Mill Valley festival to highlight the wonderful world of fungi

The Wild in Marin Fungus Festival returns to Mill Valley on Sunday. (James Cacciatore/Marin Independent Journal)

Christopher Hobbs, pictured with an amanita muscaria, will speak at Sunday’s Wild in Marin Fungus Festival. (Courtesy of Christopher Hobbs)

Mushrooms on display at the Wild in Marin Fungus Festival. (Photo by Xander Wessells)

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The Wild in Marin Fungus Festival returns to Mill Valley on Sunday. (James Cacciatore/Marin Independent Journal)

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With Marin’s rainy season underway, the hunt for local wild mushrooms is on.

But, if you’re not up for tramping around in the wet outdoors, you can still enjoy the fascinating world of fungi at the Wild in Marin Fungus Festival.

Sponsored by the Mycological Society of Marin County, the event, now in its fifth year, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Mill Valley Community Center in Mill Valley. Admission is $35. More information at mycomarin.org.

Expert mycologists will be on hand to chat with guests in the “Mush Room,” where a wide array of wild mushrooms will be on display. Guests are also welcome to bring in any of their own mystery mushrooms for identification.

There will be mushroom-centric items — from about 15 vendors — to browse and a variety of specially crafted mushroom treats for free or to purchase, such as the vegetarian golden chanterelle soup, candy cap financiers and mushroom tarts, or the non-vegetarian matsutake Thai soup, along with hot drinks and mushroom mocktails.

For an extra fee, guests can dye a silk scarf using mushrooms at 10:30 a.m., learn to draw mushrooms at 12:30 p.m., dye a silk scrunchie using mushrooms at 2 p.m. or explore fermentation with Koji at 3:30 p.m.

There’s no extra charge, though, to listen to three highly regarded authors of mushroom books.

At 1 p.m., Eugenia Bone, the author of “Have a Good Trip: Exploring the Magic Mushroom Experience” (Flatiron Books, 2024), will discuss “A Bump on the Journey: The Challenges of Mainstreaming Psychedelic Culture.”

She will be followed at 2:30 p.m. by David Arora, the author of “All that the Rain Promises and More” and “Mushrooms Demystified,” both published by Ten Speed Press, who will discuss “The Wheel of the Fungi: Meetings with Remarkable Mushroom Hunters.”

The first speaker, however, will be Christopher Hobbs, the author of “Medicinal Mushrooms: The Essential Guide” (Storey Publishing, 2021), at 11 a.m.

According to Hobbs, a fourth-generation herbalist, mycologist and lecturer, his latest book was written to share the wisdom of his decades of clinical experience and to help people understand how beneficial mushrooms are in a health-supporting diet.

He also cites their ecological benefits because they are easy to cultivate and use fewer resources than animal products.

“Medicinal Mushrooms” details the nutritional and medicinal compounds in about 30 mushroom species, and Hobbs describes how to source them, harvest them in the wild, make your own products and choose the best commercial products.

“A number of common ailments are covered also, and which mushrooms have the most evidence for effectiveness for preventing and relieving symptoms,” says Hobbs, who has written more than 20 books.

He points out that “herbalists and other natural care practitioners believe that it’s our body that does the healing, and mushrooms, herbs and other treatments remove imbalances and help restore health functions in the body so it can heal.”

Some of the notable medicinal mushrooms are:

• Turkey tail. These “are very high in high-quality prebiotic fiber, which is not digested in the upper GI tract and feeds our beneficial flora,” says Hobbs, adding that they also offer strong immune support.

• Lion’s mane. This mushroom protects and helps heal our stomach, and has some recent human studies that show benefits for better cognition, memory and mood, he says.

• The chaga mushroom contains powerful antioxidants and is traditionally used throughout Russia and Scandinavia in cancer care programs, he says.

• The cordyceps militaris mushroom “benefits the kidneys and is traditionally used to boost performance and energy,” he says.

Mushrooms can also be considered nutritional powerhouses.

They “are almost a complete food, with high-quality protein, essential fatty acids, nearly as much B vitamins as animal products, and fantastic amounts of superior dietary fiber,” he says.

For his talk, “Rediscovering Fungi: The Nutritional and Medicinal Benefits,” Hobbs will cover “the most important basic information needed to add this amazing food medicine to your diet.”

He recommends eating fresh ones regularly, and he personally eats shiitake in soups and stir-fry dishes almost daily.

When shopping, he suggests seeking out especially health-supporting species such as lion’s mane, oyster mushrooms, maitake, cordyceps and wood ear.

“Locally, Far West Fungi produce a variety of organic edible and medicinal fungi,” he says. “They are found in many grocery stores in the greater Bay Area.”

The same types of mushrooms can often be found at farmers markets.

Alternatively, mushrooms can be taken as dried tea powders, either purchased commercially or crafted at home. His book offers step-by-step instructions with pictures.

In the future, Hobbs predicts that there will be even more high-quality mushroom products, carefully tested for their active compounds, that will be available in the marketplace, and that consumers will see even more fresh and dried mushrooms in nearby grocery stores at a lower price.

That’s good news for people who’d rather buy their mushrooms than hunt for them.

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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.