Mark your calendar for the 8th annual Fungi Fest and Mushroom Show which kicks off Thursday, Oct. 10 in Sunriver. This is a family-friendly event which celebrates the fantastic world of fungi. Budding mycologists and ‘shroom enthusiasts will have various opportunities to engage in programs that cover subjects such as: cooking with mushrooms, field trips, honing identification skills and much more.
The keynote presentation kicks off the festival on Thursday night at the Sunriver Nature Center and Observatory, from 5:30-6:30 pm, with guest speaker Jeremy Collison of Salish Sea Mushrooms.
“Our forests are connected in ways that we are only beginning to understand,” said Collison. “We can use our knowledge of these interactions to recognize the subtle ways our woodlands tell us about the mushrooms that inhabit them.”
His presentation, “The Forest’s Hidden Tapestry,” will be at 5:30 pm, following a meet-and-greet session which starts at 4:30 pm at the Nature Center. Light refreshments will be served and the cost is $10. The talk will surprise you with new perspectives of the myriad of organisms also searching for mushrooms.
On Friday, members of the Central Oregon Mushroom Club and other trip leaders will be out scouring the forests for fungi, from 9 am to 2 pm, to be displayed at the festival. For those interested in learning more about mushroom identification and where to find mushrooms, register for one of the field trips which leaves from SNCO.
Also on Friday, after the field trips, Sunriver Resort’s chef Joshua Hedrick serves a five-course mushroom-themed culinary delight. The Mushroom Dinner starts at 5 pm and costs $90 per person and space is limited. To preview the delicious menu, check out events page on the Sunriver Resort website.
Fungi Fest starts at 10 am on Saturday with a full slate of programs and numerous vendors on hand starting with a guided fungi walk at 10:30 am around the Nature Center grounds (this will repeat at 12:30 pm), and followed by presentations on growing mushrooms (11 am), cooking demonstration (noon), and using mushrooms for dyeing fabric (1pm) at the SNCO amphitheater. Collison will give another talk at 2pm and the event wraps up by 3pm.
Vendors at the Mushroom Marketplace will be selling mushrooms, art, medicinals, field guides and more. Volunteers from Lane County’s Cascade Mycological Club will staff an identification table to answer questions on mushroom ID, as well as talking about the various mushrooms on the display table. There will also be a kid’s room to explore, with craft and art projects and fungi face painting.
“We would love to have volunteers, and shifts are three hours,” said Kelli Neumann, SNCO community education and conservation manager. “This is a super fun event to volunteer for, you get to meet lots of local mushroom gurus and lunch is provided!” If interested, email Kelli at kelli@snco.org.
Advance online registration saves $1 off each festival admission, but tickets are also available at the door. SNCO and SROA members get in for free. Reservations for the keynote address, mushroom dinner, and to join one of the Friday field trips are also available online. See a complete schedule or to register for events at snco.org.
This article appears in Source Weekly October 10, 2024.
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