Welcome to the Fungal:
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Mushroom guru David Arora, author of “Mushrooms Demystified” and “All That the Rain Promises and More,” will kick things off with the keynote address at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at the Yachats Commons. Tickets are $13, in advance or at the door.
Arora will also lead an all-day workshop that includes mushroom hunting, identification, and discussion, followed by a mushroom tasting.
“We’ll cook up several different kinds of edible mushrooms with an emphasis on lesser-known types. A good title for the workshop would be ‘Beyond Chanterelles,’” he said.
On Saturday, Bruce Waugh and Pam McElroy of the Lincoln County Mycological Society will present a workshop on harvesting, caring for and cooking the most common edible mushrooms. In addition to discussing the nutritional and medicinal aspects of common mushrooms, they’ll show how to prepare them and offer participants a chance to taste the differences between the various types of mushrooms.
At another workshop, taught by Dr. Steven Carpenter and Kim Kittredge, you can learn to grow mushrooms and even take home the beginnings of oyster mushroom sprouts that will turn into a feast in a few weeks.
Joe Spivack of the Cascade Mycological Society will offer a four-hour workshop in which he will not only talk about mushroom collecting and identification, but take participants on a hike to see exactly what he’s talking about.
The “Ecology for Everyone” speakers forum will include nine different free talks on the scientific and ecological aspects of mushrooms.
Dave Pilz, who will discuss “Forest Mushroom Management in Spain,” has come to the Yachats festival for 11 of its 12 years. He says he loves the ecological focus, the guided walks, the community involvement and the chance to get together with his colleagues. A former Corvallis resident who now lives in Susanville, Calif., Pilz says the coast is a great place for mushrooms.
The mushrooms that we see are actually the fruit of plants growing underground. When weather conditions are right, preferably cool and wet, they can pop up seemingly overnight. In general, September to November is peak mushroom season here on the Oregon Coast. Once the ground freezes, the mushrooms turn to mulch, but the plants live on underground, waiting for next fall.
Waugh, who will lead two of the hikes, said with the rain that began in early October, conditions should be just about perfect for a big mushroom bloom this weekend. Arora added that even in years when the weather doesn’t cooperate, the Oregon Coast has a more reliable mushroom crop than almost anywhere else.
Find the fungi
The casual walker may not even notice most mushrooms until someone points them out. Then they’ll realize the area is full of them, in all different shapes and colors. Along the coast, chanterelles are beloved for their flavor and stand out with their bright orange-yellow color. King Boletes, which look a little like hamburger buns on sticks, are also common and tasty.
Scan the feet of Douglas firs and western hemlocks for russulas in various colors, cauliflower mushrooms that resemble white coral and hedgehogs that look like their namesakes. One might find red-orange lobster mushrooms, giant white puffballs and candy caps.
Not all mushrooms are safe to eat. Some of the most attractive, such as the red-and-white Fly Agaricus and the red russula, could kill a person. Others cause upset stomachs. The festival is your chance to learn about mushroom hunting from experts who know a chanterelle from an agaricus.
During the festival weekend, Yachats restaurants will feature mushroom dishes, such as the Adobe’s broiled portobello sandwich, the Drift Inn’s roast pork with leek and wild mushroom stuffing, or the wild mushroom and gorgonzola cheesecake at Heidi’s Homemade Food and Italian Specialties. The Yachats Farmers’ Market, in its last session of the season, will offer fungi fare, and you can taste non-mushroom wine at The Wine Place and Heidi’s. Visit the festival website to see complete menus.
Among the impressive lineup of speakers at the festival is Dr. Matt Trappe of the OSU College of Forestry. Trappe is responsible for the fungi slideshow that will be running through the weekend at the Cape Perpetua Visitors Center through the weekend, as well as for his Saturday talk (12:20 p.m.) about Lichens. Trappe knows his way around the forest, and around a camera – as evidenced by the cover photo and the photo of the King Bolete shown above.
Most of the festival events take place at the Yachats Commons and Cape Perpetua. The exhibits and hikes at Cape Perpetua and Gerdemann Botanical Preserve are free. For $5, you can purchase a wristband that will get you into the talks and workshops and onto the shuttle from the Commons to Cape Perpetua.
Some of the workshops take place at other locations, have additional fees for materials, and require pre-registration. Arora’s Sunday workshop, limited to 24 people, costs $80 per person. Call the Yachats Visitors Center, 541-547-3530, 800-929-0477, for more information or to pre-register.
Some folks claim they don’t like mushrooms, but the Northwest has more than 500 varieties, in hundreds of different form and flavors. Give them a try – or at least a look. If nothing else, you’ll know a lot more about those things sprouting in the back yard.
Visit the festival website, www.yachats.org/MFest2011.html for a complete list of activities and locations.
If you want to dig deeper into all things mushroom, the Lincoln County Mycological Society meets on the second Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. at the Otter Rock Community Club. For information, call Bruce Waugh at 541-765-3191.
Arora will also lead an all-day workshop that includes mushroom hunting, identification, and discussion, followed by a mushroom tasting.
“We’ll cook up several different kinds of edible mushrooms with an emphasis on lesser-known types. A good title for the workshop would be ‘Beyond Chanterelles,’” he said.
On Saturday, Bruce Waugh and Pam McElroy of the Lincoln County Mycological Society will present a workshop on harvesting, caring for and cooking the most common edible mushrooms. In addition to discussing the nutritional and medicinal aspects of common mushrooms, they’ll show how to prepare them and offer participants a chance to taste the differences between the various types of mushrooms.
At another workshop, taught by Dr. Steven Carpenter and Kim Kittredge, you can learn to grow mushrooms and even take home the beginnings of oyster mushroom sprouts that will turn into a feast in a few weeks.
Joe Spivack of the Cascade Mycological Society will offer a four-hour workshop in which he will not only talk about mushroom collecting and identification, but take participants on a hike to see exactly what he’s talking about.
The “Ecology for Everyone” speakers forum will include nine different free talks on the scientific and ecological aspects of mushrooms.
Dave Pilz, who will discuss “Forest Mushroom Management in Spain,” has come to the Yachats festival for 11 of its 12 years. He says he loves the ecological focus, the guided walks, the community involvement and the chance to get together with his colleagues. A former Corvallis resident who now lives in Susanville, Calif., Pilz says the coast is a great place for mushrooms.
The mushrooms that we see are actually the fruit of plants growing underground. When weather conditions are right, preferably cool and wet, they can pop up seemingly overnight. In general, September to November is peak mushroom season here on the Oregon Coast. Once the ground freezes, the mushrooms turn to mulch, but the plants live on underground, waiting for next fall.
Waugh, who will lead two of the hikes, said with the rain that began in early October, conditions should be just about perfect for a big mushroom bloom this weekend. Arora added that even in years when the weather doesn’t cooperate, the Oregon Coast has a more reliable mushroom crop than almost anywhere else.
Find the fungi
The casual walker may not even notice most mushrooms until someone points them out. Then they’ll realize the area is full of them, in all different shapes and colors. Along the coast, chanterelles are beloved for their flavor and stand out with their bright orange-yellow color. King Boletes, which look a little like hamburger buns on sticks, are also common and tasty.
Scan the feet of Douglas firs and western hemlocks for russulas in various colors, cauliflower mushrooms that resemble white coral and hedgehogs that look like their namesakes. One might find red-orange lobster mushrooms, giant white puffballs and candy caps.
Not all mushrooms are safe to eat. Some of the most attractive, such as the red-and-white Fly Agaricus and the red russula, could kill a person. Others cause upset stomachs. The festival is your chance to learn about mushroom hunting from experts who know a chanterelle from an agaricus.
During the festival weekend, Yachats restaurants will feature mushroom dishes, such as the Adobe’s broiled portobello sandwich, the Drift Inn’s roast pork with leek and wild mushroom stuffing, or the wild mushroom and gorgonzola cheesecake at Heidi’s Homemade Food and Italian Specialties. The Yachats Farmers’ Market, in its last session of the season, will offer fungi fare, and you can taste non-mushroom wine at The Wine Place and Heidi’s. Visit the festival website to see complete menus.
Among the impressive lineup of speakers at the festival is Dr. Matt Trappe of the OSU College of Forestry. Trappe is responsible for the fungi slideshow that will be running through the weekend at the Cape Perpetua Visitors Center through the weekend, as well as for his Saturday talk (12:20 p.m.) about Lichens. Trappe knows his way around the forest, and around a camera – as evidenced by the cover photo and the photo of the King Bolete shown above.
Most of the festival events take place at the Yachats Commons and Cape Perpetua. The exhibits and hikes at Cape Perpetua and Gerdemann Botanical Preserve are free. For $5, you can purchase a wristband that will get you into the talks and workshops and onto the shuttle from the Commons to Cape Perpetua.
Some of the workshops take place at other locations, have additional fees for materials, and require pre-registration. Arora’s Sunday workshop, limited to 24 people, costs $80 per person. Call the Yachats Visitors Center, 541-547-3530, 800-929-0477, for more information or to pre-register.
Some folks claim they don’t like mushrooms, but the Northwest has more than 500 varieties, in hundreds of different form and flavors. Give them a try – or at least a look. If nothing else, you’ll know a lot more about those things sprouting in the back yard.
Visit the festival website, www.yachats.org/MFest2011.html for a complete list of activities and locations.
If you want to dig deeper into all things mushroom, the Lincoln County Mycological Society meets on the second Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. at the Otter Rock Community Club. For information, call Bruce Waugh at 541-765-3191.
