Fall 2015 LOCALadk Magazine 43
LOCALadk
3038 Main Street
Old Forge, NY 13420
Furnishing Great Camps
And "great" camps
Wilderness
Interiors
I have been able to combine my mushroom
identification skills with my interest in fiber arts,
especially knitting, to build on this subject of using
mushrooms to dye wool. Miriam Rice and Dorothy
Beebee, both from northern California, started ex-
perimenting with mushrooms for color in the early
1970s and published their results in two major books
(see references). They are credited with "spreading
the word" throughout the modern world by starting
an International Fungi and Fibre Symposium, held
about every two years in a different country, to
share knowledge and gain experience. In 1997, the
8th IFFS was held at Paul Smiths College, with par-
ticipants from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland,
England, Scotland and Australia as well as the USA.
The most recent IFFS was held in Otepaa, Estonia
in September of 2014, with 12 countries represent-
ed and more mushrooms seen in one week then all
last summer here in the Adirondacks. The 16th IFFS
will be held in British Columbia, Canada in October
2016.
To learn more about fungi locally, I lead mush-
room walks at the Paul Smiths Visitor Information
Center throughout the summer. On October 3,
2015, Gary Lincoff, author of "The Audubon Society
Field Guide to North American Mushrooms," will be
our featured guest as part of the combined ADK
Fungi Fest/Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival
held at the Paul Smiths Visitor Information Center
from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Besides the many Homestead-
ing events, there will be variety of mushroom re-
lated activities and displays, as well as mushroom
cooking demonstrations and other foods available.
The public is encouraged to bring in fresh mush-
rooms collections (in paper bags, no plastic) from
home for identification, discussion and display by
some area mycologists.
Selected References:
"The Rainbow Beneath My Feet, a mushroom dy-
er's field guide" by Alan and Arleen Bessette
"The Audubon Society Field Guide to North Ameri-
can Mushrooms" by Gary Lincoff
"Mushrooms for Color" and "Mushrooms for Dyes,
Paper, Pigments and Myco-stix" by Dorothy Beebee
and Miriam Rice
Web sites
www.mushroomsforcolor.com
mycopigments.com
hookedanddyed.com
