Description: A Sunday Morning mushroom collecting foray/talk on the grounds of the SOMACamp with a focus on the cultivation and uses of mushrooms that will be used in the Sunday Afternoon mushroom cultivation class, both cotaught by Ken Litchfield and David Gardella

This foray will roam the grounds of CYO in search of fungi.

Registration Required. Class limit: 30

Get down on your hands and knees to find the elusive secotiod fungi known as truffles!

This foray will practice using iNaturalist to observe fungi for the Mycoflora of Sonoma County Project which is part of the continent-wide Mycoflora of North America Project. Please download and install iNaturalist before this foray. We will instruct participants about how to use field data slips in conjuction with photos to report fungal discoveries on iNaturalist. An afternoon class will go further in depth about the Mycoflora of Sonoma County Project. This foray is best for those campers attending the afternoon class to discuss our discoveries.

Registration Required. Class limit: 33

Check in, sign the liabilty waiver and pick up your badge.

Are you excited about foraging for fungi, but not sure where to begin? Come learn about the edible mushrooms that are the easiest to identify in Northern California and when and where you are likely to find them. These include oyster, bolete and chanterelle species.

In this class Jill will discuss what is "new" on the mushroom scene regarding products, how to use them and what the producers recommend. She will be looking at products from mushroom powder, pills, tinctures and sprays to mushroom tea and coffee, jerky and chocolate. She will also suggest a variety of ways to use mushrooms at home. There might be samples.

We will make paper using blended mushrooms as well as some other paper fibers to make the paper stronger. A variety of inclusions will be available to add interest to your paper.

Registration Required. Class limit: 9

Learn to make surface designs on two silk scarves using resist dyeing techniques. We will be utilizing various methods of tying, pleating, and clamping to create different effects on the fabric. We will also learn the basics of natural dyeing with mushrooms and specifically the Pisolithus tinctoria aka Dyer's Puffball. This mushroom produces a range of beautiful golden to chocolate browns. All materials included. No experience is necessary.

Registration Required. Class limit: 9

Medicinal mushrooms are not a new concept for humans. For thousands, if not for millions of years humans and other animals have had positive relationships with fungi. 
Found within folk medicine and natural healing for time immemorial, these things are now being studied and utilized within the scientific and medical communities. 

Because of my extreme passion, interest, and research within these fields, I have been accumulating the data. We are facing times within our human experience, in which we are not only faced with cancers, illnesses, and mental illnesses, but we seek sanctuary in progressing as a species and spiritual beings. We have the challenges of addictions, traumas, as well as troubles and worries. I propose that Medicinal and Entheogenic mushrooms are an answer to these many of these and many other scenarios within our health and well-being. 
I will go into detail some of the natural folk remedies, scientific backed medicinals, as well as sacred hallucinogenic mushroom used within ceremony and within modern science.

If we are thinking clearly and are healthy as a species, we can make better decisions, and right now we need to be making good decisions for ourselves and for the well-being of our planet.

 Rayne is an independent documentary film maker and humanitarian seeking solutions. Being a single mother of five children, she has an invested interest, not only in the future of her own children, but for all lifeforms on this beautiful planet. Fungi seem to provide many answers, and Rayne has been sharing and teaching this inspiring information at various schools, music festivals, permaculture events, seminars, and hands on forays. The information MUST be shared in whatever format makes the most sense, from film, to classes, to music and prayer. I just wish to inspire other to take action in the fields that they are most interested in. Fungi is an extremely broad topic, so there seems to be something for everyone. What can one person achieve? Well, if I can reach the masses and inspire others to take action, I feel I have done a service. The format I feel comfortable sharing this information in would be in presentation form, with Powerpoint. I have used projectors connects to my computer, as well as I have lugged my flat screen TV to plug into at a few events. I feel that mixed media is a good format for sharing this in depth information.



For the last two years, Mycelial Mass has offered bi-monthly 'free to attend' classes that offer hands-on educational workshops and an opportunity to become part of a community. They have been wildly popular and are modestly financially self-sustaining! Now we want to help you grow a Mycelial Mass chapter in your own community! This presentation will cover the community we have built and the lessons we have learned, as well as cover ways you might be able to start a chapter in your home town and invite Mario Gabiati, Alan Rockefeller, the SF Psychedelics Society or one of our other partners to promote your event and help you reach Mycelial Mass!

Use a kumihimo disk to weave an eight strand braid from mushroom dyed silk to create a friendship bracelet.

Registration Required. Class limit: 6

Spores spores spores - the whole purpose of the mushroom is to produce spores and send them out into the world. But how is that happening? and what then? can we tell by looking at spores what kind of lifestyle an individual fungus has?

Let's make spore prints and discuss how spore color helps direct us to identification based on spore color. There will be a Thermal Laminator machine available to preserve a spore print to take home.

Registration Required. Class limit: 12

This talk would be for general audiences and discuss how the genus Amanita went from a saprobic group to a mycorrhizal group and will show lots of pretty pictures and examples from all over N America.

Self service by CYO

Learn about the wonderful colors that are found in mushrooms in this introductory class! We will discuss basic dyeing techniques and learn the most commonly used species of mushrooms in dyeing. Students will get hands-on experience dyeing small fiber samples.

Registration Required. Class limit: 9

Students will create a small to medium sized picture on monk’s cloth (about 10 in. diameter each) with mushroom dyed yarns using the punch needle technique for hooking the yarn into the cloth. Pictures provided will be mostly nature scenes and usually picturing mushrooms. Students may also choose to freehand their designs according to their own preferences. In approximately 3 hours, students will be introduced to the craft of rug hooking using the punch needle technique. Orientation to using new materials and technique will be during the first hour. The second two hours will be choosing designs, transferring or drawing designs, and needle punching their pictures using the mushroom dyed yarns.

Registration Required. Class limit: 8

This class will give participants an overview of the Mycoflora of North America project. We will discuss goals and strategies to further this vast project. We will train participants in how to collect and document fungi for this project with a focus on our local Mycoflora of Sonoma County project.

Registration Required. Class limit: 33

For decades, the common mushroom cookbook offers suggestions for dishes, but have yet to dive into the chemistry of what makes up the flavor of the mushrooms we love. We will explore the flavor chemistry of some of your favorite mushrooms, and present questions that still need answering!

Take a look at photos of the tiny features of fungi, hyphae, spores and other key micro features used to distinguish species as you work to identify what you are holding in your hands. Spend the second half of the workshop making your won slides and looking at these structures under a light microscope.

Registration Required. Class limit: 8

Fluorescent fungi contain chemicals which convert ultraviolet light into visible light. Bioluminescent fungi glow in complete darkness. This talk includes photographs and discussion of various fluorescent fungi, and new species of bioluminescent fungi recently described from Mexico. Will include a live demonstration of fluorescent fungi gathered at SOMA Camp.

This beginner's work shop is intended to help you use key identifiers when you are trying to identify mushrooms. Highly recommended for first time mushroomers.

 A tasty treat!

Dr. Gordon Walker presents an academic overview of common medicinal mushrooms and their chemical constituents. Despite a wide array of fungal nutriceuticals, there is very little data to support their use. This talk is an attempt to understand the composition and effectiveness of the bioactive compounds present in medicinal mushrooms.

Learn to grow mushrooms on logs! We will practice log cultivation by inoculating logs with shiitake plugs. Skills learned in this class will aid participants in cultivating a variety of medicinal and edible mushrooms. Students will be able to take home their own shiitake log. Registration is limited. Will be done at camp.

A Saturday afternoon hands on Mushroom Cultivation Seminar by home gardening and kitchen lab techniques, utilizing the mushrooms collected in the morning foray with an emphasis on their uses and lore, cotaught by Ken Litchfield and David Gardella

Mycoremediation is using fungi to decontaminate the environment. This presentation will cover the different ways mushrooms can clean our environment, as well as ways they can prevent contamination.

Learn about some of the edible plants you might find during California's rainy season.

Registration at Camp required - Saturday night

Registration Required. Class limit: 20

Registration at Camp required - Saturday night This is an all day foray to find edible mushrooms at Salt Point State Park. Please carpool and bring mushroom baskets and good walking shoes.

Registration at Camp required - Saturday night

3 Docents from Land Paths will accompany the walk.

David Berman, Walt Drucker, and Darlene LaMont will be from Land Paths.

Mikhael Selk will be your mushroom guide.

This is excellent habitat. Many edibles were found last year on this walk.

Registration at Camp required - Saturday night

Remember those old leaf prints you made in elementary school? Maybe you put a leaf down and rubbed crayon all around it, leaving an outline of the leaf. Maybe you painted the leaf and pressed it down on paper, creating a print that showed the outline, veins, and irregularities. Fast forward to today. This class takes leaf printing to the next level. Utilizing many of the leaves you can find in the neighborhood, a treated silk scarf and cotton blanket, and some steam, you’ll create a beautiful, one-of-a-kind project you’ll be thrilled to use or give as a gift. It’s easy, fun, and quite frankly, addictive! Note: The design and preparation of the scarf takes about 30 minutes. It needs to steam for 90 minutes. Participants can actually leave and come back when their project has finished steaming.

Registration Required. Class limit: 9

In this talk, I will discuss some of the important chemicals made by fungi, why some fungi are chemically strange, some of the latest discoveries about fungal secondary metabolism and the evolution thereof. I will also my research on the chemistry of fungi in genus Tolypocladium, better known by their synonyms Cordyceps and Elaphocordyceps.

Basic workshop for needle felting 2D and 3D mushroom projects for beginners. All materials and needles will be available.

Registration Required. Class limit: 10

This talk would be for general audiences but show research results of insects, especially mycophagous flies and their coevolution with mushrooms and in particular their fondness for Amanitas. Recent research has found how they can survive amatoxins.

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Bioflourescence is the absorption and the immediate re-emission of light or photon, which has longer wavelength when re-emitted than that of what was previously absorbed. Come learn about these two interesting phenomenon in fungi!

Same workshop as the past two years. Brian Perry and I do this. All day Sunday We will bring all the scopes and supplied needed for the the workshop

Registration Required. Class limit: 12

SOMA's foray chef will show folks how to make simple--but scrumptious--mushroom recipes using  the very best ingredients found in local markets.  Come on by, listen to his years of mushrooming stories, plus sample three delicious dishes.

Learn to grow koji and make your own mushroom tasty paste in this course. Koji is an ancient edible fungus that has long been used in China to make soy sauce and bean pastes; in Japan, koji has historically been used to make misos and sakes. In this course, we will make a reimagined modern miso, using mushrooms instead of soybeans. All materials will be provided to you to create a one of a kind product that you can use as a vegetarian soup base, sandwich spread or salad dressing addition. Samples of koji related products will also be provided for further culinary education and exposure.

Registration Required. Class limit: 30

Take this primer course if you are a total beginner. Learn how to make sense of the wide world of wild mushrooms, demystifying what can be a daunting task for newbies.

Ever wonder how those porcini get so big? Many tasty California mushrooms must trade with trees to get sugar, which they use to fuel their growth and reproduction (including those huge fruiting bodies we know and love). But it's not a one-way relationship -- the trees need the fungi, too! In this cooperative relationship, called mycorrhizal symbiosis, plants trade energy-rich carbon compounds like sugar for important soil resources from the fungi, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and water. In this presentation, Dr. Bogar will share her research on this symbiotic resource trade, exploring the rules that govern this underground economy, how it may influence both the diversity of trees (and mushrooms!) in forests, and its potential effects on the movement of carbon and nitrogen through forested ecosystems.

How to extract DNA and generate sequences, and use those sequences to make phylogenetic trees. How to choose a gene region to sequence, how to decide what to sequence, and what you can learn from the data you generate.

Join Mario in learning how to cure salami and other meats using Koji (Aspergillus orayzae). Used to ferment rice and vegetables commonly Mario has successfully employed Koji to quick cure meat in a wonderfully delicious way. This hour long class will give you the tools to make your own salami at home with simple equipment and techniques.

Registration Required. Class limit: 30

Not all fungi in the forest are the classic beneficial mycorrhizal mushroom producing organisms we all know and love. Many forest dwelling fungi can cause vast amounts of disease to our trees and other plants. Many of these pathogens are impossible to see with the naked eye, yet they cause millions of dollars worth of damage to crops and our national forests every year. Conversely, these fungal pathogens can provide hope for a better future in some scenarios. They can be used to save the planet from overuse of chemical pesticides in specific management areas. Come learn about an obscure fungal-related career which keeps avocados, bananas, walnuts and many other crops on your dining table.

Registration Required. Class limit: 45

Mandalas are a spiritual and ritual symbol traditionally created within Hindu and Buddhist traditions. They can represent various manifestations of the cosmos and are often used as a spiritual teaching tool and an aid to meditation and trance induction. Come and help build the beauty of our sacred SOMA Camp space by creating a communal mushroom mandala. Materials from the ID tables and the surrounding nature of SOMA camp will help aid the artistic experience.

Tapestry weaving has been around since at least the 3rd century B.C. Some tapestries are simple, others have elaborate pictures woven into them. In this class, students will create their own simple tapestries on little acrylic looms using mushroom-dyed wool yarn and some yarn that's natural color.

Registration Required. Class limit: 9

Can Mushrooms Save the Planet? (This is the name and title of an independent documentary project I am working on) Our planet is facing many epidemics. From starvation to our plastic overloads, from illnesses and disease to desertification (our deserts expanding), fungi seem to provide answers. I go over approximately 15 different issues that we are facing, and what people are doing globally to face these issues using fungi.

What if I were to tell you that the planet as we know it, with all its many plants and animals, may have been created by fungal creatures around hundreds of thousands of years ago, and we all may be decedents? What if I told you that fungi have the ability to clean up our planet, and that we can either choose to work with them or they will do the work themselves long after humans are extinct? You might say that all sounds far-fetched and crazy. For the past 6 years I have been studying fungi and all its complexities. 

I have spoken to many of the top experts in the fields of mycology, permaculture, psychology, and the likes, as well as I have read books, gone on site to location, and have continued to research and ask questions. I am currently producing the indie documentary, “Can Mushrooms Save the Planet?” I have been asking the questions, and am very passionate about sharing answers, and have been spreading the information like spores.

This half-day workshop is designed for those who would like to learn how to capture the beauty of mushrooms in watercolor. It is especially intended for beginners, but more experienced artists are also encouraged to attend this community paint-in. We will cover all the basics of watercolor painting, including papers, paints, basic techniques, lighting, staging your subject etc. All will paint at least one mushroom from live material during the class. Those who have paints and brushes are encouraged to bring them. We will provide paper, palettes, a limited selection of paints and brushes(on loan) and other materials (pencils, erasers etc). Watercolor painting will give you new ways to view and observe mushrooms. Even those who claim that they cant draw a stick-figure will be surprised at what they can really do.  (Limited to 12 people.

Registration Required. Class limit: 10

In this overview, Jill will discuss the health benefits of a variety of edible mushrooms: what we know and what we have yet to discover. She will lightly touch on both the culinary and health aspects of mushrooms, and which are those that you might want to eat more often.

We will be working with mushrooms and other local plant and weed material to create meaningful memories of earth through the transmutation of color onto fiber. The ways that we interact with the natural world within us and around us is ritual. As earth-based practitioners, we have a duty to honor our land and all of our relations through art / the act of creation. In this workshop, we will journey down a process of natural dyeing that emphasizes responsible dyeing techniques (using local material). We will also discuss land-based skills and the role of fiber arts as a lost ancestral practice, particularly for those of the diaspora. Take some time to reflect with us.  (the online description doesn't need to include this part) 1. Conversation:Fabric is fiber  - natural fibers how we treat our fibers: using alternative methods from the earthDyeing - ways we've worked with dyes, my preferences with dye materials2. Story of mushroom colors: what is the history, where do some of these mushrooms originate from?  We will be dyeing during this conversation on Process.  3. Process: Mushroom dyeing on bandannas - different techniques: fermented mushrooms, roll-up stain method, hammer method, dip-dye. - traditional techniques: the process of time- drying techniques, storage, and washing 

Registration Required. Class limit: 10

Participants will make their own mushroom bags to take home and fruit. John will demonstrate how you can grow oyster mushrooms at home on pasteurized straw. Timing is open between 2:00PM and 4:00PM

In “The Fractal Nature of Real Nutrition,” Chef Zachary Mazi presents a compelling argument to help everyone understand the structure of our full selves: our bodies and our relationship to the nature that surrounds and pervades us. Join in the discussion to explore how we integrated we all are, at depths beyond the limits of the frustrating back and forth talking points that confound us on all sides. Digestive physiology, the micro-biome, hints at our spiritual nature, quantum biology, the wonders of DNA and some examples of our most nutritious allies, and a little humor, are all included in this on-going conversation.

Fungi have formed intricate relationships with almost every other type of organism that has evolved on land. However, our understanding of their interactions with other microbes, especially single-celled bacteria and archaea, is in its infancy. I am studying a hypothesized novel association between fungi and bacteria, in which fungal hyphae seem to act as microscopic ‘highways' that allow bacteria to move long distances through soils. My experiments will show the extent to which bacteria depend on fungi for transportation and nutrient scavenging through wet-dry cycles, and with heterogeneous sources of carbon and nitrogen. If supported, my hypothesis will allow soil scientists and land managers to better understand the way many soil organisms are obtaining carbon, and the mechanisms by which moisture flux affects nutrient cycling in soil.

We’ve all heard of the umami-packed shiitake, but what other mushrooms are used in Japanese cuisine? Come join our exploration of lesser-known Japanese mushroom varieties, and warm yourself up with this tasting extravaganza!

This presentation will showcase the grotesquely beautiful forms of Cordyceps mushrooms and their zombie arthropod hosts including some of the Cordyceps found around the world and in Western USA. It will also provide an overview of Cordyceps taxonomy and the history thereof, the phylogenetic relationships of various groups of Cordyceps sensu lato and their identifying characters, important chemicals discovered from Cordyceps and ongoing Cordyceps research.

David will discuss all the necessary skills and attitudes you need to start hunting and eating wild mushrooms. 

Experienced Dyers are invited to bring their own washed and mordanted protein fibers to use the leftover dyes from the weekend classes and mushrooms brought in from the forays. Please limit to five 1 oz. wool skeins and/or silk scarves.

Registration Required. Class limit: 9

Paul will discuss his research involving Psilocybin and Hericium and their abilities to aide in the formation of new neural pathways in our brains.

Paul will discuss how polypore extracts help bees survive.

George Riner and other expert ID folks will discuss the finds at SOMA Camp 2020. (All are welcome to ask questions and participate in discussion.)

Gourmet Mushrooms Inc. has been a consistent and extremely generous donor to SOMA.  This year Justin Reyes, the Director of Sales and Marketing for Mycopia Mushrooms, has even more generously offered to give us a tour of the Gourmet Mushrooms operation.  A fun thing to do on your way out of Camp!  Check out their website at www.mycopia.com for new and interesting information about mushrooms!

SIGN UPS AT CAMP DURING REGISTRATION- PLEASE DO NOT REGISTER IF YOU HAVE TAKEN THIS TOUR BEFORE.

Registration Required. Class limit: 40