I've got almost all levels fully researched.. (all except fertility).... things are running smoothly... babies.. kids... the whole works... YET I can't seem to collect on single mushroom!! I see them.... I have dropped kids, adults, masters of all fields.... EVERYTHING I can think of to collect them.. what the heck am I missing or doing wrong?

You have to be quick! Next time you see one hit the space bar to pause the game, then drag one, two or three kids and drop them on it. If you time it right you can get around 20 mushrooms from one. Give it a try!

Thanks!!! I'll give it a try... (didn't know the space bar paused the game!! thanks for that hint also!! )

And it is only kids that can pick the mushrooms.

Although the spacebar pauses the game, the mushrooms will still disappear after a little while. Hitting pause does give you time to locate the nearby kids, though.

That is right. Pause does not pause the internal timer for the mushrooms, but it does allow you to place more then one kid on it. The most mushrooms I picked from one was 42. The timing has to right and you have to have a lot kids next to it. But usaly I can get at least 7 to 12 with each mushroom.

While we're on the subject...is there a timer on how often the shrooms appear? Or is it just random? I'm also asking about red ones as well.

No timer per say, just randomly. Although I think there is a minimum time it waits before a new mushroom appears, then it is randomly. I have noticed when things are going good there are aprox three mins between several, then it appears they dry up and will take longer.

Thanks for the space bar tip - I'll try that next time and I'll pass it on to a friend who I managed to get hooked on VV and doesn't have many kids in his village so he finds it difficult to locate one in time to pick the mushrooms.

Locating once you have the school is easy. Just hit the drum and they'll come running.