Alaska Long-Distance Foray, September 2026 Sat, Aug 29 Save the date for our fantastic journey in Alaska! Explore the Alaskan Kenai peninsula and be amazed by the wildlife, fjords, glaciers and of course mushrooms. +11 more Details FFSC Calendar We have a lot of fun foraging, learning, and socializing from September to May. Many of our events are open to the public, and you can join FFSC for more! Note: We schedule local forays , ID classes , and culinary events on relatively short notice, based on location availability and habitat conditions. You can also visit or subscribe to the FFSC Google Calendar, and/or download an iCal file for other calendar applications. July 2026 Today Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Calendar View FFSC Calendar Grid View

Peter Vahlberg 2026 2026 Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Talks Buy Tickets

Other Nonprofit Resources Here are a few nonprofit resources where you can learn more about mushrooms. If you're interested in commercial classes, tours and mushroom-related vendors, start with your favorite search engine or social media channels. Earth Star (Astraeus hygrometricus). Photo by Tim Teske Cornell Mushroom Blog A mushroom blog from the Mycology Department of Plant Pathology Cornell University that aimed at ordinary people with a tendency towards mycophilia. MykoKey Created by Jens H. Petersen, MycoKey, Denmark & Thomas Læssøe, MycoKey/University of Copenhagen, Denmark Mushroom Observer Think of it as "... a living field guide for mushrooms or a collaborative mushroom field journal." iNaturalist iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you while generating data for science and conservation. Other Mycological Clubs A few of our peer organizations. Members Only Content Login Join FFSC

Pairing and Cooking Mushrooms with Wine Everyone knows drinking wine with wild mushroom dishes is a delight beyond compare. Can we go a step further and think about pairing styles of wine with a particular mushroom genus? ... Caption Pairing Mushrooms with Wine Good wine is a careful balance of fruit and acidity. The alcohol has to be in balance with the fruit and acidity to give that rounded yummy taste. California white varietals tend to be a little less acidic, so winemakers sometimes add acid during fermentation for balance. That's where you get that nice clean crisp feel in your mouth. Red wines in general are slightly higher in alcohol content. That’s where you get that nice glow in your head. White wines give a lighter lift to food, while red wines, because of their complexity, lay a heavier interest to dishes. Now lets think about wild mushrooms. Are morels light or robust? Chanterelles are light. Lepiota spp. are heavy. Coccora and Amanita velosa are light. Chocolate is heavy. You can think about the balance you want to create between the wine and the mushrooms you're serving. Objective: Complementary Total Time: N/A Suggested Mushrooms: See code Equipment and/or Ingredients Your favorite mushroom dish and a variety of wines to choose from. Method Cooking Mushrooms with Wine When cooking, too much wine can overwhelm the dish and you lose flavor. As an example, people who dump half a bottle of red wine on a 5 pound roast have to add a lot of salt and fat to compensate for the acidic taste from the reduced wine. If you are going to cook a mushroom dish with wine, add the wine during the last ten minutes of the cooking cycle. The more acidic the wine, the more oil or fat you can add. Suggested combinations are: Boletes with butter and 1/4 cup Sauvignon blanc Cream of chanterelle soup with 1/4 cup of Chardonnay (per 2 quarts) Morels sautéed in olive oil, a dash of tamari, a pinch of brown sugar and a sprinkling of Zinfandel Sliced coccora wrapped in 1/4 strip of bacon, broiled and brushed with a mix of Pinot Noir, tarragon and a little arrowroot (for thickening). You get the idea. Taste taste taste. When you are cooking with wild mushrooms and wine, think about what you are combining and how the ingredients will play on one another. Remember to only cook with wine you would drink. A so-so wine will result in a so-so dish. Think about sampling and enjoying the complexity of each bite, sipping thoughtfully. Ahhh…Life is good. Previous Technique All Techniques Next Technique

Vendor Areas Tasty food, beautiful artwork, mushroom-dyed silks, jewelry and more can be found throughout the venue. Food and Mushroom Vendors Fantastic Flavors for Foodies Have you ever smelled candy cap mushrooms ( Lactarius rubidus )? When dried, candy caps smell like maple syrup, butterscotch, fenugreek or burnt sugar! A compound called "Soloton" is responsible for the aroma in these foods. Fungiphiles use candy caps to flavor chocolate, pastries, ice cream and more! en.wikipedia.org Sotolon - Wikipedia And freshly picked Matsutake ( Tricholoma murrillianum ) smells like cinnamon to some people, and the taste of cooked matsutake is often described as earthy and spicy, nutty and sweet with an aroma of pine and cedar. Another popular edible mushroom is our state mushroom, the California golden chanterelle ( Cantharellus californicus ). When cooked, people think it tastes fruity, like apricots or peaches, with a hint of pepper. Learn all kinds of interesting information about edible mushrooms at the Fungus Fair while you sample a variety of wild mushroom delicacies for sale by vendors at the Fair, and/or purchase mushrooms to try at home. Some of the vendors below include recipes on their websites, and you can also explore FFSC's Mushroom Recipes . For 2026, the Fair's food vendors include: Indoors King of Mushrooms , Todd Spanier Outdoors Far West Fungi Penny Ice Creamery Benni Pops (Santa Cruz Fungi) Fox Tale Fermentation Sea Soil Sky Shared Cultures , @sharedcultures Living Swell Kombucha Modern Forager Geo Forager FUNGI Magazine , Britt Bunyard Be sure to also check out the menu for our annual After Hours Dinner, presented by Chef Chad Hyatt. (A separate ticket is required.) Clothing, Craft and Services Vendors 301 Center St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA Take home beautiful prints, ceramics, blown glass, and/or clothing that features your favorite mushrooms. Enrich your mind and spirit with related onsite services. For 2026, the Fair's craft and service vendors include: Outdoors Lovage Somantics Mushrooms in Bloom , Sara Stinson (@mushroomsinbloom) Fossil Forager (@fossil.forager) NorCal Forager Indoors Light Energy Glass, Jeff Hinkle MacLean Custom Screen Printing , Robin MacLean Forage and Dye The Local Naturalist , Andrea Dingedein (@the_local_naturalist) J Calcagno Pottery , Jeannine Calcagno Mayumix Botanical Design , Mayumi Fujio Ancient Hands Tile, Steve Baranoski The Deep Read , Laura Martin, UCSC Humanities Institute Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz The 2026 Santa Cruz Fungus Fair T-shirt will be available for sale at the FFSC Store. This year's shirt features a glow-in-the-dark version of the 2026 Fair logo! Books, Stickers and More Get great prices on useful field guides and more at the FFSC Store. FFSC also sells posters, stickers, books and other mushroom-related items at the Fair for fundraising and to promote interest in mushrooms. The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History will also be on hand with fascinating educational items for sale. Interested in Becoming a Fungus Fair Vendor? We usually finalize the list of vendors 3 or 4 months before the fair (early October). If you sell mushroom-related items and you'd like to be considered for the 2027 Santa Cruz Fungus Fair, please use the Contact FFSC form and select "Other" as the topic. Let us know why you think you'd be a great fit!

Hygrocybe laetissima (Waxy Caps) As deep winter settles on the Redwood Coast, you’ll begin to notice many small red, orange and yellow Waxy Caps (Hygrocybe ); sprinkled through the understory of redwood forests; beacons of color in the dark duff. ... Hygrocybe laetissima. Photo by Noah Siegel California enjoys a great diversity of Waxy Caps, many of which have special affinity for Coast Redwood, California Bay-laurel and Monterey Cypress habitats. Unfortunately, we are using 'borrowed' European names for many of these lovely waxy caps, and as we continue to learn about our mycoflora, we are realizing that many of our species are distinct, and deserving of their own names. Hygrocybe laetissima vs. punicea One common and fairly distinctive species is Hygrocybe laetissima ; which has a scarlet to bright red, moist to slightly viscid cap, gills that are whitish, yellowish to pinkish when young, but become pinkish to reddish in age (occasionally with an yellowish-orange tone), a yellow stipe that has a reddish base (often entirely white when young), and a surface covered in vertical striations and fibrils. This species is very common in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Santa Cruz Mountains, and ranges north into Oregon, but is uncommon north of Mendocino County. Hygrocybe punicea . Photo by Noah Siegel Originally described by Smith and Hesler in 1942 from Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, this name has mostly been forgotten or at least heavily underused in California. The reason for this is that we have been content to use the name of a similar species ( H. punicea ) to almost all of our large red Hygrocybe . Hygrocybe punicea is a European name for a supposedly widespread species; but it is very likely that genetic evidence will indicate that it doesn’t occur in California, and that the similar-looking western North American taxa should not be referred to by that name. Hygrocybe coccinea The other Hygrocybe punicea -like taxon in our area can be recognized by its dry to slightly tacky, ox-blood red cap, pale yellowish gills, and darker orangish to reddish stipe that also shows vertical-striations (an important feature that helps differentiate between the H. coccinea and H. punicea complexes). Hygrocybe coccinea . Photo by Noah Siegel H. coccinea sensu CA typically is a smaller mushroom than either of the latter two species, and has a bright blood red to dark red cap, red gills, and a smooth red stipe (lacking any vertical fibrils or striations). It is common and widespread in CA in mossy forest understories, especially under redwood. Although H. coccinea has been reported as edible, there are mixed reports about the edibility of H. punicea , and local experience is lacking. Be cautious when sampling these species - it's probably better to admire them. Hygrocybe splendidissima and aurantiosplendens Hygrocybe splendidissima . Photo by Noah Siegel We begin to get into an area of seeming intergrades and other curveballs when we start seeing the uncommon H. splendidissima (sensu CA): a mushroom that resembles both H. laetissima and H. coccinea . Hygrocybe splendidissima has a scarlet to blood red cap, young gills that are pale when young but redder in age, (almost as if the the cap color leaches downward), and a smooth stipe (occasionally developing appressed fibrils in age). The smooth stipe is probably the best feature to distinguish this species from H. punicea and H. laetissima , and the pale gills help distinguish it from H. coccinea . Younger specimens can be strikingly similar to H. aurantiosplendens , which has a scarlet-red cap when young, but quickly fades to orange. Hygrocybe aurantiosplendens . Photo by Noah Siegel There are also a multitude of smaller orange to red species (caps typically under 3 cm across, with most around 0.5-1.5 cm across), but I'll save those for another article. Mushrooms covered: See code Previous Description All Featured Fungi Next Description

Vellany Pierce Vellany Pierce is the Prime Minister of the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz. She grew up in Santa Cruz County and, always having had an interest in fungi, is a self taught mushroom cultivator who currently works at Far West Fungi , propagating mushroom spawn from cultures grown in petri dishes. She serves the Fungus Federation as minister of digital media, helps lead local forays, and has taught cultivation classes with the Fungus Federation for many years. 2026 Vellany Pierce 2026 Santa Cruz Fungus Fair Talks Buy Tickets Getting Started with Cultivation Saturday, January 10, 2026 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM Room 1 An Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation Saturday, January 11, 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Room 1

Make Fungi Art Create your own mushroom art at the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair! Try dyeing fabric swatches, get your face painted and more. Fun for all ages! Creative Crafts Use all your senses and creativity to explore the world of mycology in our family friendly Craft Room. Enjoy the creative process of designing mushroom inspired art while learning about fascinating fungi! Open 9 am - 5 pm on Saturday, Jan. 10 and Sunday, Jan. 11 only. (Closed on Friday, Jan. 9) Buy Tickets to the Fair Mushroom Cap Creation Station Visit the Craft Room and design your own “spore-tacular” mushroom cap to wear around the festival! This all-ages activity lets you make your own unique fungal fashion statement styled after our own native Amanita muscaria . Take your custom mushroom cap home and show off your mycological masterpiece! Fungi Fine Lines and Watercolor Wonders After you learn about different kinds of mushrooms, come create scenes full of fantastic fungi, from morels to chanterelles! You can also use stencils to trace the shapes of your favorite mushrooms in wax crayon and then paint a watercolor scene for your fungi. Make One-of-a-Kind Buttons Design your own mushroom buttons and we'll mount them on a pin for you. For some extra “pop”, use white crayon and dark watercolors to make your mushrooms magically appear! Perfect for all ages. Toadstools for Tots Let your little ones get creative with this fun and simple mushroom craft! Use simple materials to make mini mushrooms in a playful activity that’s easy for little fingers to enjoy. Leave with a cute handmade mushroom to remind them of their Fungus Fair adventure! Dye Silk with Mushroom Pigments 301 Center St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA Did you know that you can dye fabrics and paint on paper with inks (pigments) made from certain mushrooms? FFSC member Debbie Johnson and her crew have been teaching visitors how to use mushroom pigments to dye silk for longer than anyone can remember. Visit the Craft Room at the Fungus Fair to try out this ever popular and inspired art form. (Open Saturday and Sunday only). Buy Tickets Find out more about this fascinating craft on the FFSC website: Intro to Dyeing with Mushroom Pigments Mushroom Dye Resources Face Painting and More Take photos with fun sculptures and artwork, get your face painted or try painting a friend's face! On your way between the craft room, vendor room, Fungi Forest and scheduled talks, get inspired by the variety of fun and creative concepts that people submitted for the 2026 Fungus Fair Logo , from sketches to completed works. (And check out a glow-in-the-dark version of the logo on this year's Fungus Fair T-shirt !) Explore all of our indoor and outdoor art areas and have fun!

Hmmm... We couldn't ID that link (If this were a mushroom, we'd go back to our field guide and start over.) Try a Search Report a Broken Link

Hmmm... We couldn't ID that link (If this were a mushroom, we'd go back to our field guide and start over.) Try a Search Report a Broken Link