Have you been noticing mushrooms on your hikes, but didn’t know how to identify them? Western New York's "Fungus Goddess" might be able to help.

What You Need To Know

  • A woman known at the "Fungus Goddess" is a mushroom forager
  • Quincey Widger spends hours a day looking for mushrooms
  • She also leads mushroom-identification tours
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“We were all kind of brainstorming one night and it was the one that stuck. You know… Fungi.. Fungus… Fungus Goddess," says Quincey Widger, mushroom forager.

After years of studying, she is a fount of knowledge. Nature is the Fungus Goddess’ office. She starts working around 8 a.m. like most people, but instead of working at a computer, she’s out in the woods searching for mushrooms that you would then purchase at farmers markets.

It’s critical to be able to decipher between edible and non-edible mushrooms.

“You go out and you think you’re just going to figure out about mushrooms, but you really start to connect with so much more of nature,” adds Widger.

While searching for mushrooms, Widger is also searching for something else.

“Trash… We should be leaving this place better than we found it. If I can do one small part in that, that’s easy enough for me,” explains Widger.

Foraging might seem like a wonderful way to spend a morning or an afternoon, but Widger is a professional forrager and this is her livelihood.

She also provides mushroom-identifying tours all over Western New York. 

If you would like to learn more about them, visit https://www.facebook.com/FUNgusGoddess/ or email fungusgoddess@gmail.com.