Love Nature and Mushrooms? There’s a Club for You.

YOU’VE LIKELY SPOTTED exotic mushrooms like gray oyster, chanterelle, and hen of the woods on restaurant menus and at gourmet markets. Members of the Philadelphia Mycology Club know there’s an even better place to look for these fantastic fungi: the great outdoors.

The club’s mushroom foraging walks are increasingly popular with people who want to learn how to spot their own dinner in the wild. On a recent foray in John James Audubon Center in Audubon, PA, one attendee spotted a large cluster of golden oyster mushrooms that would get pride of place in any restaurant kitchen.

“The thing about the golden oyster, though, is that it’s actually invasive. When you find it in the woods, it’s fine to collect it and cook it, but if you get into cultivating mushrooms, you shouldn’t intentionally grow these,” says Kevin Popowich, a Mycology Club foray leader.

Like all club leaders, Popowich is a volunteer. His day job is as an ecological risk assessor. “My interest in mushrooms is primarily conservation based,” he says. Popowich believes getting other people to take an interest in green spaces through the fascinating lens of mycology will motivate people to help save and protect those spaces.

Many of the attendees on the John James Audubon Center mushroom foray share his passion for the environment. “A lot of us don’t even like to eat mushrooms!” he says. But at least two people were learning to grow mushrooms at home for culinary use, both for use in their own home kitchen and potentially to sell. The Mycology Club is a diverse group, which is part of what makes taking part in its events so interesting, eye-opening, and fun.

Mushroom forays aren’t the club’s only events. They also lead monthly cleanups at Cobbs Creek as part of their conservation efforts. “When we’re done, if people want to, we’ll also look for mushrooms,” he says.

This year the club is hosting what it hopes will be the first annual Fungadelphia festival on September 7. The all-day event will include cooking demonstrations, workshops on cultivation, guest lectures, and more. During the winter months, when mushrooms aren’t abundant, members gather for tree walks, where they learn to identify different types of trees and what mushrooms are usually found growing on them. Tours of urban mushroom farm Mycopolitan have been among the club’s most popular events.

Popowich says there’s no formal membership to the Philadelphia Mycology Club. Events are mostly free, and there are no dues. “We want to keep it as accessible as possible,” he says. “We’re lucky—you could say interest in the club is mushrooming.”

To learn more about upcoming events and get involved, visit phillymycoclub.com.