When and Where do We Meet?
Members of the South Carolina Upstate Mycological Society meet monthly, except for January, on the first Monday of the month or as the schedule allows.
Check below for specific dates, locations, and speaker information.
Meetings start at 6:30pm, arrive any time after 6:00pm.
The format of the meetings is intended to be casual and social. We typically have a speaker who gives a presentation on a mycological topic of their choice, and also discuss recent fungal finds, arrange the upcoming foray, work on identifying specimens, etc.
All levels of knowledge are welcome!
Meeting place: See individual event for location, it changes based on availability.
Upcoming Meetings
May Meeting
SCUMS monthly meeting: Monday, May 5th
Olga Tzogas will present:
Mushrooms + Culture of Greece
Experience and take a visual journey into the diverse and lush natural world of Greece. Ancient forests, traditional land-based living still exist, providing a rich culture weaved within nature itself. Connections to fungi are ever present and it’s only gaining more attention. Take a look into the relationships the locals have with certain species of mushrooms, plants, & their recipes for use. Olga Tzogas of Smugtown Mushrooms, based in Rochester, NY returns to her ancestral home to learn and connect deeper to the mycelial communities, and the people still practicing traditional ways of life or those creating a new. Greece is typically pictured by bluebird skies and matching crystalline seascapes, but Greece is home to lush dense forests of several Oak species, Chestnut, Beech, Fir, Sycamores and Pine to name a few. The life they harbor is exquisite. See the similarities of fungal life that are shared on both continents. Together we see a visual depiction of the funga, flora + fauna of this diverse ecological haven of the country of Greece.
About the Instructor
Olga Tzogas started her love affair with Fungi and plants over 15 years ago, with the help and guidance of family, teachers and community. In 2011, Smugtown Mushrooms was started, which provides cultivation supplies to grow mushrooms, indoors or outdoors, for food or for medicine. Olga has taught hundreds of folks how to grow mushrooms, make medicine and learn about the glory of Fungi and the natural world. Alongside the collaboration of the collective, The Mycelium Underground, Olga helped create the New Moon Mycology Summit in 2018. She was a core organizer for the 2016 Radical Mycology Convergence and the MycoSymbiotics Festival from 2015-17. Annually, Olga returns to her ancestral homeland to guide small groups immersed in land based and traditional knowledge of the country of Greece, highlighting the fungi and plants there.
When: Monday, May 5. Meeting starts at 6:30 pm, arrive any time after 6:00 for specimen ID's, specific questions, and socializing.
Where: Note different location Mushroom Mountain 200 Finley Rd, Easley, SC 29642
That means we'll have Olga of Mushroom Mountain hosting Olga of Smugtown Mushrooms!
Please help us clean up after the meeting : )
NAMA Events Webinars
These events are free for NAMA members or often $5 for non-members.
SCUMS is a NAMA affiliate, so if you choose to join NAMA (wise choice!) you get a discount on your annual membership.
You can check out upcoming webinars and past recordings here: https://namyco.org/events/webinars/
What we learned from the Montana Morel Poisonings in 2023: Are morels really safe to eat?
Tuesday, April 29th, 2025 @ 7PM Central
Dr. Cathy L. Cripps will walk us through a 2023 incidents related to eating morel mushrooms, and talk about details of what happened, what we learned, and how it might apply to your own consumption of morels.