Mushrooms – Shitakes, chanterelles, and porcini, oh my:
SANTA CRUZ – Here in central California, there’s a whole lot of fungus among us.
For nearly 40 years, mushroom enthusiasts have been putting the fun in fungi with an annual festival that celebrates the spored specimens. Several thousand species of mushrooms grow in the Santa Cruz area, and while this year’s dry, cool weather hasn’t been very good for their growth, there are still plenty of ‘shrooms on display throughout the weekend at the 38th annual Santa Cruz Fungus Fair.
“Mushrooms tend to like warmer and wetter weather,” said scientist Phil Carpenter, co-chairman of the festival. “This hasn’t been a great season.”
Still, at least 200 different mushrooms are being shown off this weekend at the Louden Nelson Community Center, representing the myriad culinary, medical and other types that are native to the region.
Carpenter has been mired in mushrooms since he was a little boy. He recalls going with his family to hunt morels each year while growing up in northern Illinois, a tradition he says his 95-year-old mother still carries on. Morels, of which there are several kinds, are prized by chefs and foodies alike, who use them in a variety of tasty dishes. As delicious as they are though, said Carpenter, that isn’t the only reason mushrooms are fascinating.
“I’m a trained scientist,” he said. “I’m curious about things, and I like to know what I’m looking at.”
Carpenter, whose doctorate is in organic chemistry, came to California after postgraduate work in Scotland, and his love of mushrooms truly began to flourish. He read David Arora’s “Mushrooms Demystified,” considered by many to be the bible of mushrooms, and he was hooked.
Carpenter, who is also the prime minister of the Santa Cruz Fungus Federation, which holds the fair, said the annual event is a way of “introducing people to the beauty and edibility of mushrooms.”
In the main room of the event, members of the federation have painstakingly created approximations of the natural habitats of a vast number of mushrooms, and there is detailed information about each one.
While some species of mushrooms aren’t eaten for reasons other than toxicity, there are some, such as the aptly-named “destroying angel” that can be fatal if consumed. They can sometimes be confused for edible mushrooms such as the button mushroom or the horse mushroom.
That kind of mistake can be deadly, and the federation hopes to help avoid that kind of tragedy by providing information. There’s even an identification table set up at the festival where the public is invited to bring in mushrooms they’ve found for identification by a trained expert.
There are also plenty of food items made with mushrooms, ranging from the more expected – mushroom quiche – to less traditional items like chocolate with truffles and gelato made with mushrooms. Dying for a pair of mushroom earrings or your own shitake-growing kit? You’ll find those goodies and far more at this year’s fest.
“Mushrooms have always caught my fancy,” said Dr. Tom Bruns, a UC Berkeley professor who spoke Saturday about the mutualism between trees and fungi, a subject also known as ectomycorrhizal ecology.
“It’s a fascinating subject that’s grossly understudied,” he said of the field.
Santa Cruz Fungus Fair
WHAT: A celebration of fungus featuring mushroom exhibits, food booths, vendors, kids activities, interesting speakers, introductory classes and mushroom identification. Speakers on Sunday include David Arora and Christopher Hobbs, an herbalist and botanist who will speak about the medicinal uses of mushrooms.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Louden Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz
COST: $10 general admission, seniors and students $5; kids younger than age 12 are free
DETAILS: www.scfungusfair.org
Santa Cruz Fungus Federation
On the Net: www.fungusfed.org
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