Like many mushroom foragers, I became interested in mushroom foraging during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I was preparing for a summer of fieldwork studying desert forage plants in a remote part of Australia when the pandemic hit and my travel plans were suddenly put on hold. It was March, just before morels arrived in central Pennsylvania.
I didn't do much other than long hikes and remote classes at the University of Pennsylvania. PhD in Ecology and Anthropology. One of the classes was an agroforestry lesson. Eric Burkhart. We explored how agriculture and forests benefit people and the environment.
These two things ultimately led to multi-year mushroom picking project in our region.
Why do people get food
Foragers collected wild mushrooms in what is now Pennsylvania and the rest of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. for generationsHowever, the scope and specifics of this practice in the region have not been formally studied.
In 2021, Burkhart and I decided we wanted to better understand the variety of wild mushroom species that Pennsylvania harvesters collect and what they use them for.
In 2022 and 2023, we conducted a series of studies that revealed The region produces a wide variety of mushrooms.– although the most common are morels, hen of the woods and chanterelles. We also learned that foragers use mushrooms primarily for food and medicinal purposes, and that foragers create communities that share knowledge. These community projects often use social networking tools to allow mushroom foragers to share photos, notes, and even DNA sequence results.
Our results were published in the journal Economic Botany in October 2025.
160 types
After spending a year connecting with local mushroom foragers starting in central Pennsylvania, including members mushroom clubs And mycological associationswe recruited a diverse group of harvesters from all over the mid-Atlantic. We also used mushroom festivals, social media and word of mouth to spread the word.
We asked foragers about their favorite mushrooms, common harvesting methods, resources they used during harvest, and any sustainability practices.
More than 800 foragers responded to the survey and reported that they collectively collected 160 species of wild mushrooms. Morels and hen of the woods were the two most popular, each reported by 13 percent of respondents. About 10 percent of respondents reported collecting chanterelles. Other popular species included chicken of the woods, oysters, lion's mane, black trumpet, honey mushrooms, turkey tail, boletus, reishi, puffball, chaga, wood shrimp and dryad's saddle, also known as pheasant's back mushroom.
