(gentle music) (thoughtful music) - [PeiPei] The experience of foraging and walking in the woods, not having to think about anything, (thoughtful music) it feels free.

(thoughtful music) I know my body feels free.

My mind feels free.

And just walking.

And we're walking along a path that other people have put there for us.

(thoughtful music) You don't need a lot, you just go, out, seeing what decides to show itself to you that day.

(thoughtful music) Going foraging for mushrooms, it's not even about the mushroom because I've learned so much just about what's happening in nature.

(thoughtful music) (upbeat music) (light music) (rain pattering) - Listen, I'm not going to lie to you.

When I think of foraging, I think of something we did historically to stay alive.

Not something people would do today, for fun, by choice.

But that's the beauty of my show.

I get to learn new to me ways of being in the outdoors.

Today, I'm heading out with PeiPei Sung, Board of Trustees of the Puget Sound Mycological Society to go foraging and learn all about it.

(light music) Hello.

- Hi, Alison.

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

Thanks for having me.

Come on out.

- Yeah.

So, foraging?

- It's been rainy.

A little bit of sun.

The temperature is about right.

We're in a good area.

We'll see some stuff.

So when I come out, I try to keep it simple.

It's wet in the understory, the ferns, the salal will be under there.

So, rain gear on the bottom.

I always carry my whistle.

And so trusty whistle, blow once, and then somebody else blows, and so we know where each other are.

I just carry some cotton bags and paper bags, and paper towels.

- I love that it's like basically stuff you can find in your house is what you need.

- Yeah, yeah.

That's it.

- Cool.

- A little stick for extra balance, and my dog, he's there.

Santy is right in there.

- [Alison] Let's go, buddy.

(light music) - My name is PeiPei, and I like to go in the woods and look at mushrooms and things growing around.

(light music) - [Alison] Did you grow up in the outdoors doing these sorts of things?

- I grew up not in the outdoors at all.

I grew up, (chuckles) I grew up in the suburbs.

My parents were an immigrant family.

My parents worked like 24/7.

You know, they owned a restaurant.

And although that may seem very like, wow, to a lot of people, to me, it was, they're constantly working.

Going out, going on a hike, walking through the neighborhoods was not something we did.

(light music) - I really didn't know foraging was a thing.

I mean, until I moved to the Pacific Northwest, that term had never come up.

So, it does very much feel like it's something that, maybe our communities don't really know about, would you say?

- So I'm thinking now about just reasons why some people don't go into the forest.

And there's been historical systems and there's been violence, and there's people who have been told, "This is absolutely not for you because bad things happen."

So, that is in the back of my mind.

(soft music) My foraging journey really began when I worked in a museum collecting oral histories.

Learning through those oral histories and people in the community, there are mushrooms called matsutake, mushrooms that the Japanese American community keep very quiet.

And there was always this sense of, nobody is going to tell you where they are.

You know, people are secret from each other, they'll do their maps backwards, and this kind of stuff.

And then, fast forward working in my career, and one day somebody that I'd worked a good relationship working with, he said, "Oh, we're going out for mushrooms this weekend."

And he's Japanese American.

Immediately, I just said, "Wait, are these those mushrooms that I heard about a long time ago?

Do I need anything?

Just put on some shoes, it's going to be rocky.

And PeiPei, why don't you come out with us?"

(Alison chuckles) And I said, "Okay.

But seriously, blindfold me if you need to."

(soft music) - What you find?

- So there's this, it's a mushroom, we refer to it as the bird's nest.

- Okay.

- And, okay, so I have something here, and then just looking around more.

These.

- [Alison] Oh my goodness.

- They're mushrooms.

- Why are they upside down?

- [PeiPei] Here's a closed one.

- Okay, - It's closed still.

It'll open.

And then you can see inside, some of them still have the little seed pods.

It's for days like today.

And it rains and it pops it.

Rain drops go in it and it pops out.

That's how the spores are spread.

- Wow.

See now, I'll never forget it.

Like, I would not have paid any attention to that.

And now, I will see them.

I don't know a lot about mushrooms, but what I do know is that many are deadly.

How do you know what to take home?

What to eat?

- Yeah.

Don't, number one, don't put anything in your mouth.

In the mycological club, the mushroom club, they teach us that there's ways to identify edible mushrooms.

And we use all five of our senses.

So there's smell, there's touch.

Even like the weight of something.

How something feels, like a stem will feel in your hands.

Some mushrooms, you're like, "Oh, super crushable.

Don't want that."

And a lot of the mushrooms that we look for are for just, "Oh, it's fascinating and I enjoy looking at this," is not even to eat, knowing that.

But the ones that we are foraging that we want to eat, you got to identify it, 100%.

(Alison chuckles) - Is that the language?

- Sometimes from the main trail, I'll be on the lookout for the smaller trails.

And you can see them, it's mossy, and you just don't know what's right around the corner.

But it's less traveled.

When it's spider season, I like feeling spiderwebs on my face.

(Alison shouts) (PeiPei snickers) Because it tells me nobody's walked down this today.

So, not today.

- I'm going to go behind you.

- Don't worry, don't worry.

- That wasn't even on my mind.

(light music) What is it about foraging that you enjoy?

- I enjoy everything.

I can't think of one thing I don't.

(light music) It's the community, it's the being out there, the nature part, and the sounds, all the senses.

So I'm going to touch it.

Because, see, even the firmness is different.

So identify shape, color.

Different mushrooms, they'll have different scents, and that's used to help identify.

They may look so similar to the naked eye, like I'm very amateur.

But then one smells like cinnamon, and the other has nothing, it's just earth.

You know?

(light music) The Puget Sound Mycological Society and the other mushroom clubs around the Puget Sound, they're absolutely thriving.

We have like over 4,000 species, but there's so much out there.

We really are in a special place, as far as like where we are on this planet.

Learn by doing and by observing, nothing can replace that.

We could make the best documentary on how to forage for a mushroom, but nothing beats bean in the field, in the forest, in the understory.

(light music) People have walked on these trails before us.

I'm not the first.

I'm not the only.

I'm certainly not going to be the last.

I mean, I hope there's never a last.

(light music) And just so grateful.

I'm so grateful for it.

(light music ending)