LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — It only takes a few minutes of walking through the woods to find something fungi. It's a trick. Danielle Bennett of Connected Fungirl Wellness likes to share with others on her 'Mushroom Monday' walks in Lehman Township,
"The first Monday of every month, we come here, and we just take, like, an hour-long hike. Just really getting connected with nature is the primary focus. Finding mushrooms is the secondary game," said Danielle Bennett, Connected Fungirl Wellness.
Danielle is certified through the Department of Agriculture to sell wild mushrooms and has written books on mushrooms we can find in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania, but many come along for these meetups to get something you can't get from a book or a website.
"For me personally, I'm just super excited to learn about mushrooming. It's something that I don't feel really comfortable like reading a book or doing online. So I feel like being in person with somebody, having somebody personally walk with me in the woods, show me in person. It just, it feels like I just learn easier that way," said Melissa Roberts, Trucksville.
So once the group is all together, it's time to go into the woods, behind the Back Mountain, recreational fields, and explore the strategy to finding mushrooms can be simple.
Identifying them is the hard part.
"You want to just really pay attention to the environment. You want to like. If we're looking for black trumpets, you'll be on the ground. If we're looking for chicken of the woods, that'll be on some dead trees. So, these are some of the identifying features you want to look for. You turn over the mushroom, you look at the fertile surface area, that is where the spores are released. In this case, there's gills. So, in your field guide, you would go to the guild mushroom section," said Danielle.
Field guides, for anyone mushroom hunting, it's highly recommended.
"They can be toxic. So, you know, the fear of making the wrong decision really kind of kept me away from this amazing activity for so many years, and having the confidence and having an amazing teacher to show me here in my backyard, right here in the back mountain, what's available just makes it so much more accessible, and it makes it a lot easier and much more fun," explained Danielle.
On our short walk on the central trail, we found black trumpet mushrooms, tiny orange mushrooms, some growing out of trees, others growing out of leaves and inside old stumps, introducing us to a world we had no idea was here until we were prompted to take a closer look.
If you want to join a mushroom hunt with Connected Fungirl Wellness, you can find out when their next excursion is on their Facebook page by clicking here.
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