Mushroom mania: Have fun with fungi at Mill Valley festival
Admire, eat, wear and be inspired by mushrooms at the Mycological Society of Marin’s fourth annual Wild in Marin Fungus Festival.
The event, which organizers hope will help cultivate a passion for wild mushrooms in Marin residents, takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Mill Valley Community Center.
The big news this year is that California just designated the beautiful golden chanterelle as the state mushroom. It grows in Marin, among other places.
“It was voted to be California’s state mushroom by members of all of the California mushroom societies,” says Xander Wessells, current president of the Mycological Society of Marin. She and her husband, Kevin Sadlier, own Green Jeans Garden Supply in Mill Valley and co-founded the society.
“Cantharellus californicus, a mycorrhizal mushroom, meaning its mycelium is connected to the roots of its host tree, can be found in Marin County associated with oak,” she added.
Chanterelles are all true wild mushrooms and have never been cultivated, she says, adding that, according to the “California Mushrooms” identification guide, the worldwide chanterelle commerce is worth more than 1.25 billion dollars annually.
At the festival, there will be live folk and bluegrass music, tables of identified wild mushrooms, an invitation to bring in mushrooms you’d like identified, a vendor fair of mushroom-based products, including wild mushrooms, tinctures, food, art and clothing, and a mushroom-centric raffle.
Chefs will sell mushroom menu items including wild chanterelle soup, porcini-dusted grilled cheese, matsutake Tom Kha Gai (Thai coconut soup with mushrooms), truffle popcorn, chanterelle latkes, wild mushroom risotto, mushroom leather and black chanterelle/yellowfoot quiche.
On the stage, Chad Hyatt, author of “The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen,” will share techniques, recipes and tips for cooking with wild mushrooms at noon and Noah Siegel, co-author of “Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast,” will discuss the diversity of backyard mushrooms at 2 p.m. Sausalito writer and Flora & Fungi Wild Food Adventures founder Maria Finn and Flora Jayne, her truffle-hunting dog, will be there at 3:30 p.m.
Bookending the other talks is Mayumi Fujio of Mayumix Botanical Design, who will speak on mushroom and lichen dye at 10:30 a.m.
Fujio, who has been foraging since she was a child, has hunted mushrooms for food and dye for the last decade and now creates beautiful fashion and home décor using the natural dye process.
Her technique involves placing wild flowers and leaves on a fabric, such as a length of silk, covering them with a mushroom-dyed fabric that she later removes to reveal the shapes and colors of the floral impressions left behind.
These fabrics are fashioned into scarves, clothes, table runners, pillowcases, woolen yarn and other soft creations, many of which she will sell at the Fungus Festival.
• Details: The Wild in Marin Fungus Festival is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Mill Valley Community Center at 180 Camino Alto in Mill Valley. Admission is $15 to $20. For more information, go to mycomarin.org. Limited parking is available at the Mill Valley Community Center and Mill Valley Middle School at 425 Sycamore Ave. Paid parking available at the Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church at 410 Sycamore Ave. in Mill Valley.
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PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertaining topics every Saturday. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.