Foraging Opportunities for September, 2025

 

Thank you for your interest in foraging. This is a list of presentations and walks through September. Please understand that we need at least 15 people to register for our tastings, please help to spread the word! We do not approach or solicit your libraries or clubs for classes, but they can contact us at this email address to book an event of their own. Our prices are set to cover our material expenses and travel. You or your group can view my public presenter’s catalog at https://programs.ctlibrarians.org/library-programer/karen-monger

An autumn tasting from last year, with autumn olive dip, maitake jerky, ramps jam over brie, spicebush cookies with beach plum glaze, conifer soda

 September 13, 10:00 am, Farmington, CT. Foraging Walk and Wild Food Tasting. We will explore this property for wild edible greens, berries, flowers, nuts, and any mushrooms. An educational handout will be provided and we will discuss foraging safety, harvesting ethics, identifications, and cooking suggestions as we ramble slowly for 90 minutes—there is mild uphill section and slightly sharp downhill area, but most of the walk is easy on a level trail. At the conclusion, we will share a tasting of foods made from foraged goodies that we have prepared. The location will be emailed to folks the evening before the walk who have registered at the3foragers@gmail.com as we will be watching the weather (hard rain will cancel, light drizzle is fine.)  Cost will be $30 per adult, kids under 16 are free. Payment is collected on the day of the walk, Venmo, PayPal, or cash preferred.

September 18, private presentation for Westbrook Garden Club, Westbrook CT

 September 20, 10:00 AM, Flanders Nature Center, Sugar House, 5 Church Hill Rd, Woodbury. Join The 3 Foragers as they teach the flavors of Autumn Foraging for wild plants and mushrooms with an educational slideshow of all-original photos. We will take a hands-on walk on the property to touch, smell, and examine some of the living specimens. The program will end with a tasting of the seasonal bounty, prepared by Karen and Robert using fresh plants and mushrooms, and sharing goodies from their pantry and preserved stash. Come taste the wild!
$16 members & $21 non members CALL TO REGISTER, 203-263-3711

 

September 23, 6:00 pm, Rocky Hill Public Library, 33 Church St. Autumn is a time of bounty and harvest for woodland creatures and foragers alike: nuts are falling to the forest floor, fruits are ripening and scenting the crisp fall air, roots and tubers are thickening up in anticipation of sustaining the plants through the tough winter, and edible fungi can be found in astounding amounts. Learn how to identify, sustainably harvest, and prepare the wild foods of autumn, from acorns through minty wintergreen leaves, including golden honey mushrooms and maitake, the “dancing mushroom”. Edible Plants and Fungi of Autumn, a FREE presentation, register at https://engagedpatrons.org/EventsExtended.cfm?SiteID=3884&EventID=561545&PK

 

Another freshly cooked tasting with mushroom sausage, forager's fried rice, black trumpet spread, smoked milky mushroom and mozzarella skewers, chaga tapioca pudding, and brewed chaga drink

 

September 27, 10:00 am, Colchester, CT. Autumn Foraging Walk and Wild Food Tasting. This is a favorite location for wild edible greens, berries, nuts, and mushrooms. An educational handout will be provided and we will discuss foraging safety, harvesting ethics, identifications, and cooking suggestions as we ramble slowly on mostly easy terrain for 90 minutes. At the conclusion, we will share a tasting of foods made from foraged goodies that we have prepared. The location will be emailed to folks the night before the walk who have registered at the3foragers@gmail.com as we will be watching the weather (hard rain will cancel, light drizzle is fine.)  Cost will be $30 per adult, kids under 16 are free. Payment is collected on the day of the walk, Venmo, PayPal, or cash preferred.

September 28, 1:30 pm. Private walk, Vernon Friends of Valley Falls

 

 

You can also find event listings at https://www.facebook.com/the3foragers/events

Find us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the3foragers/ or visit the free blog with recipes, https://the3foragers.blogspot.com/

For the Connecticut Valley Mycological Society, the local Connecticut mushroom club, visit http://www.cvmsfungi.org/

How Experienced is YOUR Foraging Instructor?

A lovingly arranged basket of foraged goodies, perfect content for social media

As foraging becomes more popular for several reasons, I think it is very important to find out how reliable your resources, mentors, and instructors are for your own safety. During the COVID pandemic, we were not allowed to gather with friends and family; many people were somewhat forced to recreate alone or in pods, and a safe place to meet others was outside at a park. Interest in the outdoors and what is found there was a large catalyst for interest in foraging wild plants and mushrooms.We also experienced food shortages at that time so people sought other ways to stretch their abilities to obtain and cook food, turning to gardening and foraging. As the political and global climates are becoming stressed, more people are turning to foraging as a survival tactic in a prepper sense. Demand for content on foraging will always lead to some less experienced "instructors" teaching and very bad books written by "foraging authors" and even AI that may do more harm than good with the bad information being disseminated. Whenever things become monetized and commodified, content may become questionable or even suspect.

Several years ago an Instagram-ready content creator was having a book published about her family's over-romanticized lifestyle which included mushroom and plant foraging. I and others in the established foraging and mushrooming community were sent advance copies, soliciting positive reviews for social media. Many were incredibly horrified by her advice about eating chocolate covered raw mushrooms and multiple other errors in the text, and the book was eventually pulled and not distributed due to safety concerns. Books "written" by AI have fake authors who just magically popped out of the ether without any history of existing, and in this digital age, we all have a searchable background!

Our daughter at about 6 months old, trying her first ramps and loving it!

The same scrutiny should be given to anyone from whom you plan on learning about wild plants and mushrooms you want to eat. Everyone has different learning strengths; for me it is through books and with a live mentor, for my husband it was online videos and with mentors, and our daughter was along for the journey and learned through osmosis--this is our life and she has been living it for 20 years now. 

 

We are not a business, we are a family and our hobby just happened to be foraging. We came up with our name, The 3 Foragers, through letterboxing where your family or group creates a personal carved stamp to visit other letterboxes and leave the stamped image. We were already walking slowly and conscientiously through the fields and forests looking for edible plants and mushrooms, so following instructions to find  letterboxes in the same environment was like an additional prize at the end of a search. I blogged online about our personal foraging journey for many years and some of the earliest posts were about letterboxing too.

Both Robert and I have culinary backgrounds, so we enjoyed creating recipes with the fabulous flavors that we enjoyed of the foraged foods. I was a pastry chef for 33+ years and Robert worked the line and banquets for several years at restaurants. We have both held Serv-Safe certificates. We would never arrogantly refer to ourselves as "chefs" but we do know how to cook well and in large quantities. Our daughter has been eating these foods since she could eat solids--let me tell you she has an incredible palate for an American.

Tropical almonds from Hawaii

We traveled far on many occasions to find mentors and experienced instructors to teach us how to identify wild plants and mushrooms, several who still teach today. Back in 2005, the internet was unrecognizable as a easily searchable resource, so a lot of our early education was in-person and through books. Videos became more popular, and there are some really great folks creating content (as well as some folks creating crap!) We blogged because Robert is a fantastic photographer, with the photo equipment bill to prove it. All photos we ever share or show are our own, including photos of cooked food. We joined multiple mushroom clubs to learn from some of the best, including classes with the people who wrote the identification guides. Even when going on vacation to tropical locations, we were able to find locals to teach us the amazing tropical edibles to enrich our lives.

My blogging got me a book deal and place in the National Archive, and my book was published in 2016 focusing on family-friendly foraging and some of the easiest/safest to identify wild plants that taste great. Per my contract, I was required to purchase cases of books and sell them at public events, so I approached some libraries and offered to do educational slideshows about foraging in exchange for the opportunity to shill my book. I fulfilled my contract obligations quickly, but the libraries never stopped calling for the slideshows; they ended up being really popular and brought in large groups of  enthusiastic students throughout southern New England. We basically were students of wild plant and mushroom identifying for 15 years before feeling confident and educated enough to teach others.

Autumn tasting with autumn olive + goat cheese crudite, maitake and wild rice soup, porcini risotto bites, chestnut mousse cups with a twist of beach plum fruit leather

When we give presentations at libraries, they are free for the public. Soon, I was contacted to come present to nature centers, for garden clubs, at land trusts, and for nearly any other outdoor-based group like fish and game clubs, and I let them set their attendance fees. The past few years we have been sharing a foraged taste or two at each of these presentations, and just in 2024 have we started giving our own walks with full tastings due to demand. Seeing some people call themselves "professional foragers" or teaching about plants or mushrooms which they clearly have no personal experiences with is very frustrating. Sure, they can throw up a social media post that sounds great, but has clearly been copied-and-pasted from another source. A week later they are back on social media asking for identification confirmations! We still take walks with anyone who offers education, but more often come away shaking our heads in confusion, or even clearly concerned with the poor quality and even wrong information being taught by someone representing themselves as a "foraging instructor."

Don't feel shy about asking a potential instructor (who is happy to take your money) about their actual experiences in the fields and forests. Ask them about the resources they used, and ask them for personal anecdotes and preparations. You may be surprised how often they admit they have never worked with or eaten a plant or walked with experienced mycologists in a club, or when they say they have only been foraging for a few years or "watched a video during the pandemic." I am happy to admit I am not an herbalist as that is a whole different set of skills, but I am am a seasoned foraging instructor and cook, with true life experiences. I have given hundreds of FREE presentations and dozens of sponsored walks for organizations. We have cooked for thousands of people at events and shared food at potlucks for mycological gatherings. We are are always willing to learn more to continue our foraging journey and lifestyle.

Please be safe! My advice: Students Beware!

Foraging Walks, Presentations, and Classes

 

 The 2023 foraging season is certainly under way here in southern New England. We have already been out in a few libraries and community centers giving presentations, along with private presentations for garden clubs throughout the state. Our schedule can be very busy and the most updated listing is up on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/the3foragers/events and we also have an informational listing at the Connecticut Library Consortium page at https://programs.ctlibrarians.org/library-programer/karen-monger https://programs.ctlibrarians.org/library-programer/karen-monger

 

We are always happy to work with your local library, nature center, land trust, home school group, or even your own private group for a foraging talk or walk, just contact us at kraczewski@comcast.net for pricing information.

Most of our in-person presentations take 55 minutes, have corresponding educational handouts, and we try to bring some representative plant or mushroom materials for hands-on learning. We can provide program descriptions, a bio, and promotional support on our social media page for public events.

 

Edible Wild Plants and Fungi of Spring: Covers the shoots, edible flowers, early fruits, and mushrooms of spring, April through mid June

Edible Wild Plants and Fungi of Summer: Covers the greens, fruits, and plentiful mushrooms of summer, mid June through August

Edible Wild Plants and Fungi of Autumn: Covers the nuts, tubers, fruits, and abundant mushrooms of autumn, September through November

Invasive Plants as Food: Discusses the edible parts of our common invasive plants and shows some of the delicious recipes that can be made with them, let's use our appetite as a weapon to control invasives

Your Edible Landscape: Discusses the surprisingly edible and delicious plants that most people plant in their yard as ornamentals

Edible Wild Mushrooms of Connecticut: Covers the best edible mushrooms in southern New England by season

Mushroom Identification for Beginners: An instructional class about the steps that should be taken and features that need to be observed to identify wild mushrooms using multiple resources

Foraging Fantastic, Delicious, Deadly, and Glowing Mushrooms: An entertaining look at some of the most amazing wild mushrooms we have encountered

 

 

Wild Mushrooms for Dinner: Spicy Chicken (Mushroom) Patties on Steamed Buns

When we teach edible mushroom classes, we praise the chicken mushroom (Laetiporus sulphureus, L. cincinnatus) as a very good edible mushroom. It's not so much that the mushroom tastes like chicken, but its texture mimics meat in a satisfactory way. We find that the chicken mushroom can be one of the most versatile wild fungi when it comes to making meals, standing in for meat in many cases or just being used on its own. Another reason we like it so much is that chicken mushrooms can fruit in spring, summer, or in the fall, giving us many opportunities to utilize this mushroom in different preparations. With this week's spring chicken find, I ground some in the food processor to make spicy patties with rice, scallions, garlic, chopped nettles, and hot spices. We served the patties in steamed buns with some gochujang sauce, fresh radishes from our farm share, and cilantro.

white chicken

It's very important that the chicken is collected in good condition, when it is still young or tender. Coming upon an old chicken mushroom can be disappointing, but you should never be tempted to use it anyway--it will be like eating sawdust. Ideally, you want the flesh to ooze yellow or milky juice when cut into, the colors to be bright, and the fronds to be bug-free. Sometimes the overall mushroom can be very, very large, or just a few fronds on the side of a tree. This fungus starts out looking like spray foam on the tree, before it shelves out. You will find the yellow chicken mushroom growing from the trunk of a dead or dying tree, as it is a heartwood rotter. The white chickens are found at the bases of dead or dying trees, as they rot the butt wood. Chicken mushrooms are polypores, which means there are "many pores" on the undersides of the fronds, although you may need to use magnification to see the small pores. 

When we find an excessive amount of chicken mushroom, we cook it and freeze the cooked parts in vacuum packed bags. Dehydration is not ideal for this fungus, as it becomes woody and does not rehydrate well because the context of this polypore is constructed of skeletal hyphae which harden into a dense substance when dried. Sometimes large finds end up in a recipe and brought to a weekend foray to share for lunch. We also make and freeze many vegan "sausages" made with ground chicken mushrooms, gluten, and seasonings to use all year long. You can find a list of some of our recipes using chicken mushrooms here.

#chickenmushroom #wildmushrooms #foraging