Mushrooms

About this Collection

This collection marks the beginning of my interest into mycology and foraging. Over the break I was introduced to a book called all the the rain promises... and more! by David Arora, a pocket book to allow for the identification of mushrooms on the west coast. This journey has led me to grow some of my own mushrooms, which I fell in love with watching them grow from mycelium to the mushrooms we see and eat.

Samuel P Taylor Park

Samuel P. Taylor State Park is a state park located in Marin County, California, United States. The park is named for Samuel Penfield Taylor, who found gold during the California Gold Rush and used some of his money to buy a parcel of land along Lagunitas Creek.[3] In 1856, Taylor built the Pioneer Paper Mill, the first paper mill on the Pacific Coast.[4] In the 1870s, the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built between Cazadero and a pier in Sausalito where passengers could transfer to a ferry to San Francisco. 

Over winter break, having not camped in a long time, we decided to choose a place. Initially we had planned to go to Point Reyes, stay in a hostel and forage for food over the weekend. Unfortunately the expert forager got sick leaving us with no other option than to camp somewhere closer. We used this opportunity to hike the beautiful forests of Samuel P Taylor and begin identifying mushrooms in the area.


Olympus XA | 28mm | Ultramax 400

Mushroom identification

After purchasing David Arora's book, I was inspired to take a stroll through Tilden Park, one of Berkeley's forests to see what sort of mushrooms I could find over winter break. As it turns out this was an excellent time to look. Below are images taken on my Olympus XA & Chinon CM1 in various stocks showing some of the mushrooms found in Tilden.

Chinon CM1 | 50mm | Ultramax 400

Fly Agaric ~ Amanita muscaria

Although poisonous, death due to poisoning from A. muscaria ingestion is quite rare. Parboiling twice with water draining weakens its toxicity and breaks down the mushroom's psychoactive substances - Wikipedia

Chinon CM1 | 50mm| Catlabs 320

Olympus XA |28mm| Ilford Hp5+ BW