Just opened registration for the NAMA Regional Foray on Aug. 10-13.

There will be a lot of instruction going on here, including advanced Agaricus identification with Dr. Rick Kerrigan and a novices' mushroom identification workshop with Tom Chapman. Southwestern fungi expert Dr. Scott Bates, of the Arizona Mycota Project, is the chief mycologist. There will be a cooking class with Mary Smiley and an arid-climate cultivation workshop taught by mushroom grower Clinton White. A microscopy workshop and lots of ID sessions round out the instructional offerings.

You can hunt mushrooms each morning, learn mushrooms each afternoon, and eat mushrooms each evening, for four days and three nights. The only catch is that you have to be a NAMA member and get the registration code from them.