, Sept. 25 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.; participants will meet Saturday, Sept. 26 from 1 to 4 p.m. Most people interested in learning to collect and identify mushrooms are driven more by a hunger for their great edible potential than curiosity about their ecology. Maine offers a great opportunity to sustainably collect world-class edible mushrooms while enjoying a walk through the woods and fields. The only thing standing in the way is having the knowledge and confidence to tell the good edible mushrooms from those that can sicken people.  The good news is that there are a handful of common, easily identified, great edibles that can satisfy most people’s hunger for mushrooms.

This class is devoted to building the skills needed to identify common mushrooms and to begin a lifetime of wild mushrooming; it will combine lecture and outdoor experience to look at identification features, ecology and the seasonal occurrence of mushrooms. The group will look at edible as well as common poisonous mushrooms. Focus will be on learning of a few common edible and medicinal mushrooms and building skills for ongoing identification. Participants should come prepared for a hike and to have a fun learning day while practicing physical distancing and Covid safety protocols, details of which can be found on the registration page. Participants are invited to bring fresh specimens of mushrooms from their own property.

The class agenda includes Introduction to Mushroom Basics, Mushroom Morphology and Identification features, Guidelines for safe and responsible mushrooming, and Use of Mushrooms, along with Afternoon field learning and collection. The final wrap-up will feature information on where to go from here, and resources for further learning.

 Workshop leader Greg Marley has been collecting, studying, eating, growing and teaching mushrooms for over 45 years. Marley has spread his love of mushrooms to hundreds through walks, talks and classes held across the New England over the past 20 years. He is the founder of Mushrooms for Health, a small company providing medicinal mushroom education and products made with Maine medicinal mushrooms. Marley is the author of “Mushrooms for Health; Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi,” (Downeast Books , 2009) and the award-winning “Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares; The Love Lore and Mystic of Mushrooms,” (Chelsea Green, 2010). As a volunteer mushroom identification consultant to Poison Centers across New England since 2001, Marley provides expertise in mushroom poisoning cases. He is a frequent lecturer to college groups and a mushrooming foray faculty member. When not mushrooming, Marley is a clinical social worker and behavioral health consultant specializing in suicide prevention.

Cost: $60, $50 for Midcoast Conservancy members. To register, go to https://www.midcoastconservancy.org/events/identifying-new-englands-edible-and-medicinal-mushrooms-2/