Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 11th I am pleased to announce that our next meeting will feature a special presentation from Paul Kroeger, a founding member of the VMS.   Mushrooms and People   This eclectic talk flows through various ways people interact with mushrooms. The commercial harvest of edible wild mushrooms is discussed with excursions into medicinal mushrooms and ethno-mycology of traditional cultures. We will also learn of some unusual places and ways to look for fungi, and some surprising things found.   About our speaker:   Paul Kroeger has studied mushrooms for over thirty-five years and is a founding member of the Vancouver Mycological Society. He has been involved in many projects and studies about diverse aspects of mushrooms, gaining knowledge about fungal ecology, biochemistry of toxic, hallucinogenic, medicinal, and edible mushrooms. Years of experience have created unique insights and understanding of fungal life-ways and interactions in temperate ecosystems.   Tuesday November 11th, 2025 @ Floral Hall, VanDusen Gardens (5251 Oak St.) Doors at 7pm, Talk at 7:30pm   As always, we would love to see your specimens at our monthly mushroom table for identification and admiration. Be sure to check out what unique and abundant Fall finds are currently growing around […]

Hello VMS members, Our next meeting will be held exclusively online, with no in-person option at VanDusen this time, and will feature a special talk by Jared “Qwustenuxun” Williams. Join Qwustenuxun, from the Quw'utsun Nation on southern Vancouver Island, for an evening of learning about the deep relationships Indigenous peoples have with mushrooms and the cultural protocols that guide how we harvest them. Together we’ll explore how mushrooms have been part of our food, medicine, and teachings, and how these practices remind us to approach the land with respect, reciprocity, and care. This talk invites us to reflect on our own foraging, and how we can walk in better relationship with the fungi and the living world around us. Jared “Qwustenuxun” Williams is a Hul’q’umi’num language speaker, Indigenous chef, Salish culture educator, and consultant from Quw’utsun. Raised in Salish culture by his father and late grandmother, he carries forward teachings of traditional harvesting, Indigenous foods, and community history. After a decade in western kitchens, Qwustenuxun returned home to cook for Cowichan Elders and deepen his knowledge of Indigenous foodways. Today, he shares those teachings widely from Cooking in Two Worlds with FeedBC to a TEDx talk, national food sovereignty projects, […]