Mushrooms of British Columbia, the latest handbook from Royal BC Museum Books, is now available in many BC book outlets. This new 500-page, all-colour volume features illustrated, in-depth looks at 350 of BC's most common mushrooms. For most of its first year of publication it was the#1 bestseller on the rankings list maintained by the Association of Book Publishers of BC.
Andy was on CBC Radio Vancouver on November 7 at 6:50 a.m. on The Early Edition with Stephen Quinn. You can hear him here.The same day, he was also on the CBC Victoria afternoon show, All Points West with Jason D’Souza, at 5:35 p.m.
Kem Luther featured on CHEK-TV's This Week in History (a series from the Royal BC Museum).The upcoming Fungi Fest at the Royal BC Museum is highlighted.This year, the annual SVIMS mushroom show will take place at Newcombe Hall in the museum.
The mushroom season is finally getting started on the southern end of Vancouver Island.Lots of VI mushroom events over the next few weeks. See the Events tab for the ones that Andy and Kem are involved in. A video about the week, produced as part of the This Week in History series, airs on CHEK-TV's News at 5 program on Saturday, October 14.Big news this year--the SVIMS show is returning to the Royal BC Museum. The Museum has planned a week of fungi events around the opening of their new IMAX film, Fungi: The Web of Life. A still from new This Week in History show
The 2022 BC mushroom season has begun! Authors Andy and Kem will be part of over 15 public events during the next two months. See a list of these happenings under the Events tab. Lobster mushroom, Hypomyces lactifluorum, found by Angelica Save in Metchosin in August, 2022 (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131839751)
Children's educator and songwriter Rosie Emery recently released a song, Funky Fungi. She was inspired by some recent books on mycorrhizal fungi.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZE9heZOio
Metchosin Foundations's new fundraiser, a boxed set of 36 mushroom art cards, are now available. Text on the back of the cards is by Andy and Kem, adapted (with permission) from Mushrooms of British Columbia. Here's an article about the cards by one of the artists, Dana Nygard, published in the The Westshore. More information on the cards can be found on the Metchosin Biodiversity site.
The BC Museum travelling exhibit on BC's Marvellous Mushrooms, which is based on the box essays in Mushroom of British Columbia, is at the Okanagan Heritage Museum in Kelowna until May 23.
January brought a rare display of hair ice to Metchosin. Did you know that a fungi was involved? Read the Metchosin Muse article by Kem Luther (click on article to read)
The BC travelling exhibit on "BC's Marevellous Mushrooms" is at the Cowichan Valley Museum until March. Reports in the Chemainus Valley Courier and the Cowichan Valley Citizen.
The new BC mushroom book has proved to be too popular--the first printing sold out in a few weeks. A new printing was deleyed by COVID supply chain and labour issues. The new printing is now done! Bookstores across BC are being quickly restocked. The Royal BC Museum Shop has lots of copies.