The Asheville area is well known for outdoor recreation opportunities. The Asheville and beyond community has a passion for fresh, local, delicious food.  The Asheville Mushroom Club (AMC) is home to  helpful, knowledgeable fungi experts. What do these attributes have in common? Mushrooms!

Getting into the woods to look for the myriad of fungi in our area is as fun as a treasure hunt, as rewarding as a job well done, as delicious as a gourmet meal and as good exercise as a jog through the park.

Sound good? Want to know more? Then come to the annual Asheville Mushroom Club’s FungiFest. The Fest will inform  and delight you from 10 a.m. til 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept.  2. Warren Wilson College in Swanannoa, N.C. is the lovely venue for the Fest.

There will be opportunities to learn about and look for mushrooms, learn how to cook mushrooms, view the famous mushroom display and even bring in your own mushroom finds for positive identification.

When asked  what she likes about mushrooms, Polk County resident Laura Steinke enthusiastically answers,“Eating them. And finding mushrooms is like finding a little treasure. The AMC gives you the opportunity to rub shoulders with experts for just the cost of joining the club. Forays weekly and they have a YAHOO group to help with identifying things. And they have a wide diversity of speakers. The AMC also adds that very important element of safety when ingesting wild mushrooms.”

For more information about the Asheville Mushroom Club visit www.ashevillemushroomclub.com. For discounted tickets to FungiFest go to fungifest2017.eventbrite.com.

– article submitted by Carrie Knox