CMS will once again be supporting an in person Mount Pisgah Arboretum (MPA) Mushroom Festival on Sunday, October 30, 2022.This year’s festival will almost be like the festivals of yester-year (pre-COVID). In addition to the mushroom displays, there will be a full array of local foods, arts, and crafts, as well as mushroom vendors, live music, guided nature walks, cider pressing, and scarecrows. However, one post-pandemic change is here to stay. This, and all festivals going forward will require advanced tickets for entry. You can purchase your tickets here.
Hopefully, we will have rain just in time for the four CMS member forays to collect mushrooms for the display in the days prior to the festival. If you want to collect mushrooms on your own, please do. You should follow the instructions on this page, and drop off your mushrooms on Saturday, October 29th, at the Arboretum (White Oak Pavilion) between 9am and 3pm.
Expert Identifiers
CMS will be welcoming back both Noah Siegel and Steve Trudell. Their first task will be on Saturday identifying the mushrooms that CMS members gathered for the display. A mushroom is not placed on the display until it is identified to species (or group/complex). Noah and Steve will be joined by Efren Caesar who is an expert on coral mushrooms; and some of our local identifiers will be there to both help and learn. And, of coarse, students from the Lane Community College Biology of Mushroom class will also be collecting mushrooms and will be on hand Saturday to help setup the display.
On Sunday both Noah and Steve will be at the Expert ID tent. If you have mushrooms you would like identified bring them to the festival. Who knows, the mushroom you bring in could possibly be a mushroom that is new to the show, or perhaps Best in Show! Important note: You will find the Expert ID tent where the Edible and Poisonous Tent has been in the past; while the Edible and Poisonous Tent is now next to the very popular Apple Cider Pressing tent.
Steve will have his just released 2nd edition of Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest. This edition is more than 60 pages longer than the first, has a greater proportion of large photos, and is meant to be used either as a stand-alone book or in conjunction with the first edition. Together the two editions cover 740 species, with 247 only in the first edition, 275 only in the second and 218 in both. Of the latter, 210 of them are illustrated with a different photo in the new book. To help insure the continued usefulness of the first edition, the second edition includes an appendix with updates, such as name changes, to the earlier edition.
Noah’s book, Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast is also excellent for this area and is a favorite of many mushroom foragers and mycologists alike. The only mushrooms not covered in this book are those found only in the Cascades.
We will also be hosting CMS members Trent and Kristen Blizzard of Modern Forager at the CMS sales booth. You may be familiar with their famous Morel Burn Maps. And, if you enjoy cooking with mushrooms you should definitely have their cookbook Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide in your kitchen library. Several CMS members are featured in the cookbook with both their recipes and foraging stories. Be sure to get your copy autographed!
While you are at the CMS Sales booth, you can check out our new 2022 t-shirt of a beautiful Pholiota (pictured above, artwork by Emily Poole). We will also have last year’s very popular Psilocybe azurescens t-shirt available, along with a few others from past years. And, as always, you can get some early Christmas shopping done by picking up a CMS cookbook, a pair of wild mushroom earrings, mushroom wine charms, mushroom ornaments, or mushroom magnets.
Festival Mycoblitz
The CMS Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon Project will be sponsoring an online mycoblitz from October 20th to the 29th to celebrate the festival.
More details from Mount Pisgah Arboretum
Festival Activities:
- The CMS Mushroom display where you can learn about hundreds of local species!
- Edible and Poisonous Mushroom Tent, staffed by knowledgeable CMS members.
- Live Music
- Guided Nature Walks by local naturalists
- Mushroom Vendors
- Local foods, arts, and crafts
- Cider pressing and scarecrows
Pictured left: MPA festival t-shirt artwork by Emily Poole, featuring oak mazegill (Daedalea quercina) and Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus)
- VERY IMPORTANT – Mushroom Show Tickets will be Pre-sale Only- Sold by MPA. Purchase your tickets here.
- Tickets are sold for 3 hour attendance intervals to further limit crowding (10am-1pm, noon-3pm, 2pm-5pm).
- Children under 12 free, no ticket purchase required.
- The festival opens at 10 AM and closes at 5 PM.
- Parking at the Arboretum is free on festival day.
- Please leave your dogs at home. For the safety and comfort of all, due to crowds, dogs are not permitted at the festival. Read our Festival dog policy here.
- Refund requests may be processed automatically up to ten days prior to the event. Within ten days of the event, requested refunds will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- Please do not come to the Festival if you are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.