Meetings for 2019-2020
Monday, October 7, 2019 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: Robert Rogers
Presentation: The Twenty Myths of Medicinal Mushrooms
The Twenty Myths of Medicinal Mushrooms explores the reality behind often-cited statements found in books, and online media.
In this presentation we will explore some of the common misconceptions associated with picking mushrooms in the wild, mycelium vs fruiting body benefits, wild vs cultivated, drug interactions (both positive and negative), and assorted other misnomers.
Robert Dale Rogers has been an herbalist for over forty-five years, and is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta, where he is presently an assistant clinical professor in Family Medicine. He is also an adjunct professor at York University. He presently teaches plant medicine, including plant and mushroom medicine, aromatherapy and flower essences in the Earth Spirit Medicine faculty at the Northern Star College in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Robert is past chair of the Alberta Natural Health Agricultural Network and Community Health Council of Capital Health. He is a Fellow of the International College of Nutrition, past-chair of the medicinal mushroom committee of the North American Mycological Association and on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, Fungi magazine and Discovery Phytomedicine. He is the author of 52 books on medicinal plants and fungi of the boreal forest, including The Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North America.
Monday, November 18, 2019 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: Lawrence Millman
Presentation: Fungipedia and other Tales
A presentation on adventures in ethnomycology, ecology, music and fungi history. Lawrence Millman discusses how mushrooms are much more closely related to humans than to plants, how they engage in sex, how insects farm them, and how certain species happily dine on leftover radiation, cockroach antennae, and dung. He explores the lives of individuals like African American scientist George Washington Carver, Beatrix Potter, and Gordon Wasson, Millman considers why fungi are among the most significant organisms on our planet and how they are currently being affected by destructive human behavior, including climate change.
Author-mycologist Lawrence Millman has written 17 books, including such titles as Fascinating Fungi of New England, Last Places, A Kayak Full of Ghosts, Lost in the Arctic, Giant Polypores & Stoned Reindeer, and — most recently — At the End of the World. He has done fungal inventories in places as diverse as Iceland, Honduras, Nunavik, Bermuda, Belize, Western Samoa, and Nantucket Island. In 2006, he found a polypore (Echinodontium ballouii) previously thought to be extinct. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Monday, February 24, 2020 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: Richard Schwarz
Presentation: Park Mushrooms: The Hiker's Experience
Richard will be speaking about his experiences leading nature hikes in a National Park setting and how that experience differs from regular MST forays. Richard will explore the natural, cultural and historical perspectives of the park's mushrooms to help hikers deepen their appreciation of this interesting kingdom of life.
Richard Schwarz has been a member of the MST for seven years and has been participating in our Identification Workshops as well as assisting at the Foray Tables. In addition, Richard has been volunteer leading mushroom walks in Rouge Park for 6 years.
Monday, March 23, 2020 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: TBA
Presentation: TBA
Monday, April 20, 2020 7:30 p.m.
Speaker: TBA
Presentation: TBA
The April 20th meeting will also feature a short segment for the MST's Annual General Meeting, to elect the incoming Board of Directors and review the past year's financial report.
Updated February 12th, 2020