The more mushrooms the merrier: Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival sprouts at Roaring Camp

If anyone is keeping track of mushroom-themed festivals in Santa Cruz County, the number is about to increase from one to two.  

If you’re surprised it isn’t “zero,” know that the Santa Cruz area has been home to a substantial number of mycophiles – people who are devoted to mushrooms – for decades, thanks in part to robust and varied foraging in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In addition to inspiring legions of hobbyists and groundbreaking books and research, the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair, held in January during the height of mushroom season, has attracted thousands of visitors annually for more than 50 years. 

This May, the new Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival aims to create a space to celebrate, discuss, eat and enjoy mushrooms on a scale not yet seen on the Central Coast. The two-day outdoor event comes to Roaring Camp in Felton on Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5. The schedule includes panel discussions from industry and scientific leaders, cooking demonstrations from professional chefs, and mushroom-themed art and food, plus all-day live music and a kid zone. 

The event was created by Far West Fungi, a family-owned mushroom farm based in Moss Landing with distribution throughout California and storefronts in San Francisco and downtown Santa Cruz. The company celebrated its 40th birthday in 2022, and, in lieu of throwing a party, decided to focus its resources on launching the Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival to commemorate the milestone. 

Far West Fungi had discussed creating a mushroom-themed festival for years, says Erin Raser, Far West Fungi’s director of operations and one of the festival organizers, and about a year ago, the time finally felt right. “There’s been many conversations for a long time about how cool it would be to have this event at Roaring Camp,” says Raser. “There was this idea of having this big, celebratory festival atmosphere related to mushrooms.”

Mushrooms are definitely having a moment. While fungi have always attracted passionate fans, many more have been drawn to mushrooms during the pandemic because of their many proven health benefits. So many, in fact, that the industry is experiencing a “shroom boom” of new people curious about mushrooms for their culinary and medicinal uses. Raser and her Far West Fungi colleague and fellow organizer Kiera Garrone believe it’s a topic worth celebrating. 

“There is a community that’s already there of people who are naturally mycophiles, people who are attracted to mushrooms because of what they look like or the experience of going out into the forest and searching for them,” says Raser. “There’s been a lot of people who are getting more into mushrooms, growing mushrooms, and curious about how they can improve their health and general well-being.” 

Raser and Garrone have harnessed that interest by incorporating mushrooms into every aspect of the festival, from panel discussions with industry leaders to mushroom-focused cooking demonstrations with Bay Area chefs and mushroom-themed art and DIY classes. Even the food vendors have been encouraged to add mushrooms to their menus for the event. 

All of the events on the jam-packed schedule are included in the $75-per-day ticket price. “Once you pay to get in, everything is included,” says Garrone. Some of the workshops at the festival – on topics from painting with mushrooms and mushroom dyeing to fermenting with fungi and papermaking – can cost $100 or more when the presenters offer them privately, she says.

Over the course of the weekend, six Bay Area chefs will show attendees their favorite ways to prepare mushrooms at hourlong cooking demonstrations, from oyster mushroom ceviche and crispy wood-ear salad to banh mi and bolognese — with complimentary samples. Presenters include freelance chef Chad Hyatt, who specializes in working with wild mushrooms; Brad Briske of Home restaurant in Soquel; and Eric Tucker of Millennium in San Francisco. 

The schedule features back-to-back panel discussions and presentations from industry leaders on far-ranging topics, including women in mycology, medicinal mushrooms, climate change, historical uses of fungi, mushroom coffee and psychedelics. 

The organizers took particular care in selecting the panelists, and focused on participants who came from diverse backgrounds and whose views are science-based. The goal, Raser says, is to create a “neutral space,” focused on sharing information, rather than plugging a new book or product. “We said from the very beginning that our priority was education,” says Garrone. “We want people to walk away from this feeling like they learned something genuine.”

The festival has attracted some big names, including mycologist David Arora, whose books “Mushrooms Demystified” and “All That the Rain Promises and More…” are considered essential reading for mushroom enthusiasts. He’ll share his mushroom hunting-stories on Sunday afternoon. Herbalist and mycologist Christopher Hobbs will speak about medicinal mushrooms on Sunday. Allison Feduccia, the founder of Psychedelic Support, an organization that connects people with psychedelic therapies, will discuss her work with psilocybin, and Charles Lefevre, the founder of New World Truffieres, will share information about establishing a truffle industry in North America. 

The action-packed event also offers guided nature walks, do-it-yourself demonstrations on topics like cultivating mushrooms on logs and spore printing. A bonus for parents: All of the rides and activities at the kid zone are included in the price of admission, and the activities were purposefully placed near the music stage and not sequestered in a remote area of the park. “We’ve been really mindful to create an experience that we would want to attend,” says Garrone. 

Far West Fungi might have created the Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival, but its purpose isn’t to promote the company. “This isn’t a Far West event. We are putting it on, but it’s not all about us,” says Garrone. “If you helped forage and make your own product, that’s great. We’re so excited to hear about that process and to share that with the world.” 

Schedule and tickets at scmmfest.com.

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