If the mere mention of chanterelles and morels gets you salivating, consider a trip to a mushroom festival.
On Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula, the Wild Mushroom Celebration includes a month of mushroom-centric dinners and tastings, beginning with an Oct. 10 dinner at the Depot Restaurant in Seaview and ending with a Nov. 6 dinner at the Tuscany Cafe at the Port of Ilwaco, www.funbeach.com/mushroom/index.html.
Lake Quinault Lodge in Olympic National Forest hosts the Quinault Rain Forest Mushroom Festival, Oct. 17-19. Admission is $20 for the weekend, free for children 5 and under. Rooms at the lodge, about three and a half hours from Everett, start at $89. The event features mushroom walks, mushroom collecting seminars, cooking and identification classes, tips for growing mushrooms and activities for kids, www.visitlakequinault.com.
On Vancouver Island, the Aerie Resort hosts a half-day Great Fall Mushroom Hunt each Saturday in October. The cost is about $125 and includes transportation from the resort to forested hunting areas and a three-course lunch, www.aerie.bc.ca. Also on Vancouver Island’s west coast, the annual Bamfield Mushroom Festival takes place Oct. 18 in Bamfield (www.mushroomfestival.ca).
The Wild About Mushrooms Co., based in Forestville, Calif., offers mushroom-themed trips, including the Oregon Cascades Foray, Oct. 12-16, which includes hunting for chanterelles, porcini, matsutake, lion’s mane and other varieties. The $675 price includes lodging, breakfast and dinner and instruction in mushroom identification. Details at www.wildaboutmushrooms.net.
Mendocino County, about 90 miles north of San Francisco, hosts a Mushroom Festival, Nov. 7-16, www.gomendo.com, with hunts for chanterelles, porcinis, morels and rarer varieties like the candy cap and hedgehog mushroom. Mushroom-themed dinners are offered throughout the area, along with mushroom cooking classes and a seminar on the healing power of mushrooms.
Associated Press
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