"I was curious about whether or not I could eat them. It was driving me crazy," he said.

Unlike his hunter-and-gatherer predecessors in Utah, Johnston didn't have to risk an upset stomach, hallucinations and possible death to find out if they were safe for human consumption.

He bought several mushroom field guides and returned to the woods where he quickly realized identifying wild mushrooms is a detailed and time-consuming activity. Still, he was hooked , and started attending the Utah Native Plant Society's Annual Mushroom Foray to gain more expertise and meet other mushroom maniacs.

In 1994, Johnston and a group of other fungi enthusiasts, led by Ardean Watts, a retired University of Utah music professor and long-time associate conductor of the Utah Symphony, formed the Mushroom Society of Utah (http://www.users.uswest.net/"dwjohnston).

"I had so much fun gathering mushrooms, but no friends to share the experience with," said Watts, who has been wandering the woods mushrooming for roughly 50 of his 78 years.

The Society now holds a foray once a month during the mushrooming season - April through September. Johnston said there are typically 15 to 20 common edible mushrooms in Utah among the hundreds of varieties. Watts says he has counted 22 different mushrooms in the past 20 years alone in the front yard of his Salt Lake City home in Sugar House.

The biggest event on the Mushroom Society of Utah's schedule is the Annual Fall Foray. Traditionally held in Francis, at the base of the Uinta Mountains, the weekend before Labor Day, the Fall Foray typically draws between 50 and 100 people for three days of mushrooming with the experts.

"The No. 1 rule," Watts told members of a foray crowd last month before they set off in the nearby Uintas, "is to never eat anything which has not been positively identified by yourself or somebody who knows more than you do. There is no substitute for going out with people who know what they are doing. It is possible to self teach, but it is like self teaching the piano or violin . . . it's just a lot better with somebody who has been there or done that."

Bill Jenson and Julie Bowen have heeded that advice. They became interested in mushroom collecting after watching a cooking show on television about using wild fungi in the kitchen.

"We found the Utah Mushroom Society," Jenson said. "It is a delightful group of people who love mushrooms and are very open with their information."

The Salt Lake couple also likes to use gathering mushrooms as an excuse to get out of the city.

"Julie and I like to to hike. One of the joys of mushrooming is being in the wilds and enjoying nature and then getting something to have with dinner that knocks your socks off," Jenson said.

Thanks to the experts at the Mushroom Society, Jenson and Bowen enjoyed eating mushrooms after their first excursion, but it took them about a year to become confident enough in their identification abilities to pick and eat their own fungi.

Their favorite dish is a French omelette with chanterelle or porcini mushrooms, both of which were found during this year's Fall Foray.

People are not the only creatures searching the woods for mushrooms. Deer, elk, bear and other wildlife will take advantage of mushrooms when they can, although no one knows if they know how to pick out the edible versus poisonous caps or if they enjoy the psychedelic species.

Watts said there are some "recreational" mushrooms growing wild in Utah, but the Mushroom Society is not into that scene.

The "high" for Watts is identifying mushrooms first for the table and secondly "because they are beautiful, exquisite organisms," he said. "The third thing that hooked me was the fascinating ecology of mushrooms and their relationship with trees. It is an amazing symbiotic relationship."

Contact Brett Prettyman at brettp@sltrib.com or 801-257-8902. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.