It was starting to drizzle as we queued up for our train, but no one was complaining about the weather. This time of year, rain is a welcome visitor. It is rain that brings the mushrooms we’re all here to celebrate. When torrential sheets are coming down, it’s hard to be unhappy if you’re a mycophile. Because with every drop that hits the forest loam, you can almost feel the mycelium working its magic and sending up those fruiting bodies we’ve all fallen in love with: Golden and White Chanterelles, Yellow Foot, Hedgehogs, Candy Caps, Porcini, Morels, Oyster, Lobster, and hundreds more edible species can be found in...

The word Jamaica conjured to my mind images of white-sand beaches, endless sunshine, and natty-dreaded Rastas wandering about to an ever-present Reggae beat. The country I discovered was much more complex than that. Topographically it shocked me – ranging from high mountains shrouded in eternal fog, to desert-like coastline spotted with cacti, to massive rivers and thundering waterfalls. Culturally it defeated my expectations – Rastas rarely seen, my surface impression was rather of a kind, if conflicted, culture which put great stock in honor, integrity, and happiness. I was told time and time again that Jamaicans know how to laugh at...