mackericher state park

Edible Mushrooms – Mendocino Mushroom Festival

/ Bulldog Travels / 1 Comment

Having eaten a beautiful and delicious mushroom meal at the Stanford Inn to celebrate our anniversary and the Mendocino Mushroom festival we had one more thing to do before leaving…

The day prior Eric and I had collected some hedgehog and chantarelle mushrooms on our guided mushroom walk.  I cleaned the mushrooms as best I could and kept an eagle eye out for worms.  I washed the mushrooms even though we were told we didn’t need to.  We took our guides advice and sauteed them in a pan with no butter or oil on a high heat.  The water within the mushrooms quickly seeped out and the mushrooms shrunk to half their size.  I dumped out most of the water and continued sauteing.  I added a touch of salt and it was the moment of truth!  Do we trust our guide?  I sent off a text message to some friends at work bequeathing them my unfinished projects and sequined office supplies and dug in.

I am happy to report Eric and I have no ill effects and truly enjoyed our unusual mushroom’s earthy but not overwhelming flavor.  It was something I have never been able to buy in a store and have certainly never foraged on my own before.  This was an excellent way to end our time in Mendocino at the festival.

The Mendocino Mushroom festival was a delight.  It wasn’t a true festival under a tent somewhere that you pay a ticket fee to enjoy.  Rather it was merely a celebration of the mushroom where festival goers can celebrate in their own way.  We spent most of our time outside enjoying nature and the beautiful weather where some could have spent large amounts of money on numerous beer/wine and mushroom pairings throughout the region.

Thank you mushroom for being such an entertaining part of our weekend.  🙂

iPhone Photos June 2015 001 (2)

iPhone Photos June 2015 002 (2)  iPhone Photos June 2015 004 (3)

Mendocino Mushroom Festival – Day one

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It’s no secret Mendocino is special to me.  Eric and I took our first real camping trip to MacKericher State Park, my favorite place to camp in all of California.  And he and I got married in Mendocino.  Mendocino is also home to the best baguette in California at Cafe Beaujolais! 🙂 We go back any chance we get probably camping there at least twice per year.  This year we decided to celebrate our anniversary attending a festival I have always wanted to visit…the Mushroom Festival.

We arrived on a friday and set up camp.  If you have never been to MacKericher you have been missing out.  I will surely blog all about it another day.  But, one of the awesome things about this coastal campground is its forest.  And in November this forest comes alive with mushrooms.  The mushrooms make the coast and the forests mystical and interesting.  And while I might lament the lack of fall colors for only a second they are totally crowded out by fall mushrooms.  We even had multiple mushrooms right in our campsite.

Before going anywhere for the festival we embarked, with Amelia in tow, through a large grove of forest that is parallel to the ocean.  The mushrooms were overwhelming and plentiful.  And since it is a state park no one was able to pick them.  There were tiny delicate mushrooms, large red dangerous mushrooms, mushrooms with personality, mushrooms that looked like they could kill you, blankets of mushrooms, mushrooms that could win the prize for largest mushrooms, mushrooms that could take the prize for smallest mushroom, mushrooms that looked like candy, and mushrooms that looked like they were freaks of nature.  Anything you want, this forest did not disappoint.  At this point, we were totally uneducated on what any of the mushrooms were called and if any of them were safe to eat.  

Stand by for part two of the Mushroom festival to come soon…