Contributing Writer

Sam Rivera

Foraging Editor & Cultivation Writer

Sam Rivera has foraged the Pacific Northwest for 12 years and harvests wild mushrooms for local restaurants under a state-approved permit. Sam writes the field, kitchen, and cultivation guides, and grows oyster and shiitake mushrooms on logs and sawdust blocks at home.

Every safety-critical claim in those guides is checked by Dr. Marsh before it publishes. Sam's beat is the practical side of the hobby, from reading a spore print to cleaning grit out of morels.

The guides favor slow, careful habits over shortcuts, because the cost of a wrong pick is too high. Start with a handful of easy, unmistakable species, then build from there.

Credentials

Experience: 12 years in the field
Focus areas: Foraging, Home cultivation, Cooking
Qualifications: Certified wild mushroom identifier (state-approved), 12 years commercial foraging
Role: Writes field, kitchen, and cultivation guides
Pages written: 109

Pages written by Sam Rivera

Agarikon Angel Wing Antler Reishi Australian Honey Fungus Autumn Skullcap Beautiful Clavaria Big Laughing Gym Birch Polypore Bitter Beech Bolete Bitter Bolete Bitter Poisonpie Black Morel Black Truffle Black Trumpet Blackedge Bonnet Blackening Waxcap Blistered Cup Blood-Red Webcap Booted Amanita Brawny Bolete Bronze Bolete Brown Roll-Rim Burnt Knight Caesar's Mushroom Cauliflower mushroom Chaga Chanterelle Chanterelle vs Jack O'Lantern: Tell Them Apart Safely Chicken of the Woods Common Earthball Common Inkcap Copper Roll Rim Cordyceps Creamy Mushroom Risotto With Deep Mushroom Flavor Cremini Dangerous Mushroom Lookalikes That Cause Deadly Mistakes Deadly Dapperling Deadly Fibrecap Deadly Galerina Deadly Parasol Deadly Webcap Death Cap Destroying Angel Devil's Bolete Eastern Flat-Top Agaricus Enoki False Death Cap False Morel False Morel vs True Morel: Why the Hollow Test Matters Felt-Ringed Agaricus Field Mushroom Fly Agaric Fool's Conecap Fool's Funnel Fool's Mushroom Fool's Webcap Foraging Safety Rules That Keep Wild Mushrooms Off Your Plate Gemmed Amanita Ghost Fungus Gray Morel Green-Spored Parasol Half-Free Morel Hedgehog Mushroom How to Cook Morels Safely and Brown Them Well How to Grow Oyster Mushrooms From Straw to Harvest How to Take a Spore Print You Can Actually Read Inky Mushroom Ivory Funnel Jack O'Lantern Liberty Cap Lion's Mane Livid Pinkgill Maitake Matsutake Mesima Morel Morel Mushroom soup: the browning step is the whole recipe Oyster Mushroom Oyster Mushroom vs Shiitake: Which One Fits the Dish? Oyster mushroom Panther Cap Pink oyster Porcini Poria Red-Belted Conk Reishi Saffron Milk Cap Sauteed Chanterelles That Brown Instead of Steam Shaggy Mane Shaggy Parasol Shiitake Shiitake Shimeji Slippery Jack Sulphur Knight Sulphur Tuft The Blusher Tremella Turkey Tail Velvet Shank Western Destroying Angel White Chanterelle White Fibrecap White Truffle Wood Blewit Woolly Milkcap Yellow Knight Yellow Stainer