mycoTours

About Mycotours

Mycotours offers guided foraging with expert guides in beautiful locations across the United States. On these tours, guests learn to identify and use wild mushrooms and plants, all while exploring outdoor locations. These hikes usually range from a walk in town, to a strenuous hike through the mountains, with an emphasis on the ecosystem’s flora. We also offer cook and tastes and lunch on a private chef basis.

Mycotours expert guides are known by many as the most extreme mushroom hunters anywhere, and have an obsession with anything fungi. With many years experience between us, we have traversed many different places. From the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, to the deciduous forests of the Midwest, we are always in search of choice edible mushrooms. Although mushrooms and fungi are our main interest, we also are knowledgeable about many of the edible or medicinal plants. Many of us are avid fishermen as well. All of us have learned much in the way of mushroom identification; through our many opportunities to work with top mycologists in North America. We share a passion for food with culinary skills to match, as many of us have worked in the food service industry. We also have knowledge of local organic ingredients that we integrate into our dishes.

James Wieser is owner and operator of AmateurMycology.com and Mycotours.com. He also attended Paul Stamets introductory and Mycoremediation seminars in 2010. He has over 35 years of varied agricultural growing experience with dozens of species of plants. The last 3 years have been focused on mycological pursuits. Combining his agricultural background, with new mycology skills and biomimicry, James has developed a cultivation method we are calling “Forest Floor Cultivation”. This gives the plants in association with the mycelium/substrate 6 specific benefits to the plants/cultivator. Amateur Mycology has been developing an extensive culture library of local and native species of mycelium using a portable inoculation chamber/clean room. James has a zero post consumer paper waste policy at his home and office and has not thrown out any paper in the last 1 ½ yrs! As James says, “It’s perfectly good mushroom food!”

Private Tours & expeditions

We specialize in private mushroom expeditions (for our pre-scheduled events click here) in the beautiful and pristine Colorado Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Mountain Range in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, many of the top Colorado resorts including the Four Seasons in Vail and the Little Nell in Aspen, use our expertise to help find and identify choice edible species of mushrooms. These areas have many diverse habitats and ecosystems that house many of the most beautiful and delicious gourmet edible mushrooms you can find anywhere. We are so fortunate that many people from all over the world come to these mountain ranges to hunt their favorite mushrooms. We have an abundance of Golden Chanterelles, White Chanterelles, King Boletus (porcini), Lactarius deliciosus, Gypsy mushrooms, Prince Agaricus, Hedgehogs, Lion’s Mane, Lobster mushrooms, Sweet Coral Clubs, Candy Caps, Cauliflower mushrooms, Blewits, Enoki mushrooms, Shrimp Mushrooms, Morels, White Matsutake, Truffles and even the White King Boletus – just to name a few. Mushrooms like the White King are only found in the Rocky Mountains and are known to many as more delicious than any Porcini in the world!

We usually schedule an itinerary on a case by case basis. Much of this depends on what you would like to find, how long you would like to stay, where you would like to stay, and so on. We offer rides from and to the airport, as well as to and from your lodging, and even jeep and ATV rides to private property to hunt for mushrooms! We are also very knowledgeable about local lodging. If you are looking for resorts and hotels, private cabin rentals, bed-and-breakfast, camping/equipment, and RV rentals, we can help! We are also expert game hunters and fishermen, and all of us have many years of outdoor safety training, plant and animal identification, and all around mountaineering.

We absolutely love to cook the mushrooms we find on our expeditions and fuse them with local organic or wild crafted ingredients. Whether you want Grilled Pheasant in a Blonde Morel Cream, Grilled White Matsutake and White Truffle Mashed Potatoes, or Fresh White Bolete Pasta with a White Bolete butter sauce, we will make your taste buds sing with delight! We also offer local wine tastings or champagne that have been chilled in a ice cold stream to compliment your rustic mushroom experience.

2014 mycoTour expeditions

Everyone here at Mycotours hopes that you are all having a great year so far. 2014 has been an exciting year for us, and we are pleased to announce our dates that are scheduled for this year’s mushroom season. As always, if you cannot make the scheduled expeditions, or would like something a bit more private, click here and we can schedule a date for you.

All scheduled expeditions include a cooking demonstration and snacks at the end of the hunt. We meet at 8 am and will be out in the forest for approximately 4 hours (weather permitting). Price is $35 per person per hunt, unless otherwise noted. To reserve a spot on one of our trips click on the contacts link.

Colorado rocky mountain Porcini expeditions

The Colorado Rocky mountains is world renowned for it’s abundance of this choice edible mushroom. Here, forests produce not only Boletus edulis (The King, Porcini, Cep) but also the extremely rare White Porcini (Boletus barrowsii) that is known by some mycologists to be one of the most delicious mushrooms around. The season for Porcini in the Rocky Mountains varies year by year, but is usually sometime between June thru late August. We have scheduled some forays during the most prime time of year for these prized edibles. All Porcini forays will be located somewhere in the mountains near Denver, Colorado Springs, or Boulder. To RSVP, please visit our booking page here.

Colorado’s Late Summer Mushrooms

Chanterelles and Matsutake are known the world over as some of the best edible mushrooms. Colorado is lucky enough to have abundant habitat that is perfect for these particular mushrooms, and during the late summer, you will find many people looking in the forest for these elusive mushrooms. But beyond the most well known mushrooms, Colorado has many different types of edible mushrooms that fruit during the late summer months. Mycotours provides expert guides to help you find them and take you to some of the most beautiful locations anywhere in the Rocky Mountains. To reserve a spot on this tour, visit our booking site here.

amateurmycology.com AMCL – The Amateur Mycology Culture Library

We have been amassing mushroom species in pure culture and putting them under cold storage. You might be thinking, “what the heck is he talking about?”. To explain a little more clearly, we are ‘cloning’ wild mushrooms. This process is done by extracting flesh or spores from mushrooms that we have collected in the wild and growing them in petri dish or test tube on different types of ‘media’. This media gives them nutrients specific to the species of fungi we are trying to grow. Now, when we talk about growing mushrooms, you first must isolate the part of the fungus that produces the mushrooms. Mycelium is a network of hyphae, or chains of cells, that are able to uptake water and various nutrients, as well as excrete digestive enzymes to digest it’s food. This in turn produces the mushroom. The mushroom is actually the fruiting body or sexual reproductive organ of the mycelium that produces spores which are like seeds. Spores unite to grow more mycelial networks. Under cold storage (i.e. 38 degrees F) the mushroom mycelium’s growth slows to a crawl. This allows the cultivator to store the mycelium until it is ready to use.

Genus species Common Name Genus species Common Name

Agaricus arvensis Horse Mushroom Agaricus bernardii Salt Loving Agaricus

Agaricus bisporus White Button Mushroom Agaricus bitorquis Torq, Spring Agaric

Agaricus campestris Field Mushroom Agaricus subpernatus Great Lakes Agaric

Agrocybe aegerita Black Poplar Mushroom Calvatia booniana Giant Western Puffball

Chlorophyllum rhacodes Shaggy Parasol Clitocybe nuda Wood Blewit, Bluefoot Mushroom

Coprinus comatus Shaggy Mane, Lawyer’s Wig Flammulina velutipes Velvet Foot, Winter Mushroom

Ganoderma lucidum Reshi, Lingzhi Grifola frondosa Maitake, Hen of the Woods

Hypholoma subateritium Brick Cap, Cinnamon Cap Hypsizygus tessulatus Beech Mushroom, Shimeji

Hypsizygus ulmnaris White Elm Oyster Hericium erinaceus Lion’s Mane

Hericium ramosum White Coral Mushroom Lentinula edodes Shiitake

Leucoagaricus naucina Mama on Motorcycle Lycoperdon perlatum Gem Studded Puffball

Lyophyllum decastes Fried Chicken Mushroom Marasmius oreades Fairy Ring Mushroom, Scotch Bonnet

Morchella agusticeps Black Morel Morchella esculenta var. crassipes Blonde Morel, Bigfoot Morel

Pleurotus columbinus Blue Oyster Pleurotus djamor Pink Oyster

Pleurotus eryngii King Oyster Pleurotus ostreatus Oyster Mushroom

Pleurotus pulmonarius Conifer Oyster Polyporus squamosus Dryad’s Saddle

Stropharia rugosoannulata King Stropharia Tramates versicolor Turkey Tail Mushroom

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