Bay Area events, clubs for fungi fanatics
Every winter for the past five years, mushroom madness was on full display in Mill Valley when the annual Wild in Marin Fungus Festival took place. This year, its organizers are taking a break.
“People loved it, but there weren’t any folks willing to take on significant roles in making it happen,” said Xander Wessells, who founded it with her husband, Kevin Sadlier.
Instead, the couple behind Green Jeans Garden Supply in Mill Valley has spent the winter foraging for pleasure and dinner parties with good friends. For those interested in the culinary side of mushrooms, Wessells champions Chad Hyatt and his newly revised mushroom book, “The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen.”
“Chad was the highlight of our festivals from the very first one,” Wessells said. “I’ve never seen a cooking presentation where one man, with the help of his fabulous wife, Rosa, is able to give everyone in the audience tastes of several different foods.
“Chad taught many of us old foragers to collect and appreciate the mushrooms that we used to consider ‘edible but not incredible.’”
“The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen” contains 120 recipes, including preserves, appetizers, salads, main meals and even sweet treats like mushroom-infused flan, ice cream and flourless almond cake.
He’s also composed lists of about a dozen cultivated mushrooms you might commonly find in a grocery store — such as white button, cremini and portobello — and more than 60 found in the wild, including candy caps, puffballs, morels and porcini, with simple tips on the best cooking or preservation methods.
Of course, there’s an entire page dedicated to the “underground gold” of the mushroom world, the aromatic truffle.
In the pages between the tips and recipes, Hyatt shares his insights and highlights memories of his foraging adventures.
In his resources guide in the back of the book, he cautions against using online apps to help identify wild-foraged mushrooms that you would eat. Instead, he lists some mushroom-identifying guidebooks and recommends talking to experienced mushroom hunters at local clubs.
Clubs
• The Sonoma County Mycological Association holds meetings, a holiday dinner and an information- and activity-packed winter camp. Memberships cost $50 annually with discounts for seniors and youth/students. Go to sonomamycology.org.
• The Mycological Society of San Francisco holds meetings, culinary dinners and fungus fairs. Memberships cost $25 annually with a discount for seniors. Go to mssf.org.
Mushroom hunts
• ForageSF offers forage forays in Sonoma and Marin that are perfect for all levels of mushroom hunters. There’s still space in the following classes:
• Forage for mushrooms in West Marin at 10 a.m. Feb. 8 with experienced foragers Gregg and Brian Miller. Admission is $165. The father-and-son duo will also offer mushroom foraging in Sonoma County at 10 a.m. Saturdays from Jan. 24 through Feb. 14. Tickets cost $165.
• Thirty-year expert Steve Conwell will show students how to forage in the Sonoma hills and teach them how to identify, harvest and cook wild mushrooms as well as the basics of mushroom cultivation at 11 a.m. Jan. 25 and Feb. 8 and 10:30 a.m. Jan. 31. Tickets cost $165.
Get more information and register for all the events at foragesf.com.
Show off
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Please send an email describing either one (or both), what you love most about it and a photograph or two. I will post the best ones in upcoming columns. Your name will be published, and you must be over 18 years old and a Marin resident.
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.