Vol. 1 — No. 14Weekend Episode · Thu–Sun, Sep 17–20, 2026 · South Knoxville, TN★ soknoear.com
Vol. 1 — No. 14 · Sep 17–20★ soknoear.com
The South Knoxville Ear — We Hear Things.
Wanna party in the Dirty South?
★ Tonight's plan: happy hours → music → karaoke →
Ijams ParkSun

The beginner mushroom workshop runs again Sunday afternoon

Ninety minutes with an Ijams Park naturalist on how to actually look at a mushroom — what the parts are, and how to tell a fungus from a lichen. Fifteen dollars, and the fall series has just started.

Gills up, on a fallen log

The Fall Fungi ID beginner workshop runs Sunday from twelve thirty to two, fifteen dollars, with an Ijams Park naturalist. It is the practical kind of nature program: what a mushroom actually is, which parts have names and which of those names matter, and how to tell a fungus from a lichen at a glance — the confusion that trips up almost everyone at the start.

When
Sun Sep 20 · 12:30–2 PM
Where
Ijams Park · 2915 Island Home Ave
Cost
$15 · registration required
Level
Beginner — no prior knowledge assumed
Next one
Sep 27 at 3 PM, if Sunday fills
Bring
Shoes for off-path walking and something to take notes on

Why now is the right week

Late September in East Tennessee is when the forest floor starts producing. A fallen log that looked like a fallen log in July is a small city by now. Learning to read one is the sort of thing that permanently changes an ordinary walk, which is a good return on ninety minutes.

This is a repeating series rather than a one-off. If Sunday is full there is another on the 27th at three. Registration is required either way, and the park does not take walk-ins for its education programs.

Original Dirty South Map Found

Click to see the original map of Knoxville’s Dirty South that was recently unearthed for the public to see.

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