Foraging & Mycological (Mushroom) Societies
Foraging and mycological societies are member clubs of wild mushroom hunters who head into the woods together on seasonal forays, then spread the day's haul across an identification table where experienced members name every species. They run meetings with talks, keep records of what grows where, and most host a public fungus fair each autumn. Fungi are unforgiving (a single misidentified cap can be fatal), so the group's collective eye is the whole point.
Because you never eat what you cannot name, a novice depends on the elders who verify each basket, and that transfer of hard-won knowledge is what turns a walk in the forest into membership. The society's shared species lists and public fairs also make each member a small contributor to regional science, not just a private collector.
How this one actually works
A society runs on a two-track calendar. Indoors, meetings bring a guest talk, a slideshow of the season's finds, and often a cook-up of confirmed edibles; outdoors, the group drives to a chosen wood for a foray, fans out to hunt alone or in pairs, then reconvenes to pool everything on long identification tables. There an ID committee or a few veteran members work through each specimen with a field guide, a spore print, and sometimes a microscope, sorting the choice edibles from the toxic lookalikes and teaching as they go. Many clubs affiliate to a national body (the North American Mycological Association in the US, for instance) and submit species records, dried voucher collections, and distribution data that feed real mycology. The year peaks at a public fungus fair or wild mushroom show, where hundreds of labelled specimens are laid out for the town to walk past, and where the society quietly recruits its next intake.
Amateur mycology grew up alongside Victorian natural history: the British Mycological Society formed in 1896 and the Boston Mycological Club in 1895, both built on the club foray, a group walk that doubled as fieldwork. Running underneath the learned societies is a far older folk tradition, strongest across Slavic and Mediterranean Europe, where mushroom gathering is a household autumn ritual (Poland's grzybobranie, Russia's tikhaya okhota or quiet hunt, and Italy's deep porcini culture). North America's amateur scene organised through bodies like the North American Mycological Association, founded in 1959, while individual clubs kept their local character; the New York Mycological Society, co-founded in 1962 by composer John Cage, is a famous example. Italy went furthest institutionally, embedding public mushroom inspectors (ispettori micologici) in its regional health service to check citizens' baskets for free.
Come dressed for mud with a basket (not a plastic bag, which sweats and rots the specimens) and a knife, and expect to be told the first rule at once: do not eat anything until a named person has confirmed it. On the foray you can wander and pick freely, because the safety net is the identification table back at the cars, where you carry your finds to be named and where beginners cluster to watch the experts work. Forays draw a wide mix of retirees, families with children, chefs, and photographers, so nobody minds a slow walker or a basket full of the wrong thing, and you leave knowing three or four species you can actually trust.
Real groups you could walk into
Each is a specific, verified community currently active in this archetype.
How to start foraging & mycological (mushroom) societies in your city
a seasonal cycle · 15-50 people · regional tradition anchor
- A consistent core of 15-50 people after six months
- Public visibility through skill building
- Cross-generational membership (or at least mixed ages by year two)
- Newcomers absorbed without losing the founding crew
- Find 3-5 co-founders who can commit to a seasonal cycle for at least a year.
- Pick a recurring time and place. Calendar discipline matters more than perfect timing.
- Design a clear visible identity early: name, simple kit or symbol, a short manifesto.
- Make the activity itself the recruitment tool. Show up in public; people will join.
- Build an explicit beginners path. The first session should feel welcoming, not intimidating.
- Decide your contribution to the wider neighbourhood now, not later: a performance, a service, a cleanup, a meal.
- · No athletic background required; calibrate expectations honestly.
- · Don't let founders become irreplaceable. Plan for handover from year one.
- · Open entry means churn. Build rituals that turn drop-ins into regulars.
Foraging & Mycological (Mushroom) Societies near you?
If a named group above is missing (yours, or one you know), submit it. The catalog grows by who notices what.