"Wood Wide Web" w/ Mycologist Christian Schwarz + Tacos By Chef Chad Hyatt

Join Fork in the Path for a special talk & tacos with leading mycologist Christian Schwarz, co-author of Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast, plus tacos by renowned mycochef Chad Hyatt.

This talk is very popular and will sell out quickly, so get tickets right away! This talk is great for beginners and advanced myco-enthusiasts alike!

What You'll Learn

The Underground Internet, 30 Years Later
By now, almost everyone's heard of "Wood Wide Webs" — invisible forest networks through which trees, fungi, and other organisms communicate and exchange resources. This concept has been covered extensively in mainstream news and popular science outlets, and has even made its way into movies and fiction! But where did this idea come from? What do we actually know about how it works? We'll talk about the history of the metaphor, take a look at the existing body of research, examine recent challenges to the idea from modern findings, and think about what directions future investigations might need to take.

Where

Sports Basement San Francisco, 1590 Bryant St

This space IS wheelchair accessible.

Tacos Menu by Chef Chad Hyatt (preorder here)

Oyster and Maitake Mushrooms achiote-citrus marinated and roasted, topped with pickled onions and vegan avocado “crema”

Chipotle Chicken Tacos Chicken stewed with chipotles and spices, then shredded, topped with cilantro-lime slaw and queso fresco

Lengua Tacos Beef Tongue in salsa verde topped with radish, onion, and cilantro

About the Presenters

CHRISTIAN SCHWARZ (he/him) is an itinerant naturalist from California. He is co-author of "Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast” as well as "Mushrooms of Cascadia". Fungi satisfy his curiosity with their endless forms – from the grotesque to the bizarre to the sublime – and provide a rich lens through which to learn about the bigger pictures of ecology and evolution. He loves fish, plants, nudibranchs, moths, and dragonflies, and is passionate about community science.

Chad Hyatt (he/him) has made a name for himself in Northern California and beyond by sharing his delicious spin on wild mushroom cookery at public and private events. Both an expert forager and classically trained chef, he has cooked in a variety of restaurants and private clubs around the San Francisco Bay area, where he can often be found putting on wild mushroom-themed dinners and teaching mushroom related classes.

Chad's cooking career began after leaving an engineering career for culinary school. He has cooked in a wide range of kitchens, from Michelin-starred fine dining to opening a BBQ restaurant, and from country club to gastropub. He is passionate about approachable comfort food, based on local, seasonal ingredients, and, of course, wild mushrooms. He has been working as an independent freelance chef since the middle of 2018, with a focus on special events.

About Fork in the Path

Fork in the Path is a collective of educators dedicated to cultivating a deeper relationship with nature, learning to forage and eat seasonal wild foods from forest to ocean, and discovering new perspectives on life.

Our vision is guided by principles of reciprocity, sustainability, embodiment, community building, deeper connection to nature and seasonal cycles, and the joy of eating wild, nutrient-dense, foraged foods, all woven into the timeless practice of foraging.

We hope that through our classes, you'll discover a "fork in your path" that enriches your life in meaningful ways, big or small.

Check out the website here or our Instagram page here.

This low-cost talk is part of Fork in the Path's initiative to provide accessible programming to the entire community. If you would like to join us in our effort to give away scholarship programming to low-income community members, you can make a donation here.

A portion of your ticket fee goes to Sogorea Te' Land Trust, an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Whether you can join us for this program or not, we encourage you to donate to them here.