Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Spring 2017, Volume 43, No. 1 | Page 11

JEB: Ah, so then it makes perfect sense
why you came here.
ARM: Yeah, right, with a notable excep-
tion being truffles.
JEB: So you mentioned Vermont Law
School and it made me think of our read-
ers, wondering where all these mushrooms
are. Do you make a habit of sharing your
knowledge or do you keep some of your
special locations to yourself?
ARM: I definitely am more generous
with my knowledge than some people are.
There are two basic elements of my teach-
ing. First of all strategy --how do find these
things and how do you identify them? Sec-
ond—location. With patches or with good
habitat, I will point people in the right di-
rection or even take people on guided for-
ays, where I will show them the right kind
of habitat where they might look for certain
species, and use their forager’s eyes to key
in on the right ecosystem where you might
see certain types of mushrooms. I do take
people out because you first need to get
a feel for where they grow and how they
appear. With that said, I am not going to
be telling you where to find my best mo-
rel patch! It really can take decades to find
the perfect patch and they are so valuable.
Also there are people who will take every
mushroom or wipe out a patch, so there is
some understandable competition, espe-
cially among the commercial hunters that
get really fierce about it.
JEB: So do people hire you to take them
out in groups, like workshops? Or is it more
informational focused on your website? I
suppose I’m asking if it is a side business
or a side passion? I guess it’s both, right?
ARM: It is sort of both or somewhere
between, but it is a small business. Dur-
ing mushroom season weekends, we are
booked with guided forays that we lead.
Some are with venues like Shelburne Farms
or Green Mountain Audubon or the North-
east Organic Farm Association conferenc-
es at UVM and UMass Amherst. We gave
a talk at the Horticultural Society of New
www.vtbar.org
York in NYC where people were taking
home shitake logs that they had to schlep
on the subway afterwards. We have done
workshops in all sorts of contexts. I actu-
ally presented with the Cascade Mycolog-
ical Society at one of their events just a
few months ago in Oregon. We are most-
ly based in the Northeast and Vermont is
our focus. We travel and we will also take
people to a patch of woods and lead a pri-
vate guided foray. We announce the spots
last minute because we find that if we an-
nounce it too soon, everyone goes there
and pre-picks the spot. We keep an eye on
the conditions and find a good spot, good
but not too good, because like you said,
you don’t want to give away your one hon-
ey hole.
persuasions. Vermont is a great place for
mushroom hunting and it’s not just the
morels, although those are to me, a high-
light. Porcini are delicious here. Black trum-
pets are a very special and distinctive taste
mushroom for beginners. Chanterelles
are amazing along with chanterelle rela-
tives like the yellow foot chanterelle and
the hedgehog mushroom, which has a cap
but beneath it doesn’t have any gills. The
hedgehog has what are called teeth, al-
most like little toothbrush bristles all un-
der the bottom of the cap and that is also
a delicious gourmet mushroom. We have
almost all the best culinary species in the
world, right here in Vermont.
JEB: So for your guided forays or pop-
up forays, how much notice do you give?
Do people just check your website as a loy-
al following? What is your website too, by
the way?
ARM: Oh, good question. Our website
is www.themushroomforager.com. We do
have a loyal following; people will follow
our announcements and our workshops
consistently fill up which is fun. I mean they
are during a certain time of year when the
conditions are right, but during that time
of year, they are very popular and they sell
out quickly. It just goes to show that there
is a lot of passion for this and a lot of inter-
est among many different types of people.
Everyone from foodies and localvores to
hunters who might have hunted deer their
whole life but always wondered about the
mushrooms, to people who might have a
grandma or grandfather who was a mush-
room hunter, or maybe they have relatives
in an Eastern European country who im-
migrated here, so all sorts of people who
want to get into this are really excited to
learn more.
JEB: And when you predict bounties
and locations on your website, what is it
called?
ARM: Oh, you mean the ForageCast?
JEB: Yes. I love that name.
ARM: We introduced the ForageCast
probably 7 or 8 years ago near the begin-
ning of the project. We post a list of dis-
tinctive and delicious species that are fruit-
ing in a given region at a certain time of
year. If you know what is in season in your
region, like maybe it’s September and you
are hunting hen of the woods or lion’s
mane, which are both gourmet and rela-
tively distinctive, it helps to know where to
look for it and how to look. What type of
forest does it like or what does it grow on,
where does it grow in relationship to other
species. If you know what you are looking
for and where to look and how to use your
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SPRING 2017
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