The Welcome to Spirits podcast, a boosy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore.

Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world.

I'm Amanda.

And I'm Julia. And Amanda, we mentioned in a recent episode with our guest, Mel Gilman. I was talking about my pandemic hobby that was foraging.

Yes, you really got the foraging and mushrooms as your personality bug for a little while. And I'm

happy to see that it stuck around because I think it's a wonderful hobby. Yeah. You know what?

It's one of those things where I was like, I was out there doing my thing. I'm not like leading

expeditions. My knowledge is very like theoretical and not practical. I'm not out there really like

eating a lot of the stuff that I find.

In general, just I think that can be, if you're not very, very well trained, very dangerous.

And we'll talk a little bit about that probably in this episode.

But one of the specific things that I really did enjoy about like mushroom foraging and identification was like there are so many different types

of mushrooms and so many different like looks and feels and vibes of mushrooms and admittedly

long island not a super diverse mushroom kind of area it's not as diverse as like say the cat

skills are or the Pacific Northwest. In

case you don't know, mushrooms like high altitude for the most part and also, like, very

moist weather. Not so much a thing on Long Island. No, we're pretty much at sea level. And while it can be

moist, the moisture is filled with salt, which I hear is not great for all living things.

Yes, that is true. And there are some that like kind of sandier conditions. There are some that

like saltier conditions, as is the way of like just, you know, evolution and the way that plants

evolved. Yes. But I think mushrooms are really cool.

I think they're pretty neat. And that is why Amanda, I want to, for this entire month, talk

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