California heavy rains bring mushroom explosion

SONOMA, Calif. - Recent heavy rains have brought a mushroom boom to parts of California.

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reports that lands parched by a three-year drought just a few months ago are now seeing an explosion of both poisonous and edible mushrooms after about 2 feet of rain saturated grassy hillsides and swelled streams in Sonoma County.

It has been especially fruitful that the rains have been mixed with mushroom-friendly warm weather.

Darvin DeShazer of the Sonoma County Mycological Association says the fungi are "popping out of the ground everywhere right now."

The bloom has brought a mushroom boom to restaurant menus, farmers markets and foraging classes around the region.