Collecting equipment

Some recommended equipment for various forays. Not all items are needed on every foray.

Containers

    Basket of Morels
  • Not plastic bags!
  • Basket: should be at least a couple of gallons capacity, with a cover to keep leaves and debris out.
  • Fishing box with small compartments; for collecting small fragile mushrooms, avoids crushing and drying.
  • Wax paper/tinfoil: mushrooms collected, need protection from dirt, crushing, and drying.
  • Paper bags/grocery bags/cloth bags: porous containers keep condensation from building up and rotting your collections. This also allows evaporative cooling so not to build up metabolic heat.
  • Ice chests: mushrooms hold best at low temperature, 34F being the recommended by commercial folks. Is your car that temperature often?
  • Backpack/fanny pack: where else are you going, to keep all the junk that we are recommending?

Cutters

  • Knife: one sharp and one you don’t care about. A paring size knife for cleaning and trimming large mushrooms, a slightly larger knife is useful for digging out the bases of mushrooms out of the ground, but this dulls the edge quickly.
  • Scissors: when collecting small mushrooms, such as morels or black chanterelles, great for cutting the dirty bases off without using your thumb for a cutting board.
  • Saw: you want those big Polypores?

Cleaner

  • Brush: paint/vegetable/tooth, its imperative to clean all the dirt off your mushrooms as you put them into the basket, keep them ready for the kitchen.
  • Vegetable peeler: to remove that last bit of soil imbedded in the skin or to remove worm tracks.

Digger

  • Spade to use by truffle collectors, or for subterranean agarics.
  • Cultivator, rake: please respect land managers regulations.

Viewer

  • Hand lens: a 10X is the standard for identifying small macro features in the field.
  • Camera: with macro lens, there’s nothing like a picture of a mushroom, fresh in the field to help with identification.

Information

  • Concerning area, roads, regulations
  • Dangers: animals, physical
  • Attendee’s health, joints, heart, blood sugar
  • Field guide, note book, pencil/pen
  • Checklist of local fungi

Venue dependent equipment

Appropriate footwear

Conditions can be wet, dry slippery, muddy, dusty, snowy, your feet are your transportation, unless you have someone to carry you, having the right shoes, can make the deference between fun, and failure.

Locational devices

  • GPS: are wonderful devices, built in maps that give a sense of confidence when walking in unfamiliar environments.
  • Compass: these don’t require batteries and work in wet forests, can give you a sense of direction that is very important.
  • Altimeters: in the mountains people are always asking what altitude, so they must be important.
  • Maps: each map give a different information set. In unfamiliar areas, at least 3 maps are necessary.
  • Field glass or telescope: spotting habitat from a distance is often the only way to find it.
  • Walkie-talkie: communication with coforayers, can give great comfort to a separated member; allow a shout to orient the lost sheep.

Garments

  • Appropriate for conditions
  • Rain conditions:
    • Rain gear, tear resistant, extra dry cloths
  • Cold /snow, in the mountains, cold snowy conditions can happen any day of the year, not having warm cloths can be fatal:
    • Coats, high visibility preferred
    • Hat, beanie
    • Gloves
  • Hot, dry, baking often in morel season, we are at 5k and very hot weather, be prepared:
    • Light clothes
    • Broad brimmed hat

Sustenance

  • Know you needs are!
  • Water/liquid
  • Food/snacks
  • Medicine that you need or could need
  • Insect repellent