The Art and Science of Working with Fungi
Italian Cultural Centre 3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC, CanadaThe Art and Science of Working with Fungi: GROWING MUSHROOMS FOR FOOD, MEDICINE AND SOIL This workshop series covers the skills needed to grow spawn and mushrooms year-round. Core concepts and practical skills are covered in-depth and include the simplest and most reliable low-cost techniques to grow mushrooms and their mycelium at home, in the garden or on the farm without the need of a dedicated lab space. The class will meet weekly for seven sessions. Each session will include a lecture and a lab component. Over the duration of the course, each participant will culture and grow their own oyster mushrooms from start to finish, getting hands-on experience with each step of the process. These skills can be applied to grow many other species of mushrooms. Cost is $325 and includes materials and two mushroom cultures. Students will create and go home with multiple fruiting kits made from straw, coffee grounds, sawdust and logs. Lecture Topics Include Fungal Biology and Ecology Principles of Working with Fungi Sourcing Materials Indoor Fruiting Environments Mycoremediation Applications Principles of Mycopermaculture Off-Grid Adaptations Scaling Up Species to Know, Species to Grow Usage and Storage Strain Development and Maintenance Hands-on Lab Skills Include Cloning Mushrooms […]
Truffle Cooking Class
Cowichan Green Community Hall 360 Duncan St. Duncan, BC 360 Duncan St., Duncan, BC, Canada12pm-3pm : Truffle cooking class in Duncan B.C. at the Cowichan Green Community Hall, 360 Duncan Street Chef Robin Jackson and Toivo Heyduck will lead a truffle cooking class and tasting featuring local Vancouver Island cultivated and wild truffles.
VMS Meeting Mar 13 – Joe Dahmen and Amber Frid-Jimenez
The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, Canada"They Grow Without Us" mycelium-based benches by AJFD AFJD uses material exploration and emerging technologies to provoke fundamental questions about our relationship to architecture. This talk will look at AFJD’s recent architectural installations using mushrooms-based materials. Their practice is eclectic and multidimensional, which reflects the changing culture of design and technology. They've been working together for fifteen years, after finishing degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Amber Frid-Jimenez is Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she is a Canada Research Chair in Art and Technology. Joe Dahmen is Assistant Professor of Design and Sustainability Integration at the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and a faculty associate at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
VMS AGM April 10
The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, CanadaGet involved with the club! Anyone who has been a member for 1+ years has the opportunity to help keep the club running by joining the Board of Directors. Any club member can join any of the various committees. Paul Kroeger will be giving a presentation after club business.
Bowen Island Foray
Bowen IslandJoin us for our annual spring foray to Bowen Island! We'll be on the walk-on sailing from Horseshoe bay at 11:25am. Pack a lunch and weather appropriate clothing and footwear. A hand lens might be useful, but won't be necessary. The foray route is tentatively planned to loop around Killarney lake. The group will assemble outside the library at Snug Cove.
A Mushroom Feast for the Wild at Heart
Italian Cultural Centre 3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC, CanadaLive cooking show and intimate six-course tasting dinner at the chef's table In this live cooking show and intimate six-course tasting dinner, mycologist and kitchen wizard Willoughby Arevalo will pair local wild and cultivated mushrooms with seasonal produce, allowing each type of mushroom to shine in preparations honoring their unique qualities. This Spring feast will focus on Morels, Shaggy Manes and Oyster Mushrooms, with foraged spring greens and other vernal delights. Participants will sit in the kitchen at the chef’s table, experience the ritual of preparation and may even be a part of the action. While the food is cooking, Willoughby will elaborate on important aspects of each mushroom species such as their identifying features, medicinal properties, ecology and more. Be delighted and surprised by the diverse flavors, textures and aromas while you learn how to recreate the recipes at home. Feel free to bring a bottle of wine. Register here: https://italianculturalcentre.ca/blog/events/mushroom-feast-wild-heart/
Earth Day at Everett Crowley Park
Everett Crowley Park 8200 Kerr St, Vancouver, BC, CanadaVMS members are gathering again for this year’s Earth Day at Everett Crowley Park, providing public mycology education and inoculating pollinator-friendly native shrubs and nurse logs with fungi. This revitalized landfill site has taken on a new life as a rewilded natural green space for wildlife and people, and is Vancouver’s largest off-leash dog park. Partnered with the Vancouver Park Park Board, Wildcoast Ecological Society will be leading a salmon berry planting along the banks of Kinross Creek, and the Environmental Youth Alliance will be giving away native plants. There will also be an interpretive walk of the park, and Vancouver Public Library will be on hand hosting its many books on natural history. We are looking for extra VMS volunteers to help with our booth and to assist families in inoculating native shrub plantings with mycorrhizal spores and nurse logs with myceliated wooden dowels. For more information and sign up: Cody Labossiere (cody@netc.it) John Ames (johnrmames@gmail.com)
Still Moon Arts Society Streamkeepers meeting
Slocan Community Hall Slocan Park, Vancouver, BC, CanadaMycologist/artist Willoughby Arevalo and environmental artist/community organizer Carmen Rosen will present on fungal biology and ecology in Renfrew Ravine and the Still Creek Watershed and their upcoming mycelial sculpture projects Mycelial Connections and Fruiting Bodies in Renfrew Ravine. If weather is conducive this event may include a foray into the ravine.
Cancelled – Galiano Island Foray
Galiano IslandDue to BC Ferry schedule changes, there will not be enough time for a meaningful foray this weekend. If ferry service is restored by the Victoria Day long weekend we reschedule. Otherwise, perhaps we'll make the trip over in the fall. Apologies! There will be a foray to Galiano Island (reached from the Tsawassen ferry terminal) to be led by Kent Brothers & other members on Saturday May 5, weather permitting. This is a full day foray. You don't need to take a car onto the ferry -- we’re walking on and walking off. We suggest you park in the lot just before the causeway -- they shuttle you out to the ferry terminal and back. The ferry leaves Tsawwassen at 9:30 am (almost an hour later than in previous years), arriving at Galiano at 10:24 am. If you don’t see us on the ferry, we will be waiting just up the hill from the ferry dock on Galiano Island under the big trees until everyone is off the ferry. The return ferry leaves Galiano at 4:50 pm (almost an hour earlier than in previous years) and arrives at Tsawwassen at 5:45 pm. There is only one ferry that will […]
VMS Meeting May 8 – Emma Harrower
The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, CanadaOur next meeting is May 8th, 7:30pm in the Floral Hall at VanDusen Botanical Garden. Emma Harrower will present "Long-distance Dispersal and Speciation in the Cortinarius violaceus Group". Emma is a recent PhD graduate from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her interest in Cortinarius mushroom taxonomy began in Vancouver where she was fascinated by how many mushroom species there are, and how poorly understood they are. This talk willexamine the evolution and biogeography of a beautiful (and easy to identify) subgenus within Cortinarius.