Get 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.
Join 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.
Live 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/
VMS 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)
Mycologist/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.
Due 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 […]