Show and Tell with the FunGal Forager!

Show and Tell with the FunGal Forager!

Saturday, September 4

2-4pm

$FREE$

We've had lots of requests for foraging classes, so come kick it off with local expert Krista Willmorth, aka The FunGal Forager! Krista will be laden with her latest hauls: freshly harvested wild mushrooms (weather permitting),  fermented fireweed leaf tea, foraging and cookbooks, creations, knowledge, and more! Krista is excited to share what she's gathered, and to gather ideas for future classes from you so don't miss this melding of the minds!

TEACHER BIO:

I’m Krista Willmorth, AKA The FunGal Forager. (Get it? A Fun Gal foraging for fungal food? ;-)

In 2017 I started my blog to help people interested in foraging (especially newbies!) learn how to find, safely identify, and prepare mushrooms and other wild foods.

I’ve been learning about wild food plants and herbs since the early 80’s when, as a free-ranging six-year-old, I stepped through a patch of “feral” mint along the back of our property and made a fairly instantaneous connection between the scent of the crushed leaves and candy (not to mention tea and toothpaste). In other words, mint=food THEREFORE *food is everywhere*. It blew my little mind!

Fast-forward through about 25 years of learning from books, blogs, osmosis, and mentoring, and I started adding wild mushrooms to my diet too. I took a mushroom identification class with the Southern Idaho Mycological Association, (SIMA), became a full-on fungus freak, and joined the Association myself around 2008. And in the fall of 2019, after about a decade of attending SIMA meetings, identification classes, and forays as a participant and eventually as a leader/facilitator, I was elected to SIMA’s Board of Directors and began serving as Association President in 2020.

Learning to forage wild foods has given me a wealth of benefit: supplementing my diet and that of my family with healthy, nutritious, and inexpensive food; regular and meaningful contact with nature; easy exercise with a purpose, and contact with hundreds of other curious, knowledgeable, and fascinating individuals involved in foraging around the world. It’s my hope with this venture that I can help newcomers to the foraging world access information that will help them grow in skills and confidence, as well as foster a community of more experienced foragers worldwide who can do the same in their own locale.

Finally, I've learned that when a person gets involved in foraging their own food (whether from the wild or their urban "backyard") they very often develop a strong desire to take care of the locations they harvest from. I figure, the more of that attitude I can promote, the better it will be for preserving our beautiful wild Idaho for generations to come!