WildLife Notebook

The Wyoming Valley Mushroom Club will hold its annual Mushroom Fair 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 22 at Frances Slocum State Park Nature Center.

Club members will be available to assist in identifying collections of mushrooms, and to answer questions.

Fairgoers are invited to bring wild mushrooms to the event for discussion. There are a few guidelines when making a collection of mushrooms in hopes of discussing the species identity. Try to extract entire mushrooms by digging the bottom of the stalk out of the ground. Features found below ground level may be important.

When collecting edible mushrooms, it’s a good idea to collect the mushroom by cutting it off above ground level in order to minimize the amount of dirt that gets mixed in with the collection. Try to not lose any of the material that comprises a mushroom. For instance, some mushrooms have rings on their stalks or scales on their caps. Do not remove any of these types of features.

It is not necessary to wash or otherwise clean the mushrooms. Just place a collection into a paper bag, not a plastic bag. A mushroom stored inside a plastic bag will quickly begin to rot.

If different types of mushrooms are found, it’s a good idea to place separate collections into separate bags.