Foraging for the Family

Melany Kahn Tells Santa Barbara to Find Mushrooms with Your Kids

‘Mason Goes Mushrooming’ by Melany Kahn | Photo: Courtesy

How does Melany Kahn know that mushroom hunting is great for kids? Because she’s been doing it since the age of 4, when her father, the German-American painter Wolf Kahn, bought a farm in the Vermont woods back in 1968. She’s been spreading that fun-with-fungi gospel for the past two decades, last year even penning the children’s book Mason Goes Mushrooming, which stars her own son.

She’s coming to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden on January 20 to lead “A Morning of Mushrooms,” a family event that is free with the garden admission. I asked her a bit more about her life and why mushrooming is good for kids.

How did you get into foraging? I began foraging as a babe in arms because my parents were amateur mushroom enthusiasts from before I was born. Then when I had kids, we went on mushroom walks every weekend with our local club, and my kids developed their own passion for hunting for mushrooms.

Melany Kahn will appear at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden on Jan. 20 | Photo: Hazel Wagner

When did you realize that it was appropriate for kids? Kids love to be in the woods, and they love to hunt for things — think sea glass on the beach, or wild blueberries in Maine, or mushrooms in the forest. They are lower to the ground and usually have better eyesight than their adults, so they are remarkably adept foragers with keen memories to recall the different types of mushrooms.

How do you confront the danger fears that so many Americans have around mushrooms? The dangers come from a lack of education. Most of us have been schooled in “Don’t touch that” around any sort of wild mushroom, and what that translates to is “Don’t learn about that,” which then translates to a lack of education. I am advocating that people get educated about fungi so that they do not go out in the woods and eat something that is harmful. That is the whole point of fungi education that has been held back from us over mycophobia.

How should people interested in foraging find guides or learn more? Absolutely the best way is to join a local mushroom club, which are usually very inexpensive and quite family-friendly. Go to the fairs and festivals — mushroom foragers are eager to share their wisdom. Very often, people who love mushrooms learned about them from a previous generation, or someone else who was into it, and then it stuck. It is a multigenerational, fun, free hobby that anyone can begin.

What are some of your favorite mushrooms to find? In Mason Goes Mushrooming, Mason finds four beginner mushrooms: the black trumpet, the lobster, the chanterelle, and the morel. I love all of those to eat, and they are easily identified. You can also “forage” at your local store and find some terrific cultivated mushrooms to try — even portobellos and shiitakes are very tasty, more so than the ubiquitous white button so often served.

Have you foraged in Santa Barbara before? I came to Santa Barbara last year and did some school visits and hunted for chanterelles, which are out this time of year. They are huge in California and, once you learn them, incredibly fun to find and a real delicacy. I would say come to the fair, go join your local mushroom club, and get involved with actual woods, actual people who love it, and soon you will too.

A Morning of Mushrooms: Family Event takes place at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden (1212 Mission Canyon Rd.) from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 20. See sbbotanicgarden.org/calendar for details. For more information about Melany Kahn and her book, see masongoesmushrooming.com.