MO-NAMA 2022

By Israel Tockman

Now back in my South St. Louis apartment, accosted by the sounds of sirens and backing garbage trucks, I’m feeling wistful about last weekend at Trout Lodge-where the soundtrack consisted of the raucous gab of MO-NAMA 2022 attendees punctuated by the occasional CLANG! of squirrel-tossed acorns hitting the cabins’ metal roofs.

The North American Mycological Association’s annual foray took place west of Potosi in the Missouri Ozarks September 29-October 2. The weather was gloriously sunny and warm with crisp mornings. The ground was bone dry, covered in crumbly soil and crispy vegetation. Rain has been quite scarce in the region since late July. Despite the parched conditions, attendees found 309 distinct species of fungi over the weekend!

The Trout Lodge Campus hugs the northwest shore of Sunnen Lake, a 360-acre reservoir on Fourche a Renault Creek. The lake made for some dramatic scenery on the cool mornings. Fog boiled off the surface of the water and was lit by the early sun like a silver bonfire. The glowing mist was pierced occasionally by an osprey searching for fish and sometimes a heron stood at the edge of the water, a stooped silhouette. In addition to the main lodge, various groups of cabins, an archery range, minigolf course and a volleyball court, the facility grounds contain sites of natural and historical interest. There's a watercress-lined spring, a cave and a trail system that winds through the wooded hills and hollows on the property. In addition, there's a Civil War-era cemetery with a handful of crumbling headstones sprawling through a grove of pines and oaks. Natalie Howe, the event's resident lichenologist, led a foray to the graveyard to sample the growths on the weathered stones.

Photo by Mike and Cara Snyder

Accommodations were great and the Lodge food was good, and both were quite reminiscent for me. I bunked in a rustic cabin with a couple of kind gents and the bunkhouse was just a couple doors down from (and identical to) the cabin I stayed in for 6th grade camp in 1987. There, my counselor, who was probably 18 but seemed 30, introduced me to Led Zeppelin, and me and my gangly friends all stood out on the porch with “Black Dog” blaring, feeling, but assuredly not looking, deadly cool.

Weekend arrivals were greeted first by a giant glowing mushroom in the Lodge foyer, a scintillating sculpture constructed by MOMS’ prez Stephanie Keil. Then new arrivals were then met by friendly MOMS volunteers passing out NAMA shirts, neckerchiefs, and name tags.

Photo by Stephanie Keil

There were 13 forays over the weekend from which came the fungal bounty that was carried to Hillcrest Hall for identification by the experts. Some of the forays took place on the Trout Lodge grounds and others occurred off-site on local public lands. MOMS’ Mid-MO member and crackerjack mushroom cultivator Mike Snyder put in the footwork to carefully select several beautiful foray sites within an hour’s drive of the lodge.

Photo by Israel Tockman

I attended Friday’s foray at Washington State Park where Bay Area attendee Cole Pruitt found one of the loveliest specimens of the weekend growing on an oak leaf. I didn’t find much in the way of fungi, but I had fun getting to know Jan Bandrofchak, president of the New Mexico Mycological Society, and Susan Kayser, the former editor of the Illinois Mycological Association newsletter and the association’s current treasurer. Susan, Jan and I took a steep trail up a bluff to an overlook and stopped to check out some Mississippian petroglyphs before heading back to the parking lot.

Huzzah Foray
Photo by Israel Tockman

On Saturday morning, Dawn Lover and I led the foray at Huzzah Conservation Area. I had high hopes for a particularly moist side channel off the Courtois Creek, but the area proved to be surprisingly dry and wilted, as though it had been subjected to a hard frost. There were some overripe, purple pawpaws along the creek and some folks found cool stuff like delicate Marasmius species and Jenny Bower found and beautifully photographed the cup fungus Chlorosplenium Chlora.

I was blown away by the crew involved in the vouchering process at Hillcrest Hall. This small army with microscopes put in long hours pouring over the weekend’s fungal haul. On Thursday evening we all received a lesson on using iNaturalist and filling out field ID slips to make the vouchering process easier and more accurate. Upon returning to the Lodge, each foray bus stopped first at Hillcrest to table all the specimens which then made their way through the selective sieve of the specialists’ ID-ing process. It was a well-oiled machine and inspiring to behold. Kudos to the vouchering crew!

Mike Snyder in Action
Photo by Mike & Cara Snyder

The Amanitas
Photo by Cici Tompkins

Dawn Lover, Gnome
Photo by Israel Tockman

In addition to forays, the weekend was rich with lectures, workshops, and a good amount of evening partying! There were lichen lectures, cultivation workshops, talks on medicinal mushrooms, watercolor classes, presentations on endophytes (which I learned are fungi that grow INSIDE plants) and on the order Cantharellales- it was truly more than one could even take in! Evening socials were a blast thanks to Rob Wunder, Cici Tompkins and crew. Plenty of beer, wine, and snacks to keep the convos fueled into the evenings. The evenings also had themes for attire and on Saturday evening, a troop of Amanita muscaria look-alikes showed up at the lodge along with their friend, the Garden Gnome.

Maxine Stone and
Ken Gillberg

One of my favorite events of the weekend happened to be an impromptu happy hour at the Hawkins Pavilion. Unfortunately, Chef Ryan Maher was unable to attend the event at the last minute, so in lieu of his culinary demo, Maxine Stone and the Socials crew threw together a hang out with local beers and snacks, including Red Hot Riplets. It was just so lovely to knock a couple back and get to know folks from other clubs around the country. I felt this in general throughout the weekend: folks who love fungi are worth knowing!

Allison Joyce & Nate Tusa
Photo by Britt Bunyard

This wonderful weekend was special in so many ways and I’m sure attendees will carry memories from the event for the rest of their days. I know I will. Two attendees, though, had a particularly meaningful moment last weekend. MOMS members Allison Joyce and Nate Tusa got engaged in the wondrous, early autumn light on the dock at Lake Sunnen! Congratulations to them! We wish them the very best!

So much work went into organizing this event and I want to thank everyone involved. Thanks to Sam Landes, Trent Blizzard, Bruch Reed and Maxine Stone for all your work and dedication. Thanks to all the presenters and volunteers and to the vouchering crew. Hope to see you in the Blue Ridge next year!

Jay Justice at the ID table
Photo by Mike & Cara Snyder

Photo by Cici Tompkins

Photo by Stephanie Kiel

Photo by Crystal Wake

Photo by Mike & Cara Snyder

Susie and her hen
Photo by Stephanie Keil

Photo by Mike & Cara Snyder

Maxine Stone and Bruch Reed

Photo by Stephanie Keil

Name That Fungus!

Can you guess this month’s specimen?

This issue’s illustration is by Catherine Hu.

See more of Catherine’s artwork here: https://sedgeshaveedgesart.com/

Lichen Mystery Solved

Story and photos by Judi Thomas

It’s inevitable. When you are out hunting for wild mushrooms, you are bound to find some very pretty, very interesting lichen from time to time. If you are like me, you can’t resist tossing some of those beauties into your basket for a closer look later. Afterall, lichen are composite organisms that have mutualistic relationships between cyanobacteria, algae, and fungi. So, when Dennis McMillan brought a beautiful lichen to the Lower Meramec Foray on June 4th, everyone was impressed with the specimen’s unusual, smokey-gray color and unique features; and we were all eager to learn its identity⁽¹⁾. However, none of us remembered ever seeing anything like it before, nor did any of us have any idea how to identify it.

Where do you start when you can’t rely on the usual features you are accustomed to looking for when identifying mushroom specimens: gills, scales, presence of an annulus, odor, taste, etc. Lichen identification requires a different skill set, unlike what we mycophiles use to ID our finds.

There is a whole new set of terminology to learn, specialized structures to recognize, 5-7 chemicals to use instead of just the 2-3 we use for fungi, and a host of other subtle features and characteristics to consider. Often microscopy is needed as well.

I don’t know what others do when confronted with such a challenge, but I have learned from past experience that the least frustrating and quickest way to get an ID for lichen is to go directly to the lichen experts. After I posted this gorgeous specimen on the Lichen Identification Facebook page, it didn’t take a day for the lichenologists to give it a name, Peltigera rufescens. Not only did those Facebook users identify it to species, but they also provided some interesting information to go along with the ID.

Here are some fun facts compliments of the FB lichenologists: Peltigera rufescens grows in moss and is apparently very versatile, able to grow terrestrially, on the bark of trees and on rocks. It partners with the cyanobacteria Nostoc, the algae Coccomyxa, and any one of five different lichenocolous fungi⁽²⁾. It is a cosmopolitan lichen, so now that you know what it looks like you might want to keep an eye out for it when you are in the woods and collect some for yourself.

(1) The lichen specimen had been found by Mike Snyder who collected it and brought it to the ID table at a previous foray.

(2) Lichenocolous fungi are the fungi that grow on lichens and establish a symbiotic relationship with the cyanobacteria.

Epic Year at Sweat 'n Chanterelles

By Cici Tompkins

If you didn’t go to Sweat 'n Chanterelles this year you have no idea what you missed out on. This was a record year! It was a record for temperatures, number of mushrooms found and attendance.

The highest record: we had the highest temps, 100 degrees.

The lowest record: the least rain, 0 rain in the weeks leading up.

The next lowest: number of mushrooms found, 1.

Record attendance - a whopping 3, (me included.) The other 2 were my brother and sister-in-law – does that even count?

But the three of us didn’t let the temps stop us so we ventured into the woods Saturday morning for about 10 minutes and went straight to the cave behind the Visitor’s Center where we knew there would be a bit of cool air. While huddling up next to the cave and dreaming about already being in the river, we noticed one tiny mushroom basking in the cave humidity in some moss on a stump. We decided that we found our haul for the day and headed back to get on the river.

We spent a few hours on the river, which was a great relief, but the temps were so high by the afternoon that we had to pack up and head home.

It was an epically short and sweaty, Sweat 'n Chanterelles. Hopefully next year it will be epic in the other direction. We never did end up being able to identify the sad tiny mushroom...

Cook’s Corner

Breaking the Mold with Koji

By Joey "Mycæl" Hafley, M.O.M.S. SEMO Chapter VP

Have you ever wondered about the process of making the flavor-packed and ubiquitous ingredient soy sauce? How about other Asian favorites like miso paste, sake, mirin, and more? To get to the bottom of those you must start with the ancient and remarkable fungi responsible for the transformation of the base ingredients of all of them, Aspergillus oryzae, or, as it is more commonly known: Koji.

What is Koji?

Koji is a filamentous fungus in the Ascomycota mold division of the kingdom of fungi. This amazing mold is in the same genus as Aspergillus niger, more commonly known as the dangerous - and, in large amounts, even potentially deadly - black mold. Not to worry. Though it shares its genus with black mold, koji is far from the musty and dank basement dweller we've all encountered.

The precise origin of the intentional use of koji for culinary purposes is not known, though the experts generally agree it was likely in China some thousands of years ago. The discovery of koji's beneficial utilizations was likely accidental, like the proposed discoveries of other fungal marvels such as beer, bread, and other fermented products we all love and eat more frequently than most probably realize. The preferred host of koji is cooked grain left in a warm and humid environment in which the fungi can thrive.

However it was first discovered, the use of koji and the remarkable feat of selective domestication of desired strains over thousands of years led to the cultivation of the albino strain, the color of which helps koji growers see contaminants as they stand out against the trademark white fuzz that is the sign of healthy, safe growth.

How does it work?

The koji fungus works by producing fungal digestive enzymes on the host substrate that break down complex carbohydrates, polysaccharides, proteins and even, in some cases, lipids into their simpler forms so they can be used as food for the growing fungi. This not only helps the fungus, however. This fungal process can be harnessed by humans for our own uses. The breakdown of the complex to the base components of the nutrients causes them to become more bioavailable, meaning we expend less energy to digest them, and they provide more nutrients for less work. An even more useful and exciting aspect of koji from a culinary standpoint is that it also produces and enhances flavors and aromas in ways that are otherwise not attainable.

Fungi Forward

Traditional uses of koji are still widespread and are becoming increasingly more common and understood in the western world. The spread of this mold to the kitchens and food labs across the world and particularly the U.S. has led to some exciting and innovative new applications. The use of koji spores to cure meat is one of the most exciting of all!

The most common modern methods for aging beef are wet aging and dry aging. Both techniques involve hanging the beef in specific environments for a time to develop flavor and texture. Before the advent of refrigeration, aging and curing techniques arose from the need to extend the shelf life of meat and keep it from spoiling. Thanks to refrigeration, most of us are fortunate enough to not have to eat dried or cured meat unless we choose to do so for our own enjoyment. Wet and dry aging both involve the hanging of a whole butchered animal or large "primal" cuts in a refrigerated location at a specific humidity and temperature for a period determined acceptable by food safety agencies such as the FDA and USDA.

These two methods produce different end products with varying flavors and textures and have different energy, time, labor, economic and environmental ramifications. The primary difference between the two methods is that wet aging involves the meat being contained in a sealed package whereas dry aging involves exposing meat to the controlled and open-air environment of the aging room. Both methods are costly and wasteful of the meat. The amount of time required to age meat can result in the loss of 30% of the total weight from evaporation alone. In addition, 50% will be removed because it is dried-up or moldy and that's before the excess trimmings are accounted for as the meat is processed into its final consumer ready products. For beef to be considered dry aged in the U.S., it must be left to age for a minimum of 45 days. During this time the flavor concentrates and the texture transforms, but the aging process requires excess energy for refrigeration which has environmental impacts. The longer handling time increases labor costs which increases the cost of the meat. All along there is a gradually increasing demand and scarcity of dry aged beef leading to inflation in the cattle industry and more environmental damage from large scale cattle operations to meet demand.

What if there were a way to solve this costly problem or at least reduce the impact of these beloved meat products while cutting costs, labor, and time while creating the same or potentially better flavors and textures we all associate with our favorite cut of steak? Koji may very well be the answer! By following a simple ratio of weight of meat to salt, sugar, koji spores and rice flour and/or cornstarch, and creating or purchasing a chamber with the ability to keep the meat at approximately 80 F and 90% relative humidity, you can do it at home.

Koji-inoculation is the clear choice for the most cost-effective and efficient aged beef involving the lowest negative environmental and ecological impacts. The time required to attain beef with a flavor and quality comparable to or, in the opinion of many, myself included, superior to dry aging is between 36 and 42 hours as opposed to 45 days. The reduced energy cost of the minimal heating and humidity required for koji-aged beef is a fraction of that for large scale refrigeration and produces none of the chlorofluorocarbons that refrigerant does. The waste percentage of wet and dry aging beef that averages between 30% to upwards of 50% or more before final processing is reduced to nearly 0% waste when aging with koji. Even the outer layer of mold that encompasses the meat is not only edible and safe but develops a unique and desirable crust of sorts when being grilled or otherwise dry-cooked.

This is just a sketch of all the amazing aspects of koji-aged beef, not to mention the wonders of koji, in general. I encourage all who want to learn about koji-aging to get a copy of the amazing book by Rich Shih and Jeremy Umansky titled "Koji Alchemy". There you'll find descriptions of the origins, history, life cycle, uses, as well as recipes and even instructions and diagrams for several DIY fermentation chambers you can build at home.

Maitake and Beef Tips Over Noodles

Recipe by Sabra Duffiney

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. maitake mushrooms (minced)
• 1.5 lb. stew meat
• 1 med. yellow onion (chopped)
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 oz. garlic (minced)
• 1/2 c. dry red wine
• 2 c. beef broth
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
• 6 tbs. flour
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 lb. egg noodles

Instructions:

1. In a large skillet, heat olive oil and heat on medium high. Add the beef and cook to brown, approx. 8-10 minutes.
2. Add onion, garlic and pepper, stir and cook for 2-3 min. to soften the onion.
3. Add liquids and simmer covered for approx. 1 hour.
4. Add maitake and simmer covered for approx. 1/2 hour.
5. Mix flour and 1/2 c. of the cooking liquid in a separate container and stir back in.
6. Simmer for 15 minutes stirring frequently.
7. Cook noodles according to package instructions.
8. Pour sauce over noodles and serve.
9. Optional: Sprinkle parsley and/or shredded parmesan when serving for an extra touch.

A Fungi-Fest

Editor’s note

Remember that phenomenon called rain? If there’s a theme to this month’s Earthstar, it’s that things have been super dry out there this summer and fall. After dry June forays, a parched MO-NAMA and a Sweat n’ Chanterelles with record high temps and record low attendance and pitiful mushroom yields, it’s hard to believe the St. Louis region received more than 9 inches of rain in one day in July. We received a second blast of rain just two days later. I remember riding down Gravois in the work truck with rooster tails of floodwater leaping 15 feet high on either side of us. With the rain came the most luscious fruiting of fungi we’ve seen in months. St. Louis local Strahn Hackman celebrated this flourishing in the following photos. Enjoy.

Answer to Name that Fungus

Trametes versicolor