I’ve always been into mushrooms, mainly because of my lifelong interest in fairies, so I was delighted when the Central Texas Mycological Society hosted a mushroom walk at San Antonio’s Walker Ranch Historic Landmark Park on the city’s North Side.

Old or bold?

The saying goes that there are two kinds of mushroom foragers: the old and the bold. Many mushrooms are poisonous and will cause serious harm (possibly death) if you eat them, so you must be certain of what you’ve found before you whip up an omelet.

Lucky for us, we had several mushroom experts leading us on the tour, including Andrew Denny of South Texas Seasonals; Jared McRae, a local land surveyor with an encyclopedic knowledge of mushrooms; and Angel Schatz, a forager, urban homesteader and mycophile, who makes delicious mushroom jerky.

Getting off trail

My husband and I had visited Walker Ranch before, but we had stayed on the paved trails. This time, we went “off trail” and made our way along Panther Springs. (Wear long pants and boots. The briars are fierce.) San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the United States of America, but when you’re in a space like this, you feel like you are out in the country.

Not only did we spy an amazing variety of mushrooms, we also spotted birds, butterflies, deer, flowers and cacti. One of the prettiest flowers I spotted was the velvet mallow, a drought-hardy plant that is a native of the Texas Hill Country woodlands. I’ve now added it to our backyard’s wish list.

Foraging finds

Andrew harvested a Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus) mushroom that had been spoken for by a local chef who was going to include it in a special event in Washington, D.C., showcasing the culinary treasures of San Antonio. One of the attendees, Angela, found a stinkhorn mushroom (Phallaceae), and its name lived up to its smell. Stinky.

I found a mushroom that was covered with a parasitic fungi. Jared explained that you have to be careful with those because if you mix them with others that you’ve collected, the parasitic fungi will decimate them.

The National Park Service and Texas State Parks prohibit collecting: “Take only memories and photographs. Federal and state laws prohibit collecting plants, animals and artifacts. Preserve the past for the future by leaving artifacts in place and reporting locations to park staff.” If you do forage/collect in city parks or in your neighborhood, forage ethically. If you’d like to share what you find, please post on iNaturalist and on Falling Fruit.

Living lightly

My key takeaway from the mushroom walk is that Mother Earth is awesome. I didn’t find any fairies, but I did gain a new respect for our planet. If you just slow down long enough and look, an amazing array of wonderful is at our fingertips. If more folks would take the time to appreciate what a Garden of Eden we live on, I think we would do more to protect her.

Denise Barkis Richter, Ph.D., author of “San Antonio’s Passport to Fun,” has been blogging about San Antonio since June of 2010. Follow her at facebook.com/SanAntonioTourist so that you’ll never miss a post. Her love affair with the Alamo City began at Hemisfair in 1968. She moved to San Antonio in 1979 as an 18-year-old college student, and San Antonio has been her home ever since. Denise completed certification to become a professional tour guide in 2019. Please contact her at sanantoniotourist at gmail dot com if you’d like for her to curate a fabulous San Antonio experience for you!