Sunday Sept. 28 was a great day for the 13th annual Wild Mushroom Festival at the Nature Center! More than 400 visitors enjoyed mushroom dishes from 10 local restaurants and vendors, took mushroom walks, heard mushroom talks, saw mushroom specimens and bought mushroom shirts, books and more!
Check out lots more photos on our Facebook page.
Thank you to the Connecticut Valley Mycological Society for their successful foraying that brought in dozens of interesting specimens for the festival.
Thank you to Bill Bynum (President, Connecticut Valley Mycological Society) and Bill Yule (Vice President and Education Director, CVMS.) for their fascinating and well-attended mushroom talks. And thanks to all the CVMS members who led the five mushroom walks through Nature Center trails, hunting for more!
Terrific music as always by our ‘house band’, The SemiLocals.
Special thanks to our sponsors McQuade’s Marketplace, of Westerly and Mystic and Gray Goose Cookery, of Olde Mistick Village.
And of course what would the festival be without our participating restaurants/vendors:
- Zest Fresh Pastry: mushroom leek bread pudding, mushroom brownies and a mushroom cheese puff
- Maple Lane Farms black currant juices
- Harbour House restaurant – porcini dusted Stonington scallops with chantarelle mushroomcream sauce
- Cottrell Brewing Co. – Wild Mushroom Beer and Old Glory ale
- Foxwoods Resort Casino – Matsutake Gohan with Crab & Mushroom Sunomono and Hazelnut Financier, Morel Caramel, Crème Fraiche Chantilly & Port Gelee
- Gray Goose Cookery – sauteed mushrooms with lemon garlic finishing sauce
- Maize ‘N’ Manna Wholefoods – wild mushroom and spinach lasagna (vegan and gluten free)
- Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream – wild mushroom ice cream
- Brazen Hen – wild mushroom and oyster stew
- Capt. Daniel Packer Inne – Baby Portabellas with Alouette cheese
And none of it could happen without our amazing staff and wonderful corps of volunteers! See you next year!
