People think that picking a mushroom is like uprooting a plant, the woman told us.  

What you've got is the "fruiting body".  

It's like plucking an apple from a tree.  

The actual creature, 

the mycelium, 

she said, 

is safely beneath the surface.  

Today was the mushroom festival at the Nature Center.  

A fine combination of gourmet pleasures and mycological edification.

Time to climb over the back fence and start looking for the fungal delicacies of the New England forest.