Michael Beug

My last talk of 2025 will be a zoom presentation to the Mendocino Coast Mushroom Club on "Medicinal/Culinary Mushrooms: Fantastic Fungi to Save Body, Mind, Spirit and the Planet." To access the presentation and supplementary materials go to my website
www.mushroomsofcascadia.com Enjoy.

My last talk of 2025 will be a zoom presentation to the Mendocino Coast Mushroom Club on "Medicinal/Culinary Mushrooms: Fantastic Fungi to Save Body, Mind, Spirit and the Planet." To access the presentation as well as supplementary fungal resources, go to
mushroomsofcascadia.com Enjoy.

My last talk of 2025 will be a zoom presentation to the Mendocino Coast Mushroom Club on "Medicinal/Culinary Mushrooms: Fantastic Fungi to Save Body, Mind, Spirit and the Planet." To access the presentation and supplementary fungal resources go to my website
mushroomsofcascadia.com.

December is off to a beautiful start here in the Columbia River Gorge, Washington State

Find of the day - My neighbors enthusiastic young children led me to a giant oyster mushroom, Pluerotus populinus

video of the sunset 11-21-25, Columbiaq River gorge

Every week I pick what I am certain is the last bouquet of the year for my wife and yet with no hard frost yet, flowers are sill forming new buds and new flowers. Here is the Nov 22 bouquet

Sunrise had its ten minutes of glory on 11-21-25 and this week we had first frost of the season, a good 6 weeks later than 45 years ago when we first purchased our property. I enjoyed a walk in the woods. Like a frog in slowly warming water, it looks like we will not rally against climate change.

Mushrooms of Cascadia Follow or Message Michael

For lovers of fungi or lovers of nature, consider mushroom books for Christmas presents. My personal focus is on the Pacific Northwest but my library includes over 200 books on mushroom identification, cooking, art, and medicine for mind and body. Visit my website www.mushroomsofcascadia.com

On Thursday 11-20-25 I will be talking to the Wisconsin Mycological Society via zoom for a members only event on medicinal/culinary mushrooms. To join and get the zoom information join at www.wisconsinmycologicalsociety.org

In my next public event, I will be interviewed by Podcaster Christ Jeffries on "The HR Conversations" 1 PM (PST) November 19, 2025

A walk in my orchard and a visit to my neighbor turkeys and a Douglas squirrel

Photos from a 11-16-25 walk in my orchard and nearby woods, starting with American persimmons and ending with a garden trail

I had a wonderful day largely failing to find mushrooms. I lunched at the Confluence Cafe in Lyle after visiting COR cellars. The Confluence Cafe gave me cookies for the staff at Syncline winery. Going home, a friend with a large oak tree had a lion's mane about 30 feet up and helped me cut it down.

Brief Video clip of 4th grade student introducing her inspirational teacher, Krista Cushman for Krista's 11-12-25 Sense of Place talk in Hood River OR "Mostly Mushrooms: What I Discovered When I Fell in Love With Mushrooms". It was heartening to see the enthusiasm Krista inspires in her students.

The election November 4 was a ray of hope, a moment to savor a fabulous 2018 Syncline Brut Champagne before turning back to the plight of 90% of Americans who are worse off under the combined weight of the Republican tax policies and 47's erratic costly tariff policies.

On Sunday November 9 I will be in a conversation with Paul Stamets at the Olympia Capitol Theater. Doors open 6 PM and book signing at end of evening.

Don't bother to read Heather Cox Richardson's October 28 article. It is just about history of the 1920s and 1930s. We all know history never repeats itself. Or does it? Have a Happy Halloween and don't let ICE get your trick-or-treaters, though I am sure that ICE will be appropriately gentle.

I hope to meet some of you in Seattle October 25 and 26 at the PSMS Mushroom show

On September 12 I noticed a preying mantis egg mass on one one of the carmen peppers I had picked. On October 14 after a month in the shade outside, I checked the pepper. It was a bit dried out but still in completely edible condition. First photo September 12, second photo October 14.

I will be at the Olympic Peninsula Fungi Fest October 16-19 to g hunt fof fungi, give a talk, help identify mushrooms, and hopefully sell my books .

Hypomyces sp. "luteovirens-PNW01", a Russula parasite that is sometimes parasitizes Lactarius, in this case a white-milk Lactarius species unlike any I had ever seen before. Our one known PNW collection of H. luteovirens (on a Russula) is distinctly different that the European species.

At two talks: I will have my book available for sale: Mushrooms of Cascadia: An Illustrated Key to the Fungi of the Pacific Northwest, Second Edition
Website www.mushroomsofcascadia has medicinal mushroom information, YouTube videos, podcasts, my book reviews, and a list of my i-Naturalist posts.

The 2025 Albany Mushroom Festival was a day of peace and joy with music, mushroom-themed booths, talks and workshops attracting people from all walks of life: red-necks mingling with hippies, young and old having a good time. I gave a talk "Should I have Eaten That Mushroom" and sold my book.

Read H C Richardson's Sept 17 "Letters from an American". We began with a Federalist system. Within a decade economic and political chaos led to Shay's Rebellion, a farmer's rebellion against the Boston Merchants. The framers then created a Republic, starting "We the People" (our bill of rights).

September 19 I will be at Heathen Brewing in Vancouver, WA for a 6:30 talk and book signing at a Mount Saint Helens Institute "Volcano Views and Brews" meeting. Talk title: "Marvelous and Unusual Mushrooms of Cascadia." Details and future events are posted on my website: mushroomsofcascadia.com

Alden Dirks has posted the DNA results for a collection had identified a Gyromitra cf. ancilis, knowing that we have about four look-alikes in the Pacific Northwest (Mushrooms of Cascadia: An Illustrated Key, page 76). Discina OR01 is the provisional name. The spores were 23-24.5 x 10.9-13 microns.

Rubroboletus pulcherrimus (#1), deadly poisonous conifer species. Rubroboletus haematinus (#2) sponge that starts yellow before turning red (edibility unknown). Under oaks, poisonous Rubroboletus eastwoodiae (#3), edible Suillellus amygdalinus (#4).

My mind is on mushrooms. Tuesday Sept 2 a trip to the southern Washington Cascades demonstrated that yes Virginia, there are mushroom in them thar hills (look for spruce above 3500' - lower later in the year). Enough for 4 pans of duxelles plus a array of fungi to please the fungal dye folks,

On August 22 after harvesting the garden produce, I headed for the mountains for a day of mushrooming. I finally found several king boletes and the all white, brown staining Fuscoporia fragilis. I also found an Inocybe, a Nolania growing in a clump of Cantharellus roseocanus, and Russula mustelina.