Join MAWDC for our June Monthly Meeting! Mark your calendar!
The meeting will be held via Zoom (link below). MAWDC President Elizabeth Hargrave will kick things off with updates on club activities and fungi in the news. Culinary Chair April Thompson will share eye candy and showcase MAWDC’s work with edible mushrooms in her new segment, The Kitchen Table. Send her your pics at culinary@mawdc.org. Foray Chair Mitch Fournet will lead the virtual ID table, highlighting recent fungal finds sent in by our members. You can send your pics to Mitch at forays@mawdc.org.
For our feature presentation, we are excited to welcome the fabulous team of Citizen Scientists behind the FUNDIS Southeast Rare Fungi Challenge!
A native of NE Ohio, Alisha Millican developed a passion for wild edibles and the outdoors at a young age. After moving to the south in 2012, she eventually earned her Master Gardener certification in 2017. She actively leads the Alabama Mushroom Society as Club President, serves on the Executive Board of the North American Mycological Association, and is the Assistant Curator of Fungi for the University of West Alabama Herbarium. A dedicated advocate for promoting fungal education and stewardship, Alisha enjoys exploring nature with her husband and two children when she’s not immersed in mushroom hunting or gardening pursuits.
Patricia Larkin has been enjoying delicious meals her grandma made from foraged mushrooms since she was a little girl. As Grandma got older, her foraging days fell behind her and Patti and a few of the other family members picked up the practice. While foraging for mushrooms to eat, she began to see many others she didn't know and before long, she realized there was a lot more that was fascinating with Kingdom Fungi than just edible species alone. In her professional life, she is an art teacher. In her own quest for mycological knowledge, she began sketching out what she studied to learn each species better, then transitioned from sketching to involving fungi in more involved pieces. Her art practice revolves around nature- making art of, on, and with items she finds in nature, especially mushrooms and skulls. She is also bringing her two young daughters up into a life of foraging, art creating, and citizen science! Patti has teamed up with Fungal Diversity Study to create a series of illustrations of their Northeast Rare Fungi Challenge to help promote their challenge and is using the sale of stickers of the illustrations as a fundraiser for them.
Amos Zoeller is an amateur mycologist serving as one of the administrators of the Bluegrass Mycological Society in. He is especially known amongst there leadership for using his background in chemistry to explain the ecology of fungi, talking about the best ways to cook and eat fungi, and his affinity for the polypores and crust fungi that many are quick to call boring. Amos pays the bills by working at Bellarmine University in Louisville as the manager of their sciences labs, instruments, and stockroom, as well as being an avid practicer of home chemistry for just over a decade. When not working, synthesizing a pigment and aroma compounds, or hanging out with mushrooms in the forest, he can be found drawing, cooking, kayaking, or competing in Louisville’s bar trivia scene. Amos’ involvement with the Fungal Diversity Survey and its Southeast Rare Fungi Challenge has largely mirrored Patricia Larkin’s work with the Northeast challenge; he has currently released 7 of an expected 20 illustrations of rare fungi featured in the project. Prior to accepting this role, Amos’s art largely consisted of fan art from his favorite anime as well as nature-inspired paintings and sculptures.
Zoom Link:
https://zoom.us/j/96693690911?pwd=YWdyeXh1bHF1N1UyNjNieFovNWFUZz09
Meeting ID 966 9369 0911
Passcode 330827
One Tap Mobile +13017158592,,96693690911#,,,,*330827# US (Washington DC)
Find your local Zoom access number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kQ9hr47WO
