Our presenters will be Carmen Rosen and Willoughby Arevalo - they're presenting "Fruiting Bodies and Mycelial Connections" Over the past year and a half, DIY Mushroom Cultivation author and VMS member Willoughby Arevalo, and Still Moon Arts Society founder and Artistic Director Carmen Rosen collaborated on a series of living mycelial sculptures which are installed in Renfrew Park. They will discuss their inspiration, process, and some techniques for sculpting in collaboration with living fungi.   Willoughby's lifelong friendship with fleshy fungi has led him down a mycelial pathway – from a start in field identification and mushroom hunting, branching into cuisine, DIY cultivation, farming, education, writing and eco-arts. In his thirty years of self-motivated inquiry and intimate lived experience with fungi, he has spent the last decade prioritizing sharing mycology with people in communities across North America This has manifested in numerous presentations, art projects, teaching tours, collaborations, gatherings, and his new book, DIY Mushroom Cultivation, out now from New Society Publishers.   Carmen is a visual artist, singer, and interdisciplinary performer. She has a long history of initiating art projects and creative community integrated projects that have resulted in enrichment of school programs, community enhancement, and ongoing creative work for many artists […]

Our presenter is our very own Sharmin Gamiet, with the topic "Towards Understanding Macrofungi of the Northwest Territories". After completing a project for Environment Canada on "General Status of the Species - Macrofungi," it became clear that there were significant knowledge gaps on the status of the macrofungi in the Northern areas of Canada. Dr. Suzanne Carriere from the Wildlife Branch of the Government of the Northwest Territories set out to rectify this situation. For the past 4 years, Sharmin and others have been visiting forest sites, mostly around the Yellowknife area but from other areas as well, to collect, photograph, document and voucher macrofungi, with the goal of creating a database of macrofungi for the Northwest Territories. This talk, an update on the project, will discuss the challenges faced in identifying forest macrofungi north of the sixtieth parallel. Sharmin Gamiet has been working with fungi for over 30 years, focusing on mushrooms and their relatives found in the Pacific Northwest (BC, Washington and Oregon). She has trained at UBC and the University of Washington using the Friesien species concepts (macro and micro morphological, rather than genetic traits, are used to group fungi). Sharmin has led mushroom forays throughout BC […]

Britt Bunyard will present "From Lowly Saprobe to Mycorrhizal Masters: Amanitas (A Tale Told in the DNA)" An overview of all aspects (biology, taxonomy, chemistry, physiology) of the beautiful Amanita mushrooms of North America. Everyone is familiar with the mushrooms but how much do we really know about what they are doing in the forest? How much do we know about their history and evolution? It turns out that a recent discovery–using modern molecular biology–led to an amazing discovery about their evolutionary past. Amanitas are mycorrhizal symbionts with forest trees but come from saprobic ancestors. The story is told in their DNA. Newbies and non mycologists will not be overwhelmed; advanced mycologists will not be bored, this discussion is for everyone with lots of beautiful images.   Britt Bunyard, PhD, is the founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of the mycology journal Fungi. Britt has worked academically (and played very amateurishly) as a mycologist his entire career, writing scientifically for many research journals and popular science magazines. He has served as an editor for mycological and entomological research journals, and mushroom guide books. A popular evangelizer on all things fungal, Britt has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, PBS’s NOVA and […]

For our first ever virtual meeting / presentation (this coming Tuesday October 13), the VMS is excited to host a speaker from half-way around the world! Originally from Oregon, and now living in the mountains of Northern Thailand, Zachary Mazi is a professional chef and enthusiastic mycologist. Coming to us from the tail end of the local mushroom season, will be presenting on the edible fungi of the Lanna Kingdom. He is currently working on a book: Mycophagy: The Art and Science of Cooking (and eating) Mushrooms.     Members may check their email or log in to view the access link to this webinar   Members may now log in to watch the replay   As this is a webinar, your microphone and camera will be disabled by default, and you will not be able to turn them on.   PLEASE NOTE: We only have capacity for 100 attendees to join the live webinar. You may join as early as 7:25pm on Tuesday.   The meeting will be recorded, and the video posted to a private members-only page on the Vanmyco website. If you are unable to join due to capacity, or if you don't use Zoom, you'll still have […]