Paul Lagréze
first became interested in mushrooms as a teenager, noticing white shelf-like mushrooms growing on Poplar trees in the fall. These oyster mushrooms had a seafood-y smell and a slight licorice flavor when sautéed.
He was introduced to wild edibles and herbs when he interned with Josephine Porter in Stroudsburg, PA, right after high school where he was taught bio-dynamic farming. Lamb quarters and stinging nettles were two of the wild plants that he learned were both nutritional and tasty. Josie was milking over 80 milking goats as well as raising Holstein heifers to sell to dairy farms.
Paul found himself restless and became interested in traveling, so he set out on a banana boat which allowed him to sail around the world. Upon arriving in England, he decided to get off the boat and set out over land to India via the Middle East, Persia and Pakistan. It was quite the cultural adventure!
When he finally came back home, he longed for a peaceful agrarian life and like many people of his generation, he joined a commune. The commune he joined, near Ithaca, NY, had a log cabin where he shared in community and meals. In that cabin Paul found a field guide to mushrooms by Alexander Smith, a University of Michigan mycologist. This book was instrumental in his teaching about the basics of the mushroom world and he was inoculated in his mind by the idea of mycelium.
When it was time to go back to school, Paul went to California to receive a BA in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara. Upon graduation he moved back to the East Coast where the mushrooms he found on his walks in the forest piqued his interest once again. He decided to take a beginners course in Mycology at UMass and then joined the Boston Mycological Club and the southern NH mushroom club, called the Monadnock Mushroomers Unlimited.
He was hooked…
One particularly dry year, around 2000, when there were very few wild mushrooms about Paul decided to grow shiitake mushrooms on oak logs. He sold the extra shiitakes to restaurants near him.
Paul then founded his company, New England Wild Edibles, in 2004. His knowledge of mushrooms kept growing and he began teaching an introductory course on mushrooms at UMass Amherst in 2014, and he now teaches at Greenfield Community College.
He currently has a mushroom farm in Heath, MA where he grows shiitake mushrooms and other saprophytic (carbon consuming) mushrooms and conduct cultivation classes. He leads mushroom forays in the woods of Western MA from late Spring to Fall, and forages for wild mushrooms and wild edibles which he sells at the Tuesday Market in Northampton, MA, as well as to surrounding restaurants.
There is nothing that Paul enjoys more or that brings him more peace than being out in the woods looking for mushrooms…
We are honored to have him here, and to share his Medicine with us, and with all of you!