It's mushroom mania in St. Albert this week as locals sweep up fungal fun brought on by recent rains.
About 40 'shroom-seekers will head to the Devonian Botanic Garden this Sunday for the Alberta Mycological Society's annual City of Champignons mushroom exposition. Fungi fans will see hundreds of edible, medicinal and poisonous mushrooms gathered from across the province and chow down on fungi-food prepared by two gourmet chefs.
This has probably been the best year for mushrooms in a decade, says society vice-president Robert Rogers, with fairy rings popping up all over lawns and rarer ones, such as log-loving sulphur shelf, creeping out of the woods. "We've had the rain and the mushrooms are everywhere."
They're everywhere
Mushrooms are the fruit of fungi, according to mycologists, which are hair-like creatures that grow underground.
This has been one of the best years ever for mushrooms in St. Albert, says local mycophile Elke Blodgett, with shaggy parasols (big plates with shaggy brown tops) and fly amanitas (red or yellow with white spots) cropping up everywhere she looks. Many, such as the giant puffballs near Grandin mall, have emerged months ahead of schedule. "I've never seen so many mushrooms in my life."
Mushrooms come in a great variety of shapes, sizes, and colours, says society secretary and St. Albert resident Deberah Kearns, which is why she's so taken by them. "Personally, I think they're beautiful."
They're also tasty, she adds. She's particularly fond of morels, the strange sponge-like creatures that emerge in early spring and found an exceptional patch of them near Thompson Creek earlier this year. "I've dried about 20 pounds of them this year."
And they're a rich topic for research. Japanese research suggests that white coral mushrooms could be used to treat dementia, Rogers notes. "I've been eating [them] all summer."
Other studies have found fungi capable of eating oil spills or solving mazes.
What's that mushroom?
Free walks and talks from mushroom experts will be available at this weekend's festival, Rogers says. Guests are encouraged to bring in mushrooms for identification.
Mushrooms are generally identified by their shape, size, colour and gill structure, according to mycologists. "A spore print is the ultimate," Rogers says, as it is often the only way to tell some species apart.
Most city residents will see fairy ring and shaggy parasol mushrooms on their lawns and in their forests, says Rogers, both of which are edible. Careful hunters might also spy the brain-like fluorescent orange jelly on a stump, shoals of white corals reaching out of the dirt or the delectable "chicken of the woods" — an orange oyster-like edible that's found on logs.
Make sure to get a positive ID before you eat any wild mushroom, he emphasizes. Some, like the poisonous death angel mushroom, can easily be confused with other edible species. "They look like little button mushrooms just from the top," he says of the death angels, but unlike the ones in stores, these will kill you if eaten. Others might be edible, but might have grown in contaminated soil or been sprayed with pesticides.
Beginners should travel with a field guide and a veteran fungi-hunter before plucking mushrooms on their own, Rogers says. There are thousands of species in Alberta, but you really only need to know about 10 of them if you're looking for lunch.
The free event runs from 11 to 4 p.m. on Aug. 15. For details, visit www.wildmushrooms.ws.
