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Fresh Air Family naturalist, Mark Hainds, will lead a mushroom walk with farming tips at Open Pond, on Sunday, Oct. 13 at 2 p.m.

Hainds has been growing mushrooms for 15 years and foraging for them even longer. On the walk, he will be pointing out the edibles, medicinals and poisonous varieties to be found in the longleaf ecosystem. After the walk, he will demonstrate how to inoculate shiitake, lion’s mane, oysters, turkey-tail, and reishi mushrooms into logs.

The event is free and open to the public. 

Hainds leads award-winning Gross Out Day Camps and is an instructor for school field trips for Fresh Air Family. The camps at Open Pond and Frank Jackson State Park, along with school programs, are supported by the Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation.

The Gulf Coast Fungi Festival, Oct. 18-21, will host Hainds as a presenter. Annually, he inoculates 1,500 logs with mushrooms for sale at his booth at the Palafox Market in Pensacola.

Hainds was raised in Missouri as a sixth-generation farmer on a family farm. He secured a BS in Forestry Management from the University of Missouri, and an MS in Forest Biology from Auburn. He was the first science graduate from the Jones Ecological Research Center in southwest Georgia. He became a Research Associate with Auburn University and the first employee of the Longleaf Alliance. Mark worked as the Forestry Instructor at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College. He has published two books (Year of the Pig and Border Walk) and is the subject of the movie La Frontera.

About Fresh Air Family
Fresh Air Family is dedicated to environmental and scientific education, outdoor exploration, and an appreciation of the beautiful and biologically diverse state of Alabama. In 2024, FAF held 68 summer camps in 26 locations for 1,200 children. A non-profit, it awarded $62,000 in financial aid for children who could not afford to attend. FAF offers summer and holiday day camps, school field trips, after school programs and weekend family adventures in the great outdoors. More at www.FreshAirFamily.org