Like everyone else, we're adapting to pandemic times. Here's the plan for our two-day mushroom show.

Forager, chef and author Zachary Mazi will be our Zoom guest speaker at 7 pm, Nov. 12. He'll focus on the wild edibles of northern Thailand, the culture of foraging and cooking, and reports of his own discoveries while hiking that mountainous, forested region. His background includes earth sciences, classic training in French cuisine, Pacific Northwest cuisine, and exploration of the culinary and medicinal uses of mushrooms. You can find more about him at www.TheFoodBender.com. Details of the Zoom meeting…

If you don't know about Cordyceps already, you are in for a treat at our December meeting. This is the genus of fungi that is most famous for infecting insects, hijacking their nervous system, and taking their new host for a drive. Oh, and then the mushroom sprouts out of their bodies. Richard Tehan has all the photos. He is a graduate student at Oregon State who somehow maneuvered his way into studying exactly this unusual fungal family. His topic:…

Insert clever mycelium metaphor here. For our January meeting, via Zoom, we're going to hear about, and talk about, making connections across the sprawling world of mycology. Our speaker will be Melodie Gates, treasurer of the North American Mycological Association, and a longtime member of the South Sound Mushroom Club. Her topic:  the benefits of joining NAMA, an organization that brings together professional and amateur mycologists and affiliated mycological societies across the continent. Building on that outreach theme, we'll also explore…

Lowell Dietz, a club member for more than 30 years, started cultivating and selling mushrooms more than 20 years ago and has since branched out into permaculture and a soil enhancement technique called bio-char. His Zoom talk  at 7 pm on Feb.11  is "How to Turn Garbage Into Food." Here's his description of his talk: "A spiritual quest led to new friends who helped re-discover ancient permaculture methods that could feed communities cut off from traditional modern food supplies.   Those…

The underground world of fungal mycelium is where biologist Anne Biklé  is focused. She and her husband, geologist David Montgomery, wrote The Hidden Half of Nature. It's an exploration of microbial life, and how it underpins the health of the soil and of our own bodies. She'll talk about this point of view on Thursday, March 11, at 7 pm in our Zoom-based general meeting. Beforehand, you can read up on their work on the connections between people, plants, food, health, and…

To make sure you're prepared for the Spring Kings and then all the boletes that follow, our April 8 speaker will be Daniel Winkler. He wears a lot of hats -- he created the familiar Northwest edible mushroom laminated folder, and he runs MushRoaming, an eco-adventure business. He will talk about Boletes of the Pacific Northwest, and about new training tools called MycoCard. Zoom credentials for the meeting are available to KPMS members.    

Calling all Citizen Scientists -- Lauren Re, of the South Sound Mushroom Club, will be our Zoom guest on   Thursday, May 13, at 7 pm. She'll discuss research projects in mushroom diversity that we can each contribute to, just by reporting our interesting finds. The Zoom link and credentials are in the Members Forum.