Popular Experiment Farm mushroom class set Aug. 11

WASILLA — Slots are filling up fast for an annual — and popular — mushroom workshop planned Aug. 11-13 for the Matanuska Experiment Farm in Palmer.

Mycologist Gary Laursen will lecture and lead the workshop on the wild mushrooms of Southcentral Alaska, an event hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service.

The workshop, “Introduction to Mushrooms of the Mat-Su Region,” will include field and laboratory identification, and information on collecting, preparing and preserving edible mushrooms. The workshop also will cover the ecology of mushrooms and current issues, according to the extension service.

The August class will be the fourth visit to the Valley for Laursen, who holds a doctorate in botany and ecology and has studied Arctic, sub-Arctic and sub-Antarctic fungi around the world for more than 40 years, according to the extension service. He is the co-author with Neil McArthur of “Alaska’s Mushrooms: A Wide-Ranging Guide,” which was released last year. Laursen, an adjunct research professor and the director and president of the High Latitude Mycological Research Institute at UAF, said during last year’s session that the noncredit class gives him the opportunity to share his years of experience and research with those interested in mushroom identification on any number of levels — from academic to the weekend harvester.

“I love sharing this with people,” Laursen said of mycology, the scientific study of fungi. “It is my passion and near and dear to my heart. I think more people are showing an interest in harvesting for food, and it can be done — in a careful way.”

After a Friday evening lecture, Laursen will lead participants in the fieldwork portion of the class on Saturday and Sunday, which will entail walking the trails around the Experiment Farm, a search which will typically yield a wide range of fungi.

The extension service will host the lecture and workshop at 208 Kerttula Hall at 1509 S. Georgeson Dr. The lecture runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 11, and the fieldwork is set for Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 12-13. The fee is $100 for the entire course or $20 for the Friday night lecture only. Aug. 4 is the deadline for signing up at http://bit.ly/cesworkshops.

For more information, call the extension district office at 907-745-3360, or contact Julie Cascio at jmcascio@alaska.edu or Melissa Clampitt at mrclampitt@alaska.edu.

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com