Mushroom Foraging and Identification Walk with Hilltown Commons

Join a mushroom walk with John Michelotti, the founder and mycologist of Catskill Fungi. After a brief introduction of your guide and the basics of fungi, we will head into the forest to see what mushrooms we can find. As we spot them growing on logs and on the ground, we will talk about which are edible or medicinal and which are poisonous. Don't worry, no mushrooms in New York are poisonous to touch. We will use our hand lenses to look at the details of each mushroom to learn how to identify them before collecting our specimens in foraging baskets. We will use resources like guide books and apps to identify what fungi we find. We will talk about the connection of fungi and plants, highlighting the essential functions they carry out within the forest. Exploring the many diverse ways which humans have utilized fungi throughout the past, we can see why turning to them now to solve current environmental issues is beneficial. As we carry our baskets out of the woods, we can spread the m