About me
Larry Evans has been tiptoeing through the subalpine spruce and fir and showing people how to tell mushrooms apart since the 20th century. Not afraid to sing or yodel, he may be triggered by the phrase, "can ya eat it?" He's been writing songs and singing about mushrooms and released Fungal Boogie (2003) and Fungal Boogieman (2007) CDs. His recent music videos are on the Fungal Jungal YouTube channel.
Larry taught mycology at the University of Montana's Glacier Institute for 20 years and founded the Western Montana Mycological Association in 1991. For seven years he owned and operated the Black Dog Cafe with his late wife Kristin
He has been leading expeditions to the Bolivian Amazon for over 20 years doing fungal research with the national herbarium and teaching cultivation workshops with sendaverde.org. He wrote a Field Guide to Amazon Mushrooms and released a Spanish version in 2023 with Daniel Winler and Tatiana Sanjuan. Larry has permits for wild mushroom identification and sales in multiple states and presents at mycological events around the hemisphere. Dubbed the Indiana Jones of Mushrooms by a diplomat during his time in the Russian Far East, he has promoted the development of sustainably harvested nontimber forest products internationally for decades. Working with Cliff Bradley and NGOs in Ecuador, Larry promoted various mycoremediation projects on over 1500 ponds of toxic petroleum abandoned by Texaco which still poison watersheds in Ecuador's northeast. His history with TMF began around 2000, leading mushroom forays and identifying local truffles. His restaurant cooking experience led to him involved with TMF mushroom cooking and sampling and resulted in Larry being featured in the Ron Mann film Know Your Mushrooms (2009) with Gary Lincoff. In 2018, with his pal John SirJesse, he published The Hikers Guide to the Mushrooms of Telluride, still in print!
