The October meeting will feature our Don Bryant Memorial lecture with Elle Matthews, presenting:
“Foraging Connection: Community, Culture and Cuisine Through the Lens of Mushrooms”
The meeting will be held on Wednesday, 10/15 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling (and getting there early, this will be a popular one!)
7:00–7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for in-person attendees
7:30–7:45: Zoom begins, club business
7:45–9:00: Featured speaker
Talk Description:
We will be exploring the binding hyphal threads of community, culture and cuisine through the lens of foods that nourish our bodies and souls. Come on a tasting journey through small bites that highlight local ingredients and put wild mushrooms in the spotlight. Experience firsthand the process of those dishes so you can replicate them at home and have the opportunity to purchase one of a kind mushroom products from our guest chef.
App: Cypress Grove chevre, spiced apples or persimmons from the farm, candy capsicum marmalade
Soup and biscuit: Heirloom tomato and lobster mushroom bisque, biscuit with chanterelle mushroom compound butter
Dessert: Candy Cap kabocha squash beignets
Bio:
Elle Matthews lives on a small farm in Northern California with her partner, son and their animals. She is a farmer, and forager and makes products from their forages and the food they grow. She sells these products through her mushroom and wild food company MushLove as well as leading forays and events focused on mushrooms and other wild foods. She is passionate about nature and helping her community and loves connecting the two by inspiring people to become educated about and involved in the natural world around them. You can find Elle on Facebook as Ellle Matthews or follow her on Insta as @elfirefly.
Our monthly meetings are free & open to the public. Our speaker series is funded by our Annual Mushroom Fair, being held this year on 11/23/25 at the Arcata Community Center.
This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm.
Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89994136546?pwd=DkOfGKbEVTaFLjyb4dvPg47biiSZlt.1
Meeting ID 899 9413 6546
Passcode 988753
Who Was Don Bryant?
The HBMS October meeting features our annual Don Bryant Memorial Lecture, named in honor of longtime member Donald Bryant.
Don was a passionate and generous member of HBMS for over three decades. His enthusiasm for mushrooms was infectious, and he loved both learning and sharing his knowledge with others. He gave talks on edible mushrooms, preservation techniques, and fungal ecology, and was always eager to lead field trips to his favorite spots, including the forest behind College of the Redwoods where he worked as a media technician.
Within HBMS, Don volunteered in many roles: Membership Chair, representative to the North American Mycological Association, and our first Media Chair, keeping meetings running smoothly with projectors and later laptops. Above all, he built community through his love of mushrooms, making lasting friendships and inspiring many to deepen their interest in mycology.
After his passing, Don’s family partnered with HBMS to establish the Don Bryant Memorial Lecture Series. Each year’s lecture is shaped in the spirit of Don’s fascination with big, showy, and often edible mushrooms, ensuring the program reflects the joy and curiosity he brought to the world of fungi. With his family’s support, this series continues to honor Don’s memory while inspiring future generations of mushroom enthusiasts.