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OfflineAnnoA
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You oughta know: Colorado mushrooming
    #5958425 - 08/13/06 04:43 AM (17 years, 5 months ago)

http://www.denverpost.com/coloradosunday/ci_4170299

You oughta know: Colorado mushrooming
Pro learned the hard way

Who: Mushroom festival co-organizer Roger Kahn

Retired social activist and university professor Kahn was lucky enough to learn the lore of mushrooming in Colorado's high country from immigrants who learned it from their people in the old country. Now Kahn and his chef pal Mac Bailey share the knowledge during the Crested Butte Wild Mushroom Festival. Next weekend, the town will throw open its doors to people hoping to learn a bit more about fungi - legal uses only, please! And Kahn, who fesses only to being old enough to know better than to eat a bad mushroom, will be there to welcome them. - Dana Coffield

How did you get started mushrooming? When we came to Crested Butte 30 years ago, there was not a paved street in town, and there were about 300 people, 250 of whom were old-timers who had stayed after the mines closed. Some of the old-timers taught some of the new people some of the things necessary for survival in the mountain environment, like hunting, fishing, gardening and mushrooming. For reasons


I don't fully understand, I got into mushrooming. I learned about the mushrooms from my next-door neighbor, and from people down the block - people who basically had grown up here or had come here as very young people and lived here for 40, 50 or 60 years. They were Croatians, Serbians, Italians and Mexicans.

What did they hunt? Those guys knew about boletus, of which there are many varieties that grow up here, and all are edible, and chanterelle, which are edibles, and they were kind of interested in puffballs when they were around.

Puffballs? Like in my lawn? I don't think I could eat that! Well, you're making a culinary mistake. I'm sorry to say that so directly, but the puffball can be exquisite, depending on what you do with it.

But I don't suppose I should just go grab one out of the grass and eat it. I have a fundamental rule of mushrooming: Never eat a mushroom unless you're 100 percent positive it is good. You do not take chances with mushrooms. Due to youthful stupidity and bravado, it's probably pure luck that we're having this conversation.

Sounds like there's a story. I poisoned myself, my wife and a friend about 25 years ago in Denver. I was 99.9 percent sure this was an edible mushroom, but I was wrong. It was about the vilest sickness I've ever had in my life. It was like the worst drunk you've ever suffered, multiplied 100 times and lasting for three days. You never want to experience what I have experienced.

How's the hunting season shaping up this year? It has been raining every afternoon for hours, so we should have the most productive mushroom harvest that I have ever seen up here.

What constitutes a big year in mushrooming? About six years ago, or maybe five or seven years ago, it was a year very much like this one. I brought home so many chanterelles that my wife said she would not clean another mushroom. I gave away about 50 pounds and traded 50 pounds of chanterelles for gourmet meals in gourmet restaurants.

I preserved probably another 100 pounds.

Where's your best hunting ground? I promise not to tell anyone. During the mushroom festival, we take people on forays for teaching purposes on private lands. I always make it clear that I will not tell anyone where my best spots are, nor will I reveal the spots of others who have told me. I'm like the clinical psychologist who won't spill on anybody, though they hear lots.

THE FUN OF FUNGI

There are five chances this month to learn a bit about mushrooming in Colorado and taste the bounty of the season:

Colorado Mycological Society Mushroom Fair

Today, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Mitchell Hall at the Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York St., Denver. Free with garden admissions. The fair includes a professional identifier on hand to ID any samples brought to the gardens, a photo exhibition of Colorado fungi, displays of edible and poisonous mushrooms, plus a kids' activity area.

Crested Butte Wild Mushroom Festival

Thursday-Sunday, Crested Butte. Conference pass, $89.50; special cooking courses and wine tastings extra. Details and tickets: crested-butte-wild-mushroom-festival.com. Experiential learning via forays, cooking classes and other practical methods, as well as an array of traditional lectures and workshops, including sessions on medicinal uses of mushrooms, photographing mushrooms and preserving mushrooms. The event includes three days of forays on Crested Butte Land Trust property.

Creede annual Mushroom Foray

Friday and Saturday, Creede. Tickets $20 per day or $30 for a pass; Saturday reception, $15. Details and tickets: 800-327- 2102. Information sessions and guided forays in the Rio Grande National Forest.

26th Telluride Mushroom Festival

Friday and Saturday, Telluride. Tickets $80 for a two-day pass; $45 for one-day admission. Tickets: tellurideticket.com. Info: mushroomfestival.com. Two days of events celebrating mushrooms, including a mushroom parade, gathering forays, identification, tastings and chef cook-off, presentations by experts and hands-on cultivation demonstrations.

10th King Boletus Mushroom Festival

Aug. 26-27, Buena Vista. Tickets $55 for members of the Buena Vista Heritage Museum; $70 for non-members. Details and tickets: 719-395-8458. Festival includes informational sessions, forays and lunchs on Saturday and Sunday, and a wine and cheese reception at the Buena Vista Heritage Museum Saturday evening.


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Offlinerawtoxic
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Registered: 10/06/02
Posts: 2,097
Loc: smokey mountains
Last seen: 13 years, 5 months
Re: You oughta know: Colorado mushrooming [Re: Anno]
    #5959448 - 08/13/06 02:44 PM (17 years, 5 months ago)

I have been to the Telluride Mushroom Festival and it was one of the most eye opening/interesting events of my life. I was 18 years old in the most amazing place learning about one the most most amazing organisms on this earth.

They also concentrate on active mushrooms that most members of this community would find interesting. Plus the festival is frequented by people that write books on Mycology. Stamets is usually at Telluride I think, when I was 18 I had hardly a clue who he was.


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