“This is the chanterelle mushroom.”

A wide-eyed, blond-haired man with dual black earplugs flashes two handfuls of orange fungi before the camera.

“Cantharellus lateritius,” he explains, “is a delicious, wild, edible fungus that can be found growing during the summer months mycorrhizally [symbiotically] in association with various hardwood trees.”

Over the next 12 minutes, he leads viewers along wooded hillsides while zealously differentiating the “smooth” chanterelle from poisonous look-a-likes and examining cap shapes, colors, stems, spore prints and micro-climates.

This is Adam Haritan, and through his Learn Your Land venture, he has produced more than

100 instructional videos for some 77,000 YouTube subscribers and leads walks and workshops for small groups throughout the state. He is helping to cultivate a growing movement of plant and mushroom foragers who are exploring— and, in some cases harvesting—Pennsylvania’s forests.