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Growing up, I was a very picky eater. There were many foods I refused to eat and number one on that list of not-a-chance foods was mushrooms.

Mushrooms were on a gross level of their own. Just the sight of mushrooms made me cringe. It wasn’t just fungus for eating that grossed me out, it was any I saw growing outside too. Everyone knew about my fear of fungus because I couldn’t hide my feelings about fungi whenever the topic came up, or worse if one was nearby. I even convinced myself of a crazy theory about how fungi came to be on earth. I believed that beings from another planet ate fungus and they came to earth before there were humans and planted some mushrooms. They planned on coming back to earth and colonizing it once the mushrooms had established enough to provide a steady food source, but then humans came along and foiled their plans. So mushrooms were not meant for humans to eat and were not even from this planet. This theory made sense to me at the time because fungi are unlike anything else growing on earth. As I got older, I obviously realized that aliens did not bring fungus to earth and that they were acceptable for humans to eat. For most of my life, however, I still refused to eat them.

Eventually, I decided it was time for me stop being such a picky eater. It was a slow process at first, adding tomatoes to sandwiches for example before eating one straight. But I kept trying foods that I had avoided for years and realized they weren’t so bad. I still preferred not to eat some of the foods, but I at least knew I could eat them if they were given to me. The final obstacle in becoming a non-picky eater was mushrooms. It was not easy, but I was determined to eat mushrooms. I started with just taking a bite every time someone I was with had one. Then suddenly it became easy to eat a whole mushroom in a dish. And before I knew it I wanted to eat mushrooms and was adding them to dishes. They’re actually pretty good once you get over how strange they are.

Once I started eating mushrooms, I realized how many different kinds there are and how different they all look. I started opening my eyes to them when I was walking outside instead of turning my head away like I used to. Fungi are unlike anything else on Earth. That used to freak me out, but now I am fascinated by fungi and want to learn all about them.

To begin learning about fungi, I have started photographing any that I see when I'm out walking or running. I have also found some books and websites that have helped me to learn about the biology of fungi, how to identify them, and how to eat them. I am combining all of the photographs and information I am learning here as a journal. I am also learning about HTML and CSS in the process of making this website. Therefore, this site is a work in progress and I will continue to work on improving it and adding more posts. Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy learning about fungi!