Telluride Mushroom Festival

Breaking: Tradd Cotter of Mushroom Mountain to Speak Tonight At The Wilkinson

stits — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:54:20 +0000

Great news Everyone!

Tonight at 6pm we are beaming in Tradd Cotter a TEDx Presenter and owner of Mushroom Mountain to talk about Medicinal Mushroom gardens.

Please contact Scott (esculenta@shroomfest.com) about the possibility of re-streaming the live show to other locations.

Thanks,

Shroomfest

Shroomfest on The Cover of Telluride Festivarian Magazine!

stits — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:23:23 +0000

Hey Everyone,
I just got a copy of the new Telluride Festivarian Magazine. My work with them has been great and has won them over enough that we have the cover photo on the magazine. This magazine is displayed in locations across town and in Mtn Village. It’s really kind of a funny situation actually, because the back cover is an ad for the ride festival!

There is a description of this year’s festival and our beer partnership with Smugglers is also in the smuggler’s own writings in the mag.

Mag will be on the shelf sometime in the next couple weeks locally.

Cheers!

Scott Koch

Director, Telluride Mushroom Festival

Scott@shroomfest.com

2013 Shroomfest Tickets Onsale NOW!

stits — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:07:30 +0000

It’s that time again Shroomers, the 2013 Festival dates are locked and ticket sales are open. This year the festival dates will be August 15th through the 18th and we’ve got some amazing surprised in store for everyone.

Ticket Prices are:

Individual Discounts

Young Adult Full Pass Tickets (12-18) are half the Earlybird price per person (available only by snail mail) — a photocopy of some sort of picture ID verifying age will be needed to obtain this discount
Kids (12 and under) are free
Earlybird Full Pass Tickets (now until Friday, June 1, 2013) = $150 per person (on-line or by snail mail)
Pre-event Full Pass Tickets (from Saturday, June 2, to Friday, Aug. 3) = $160 per person (on-line or by snail mail)

Event Price

Full Pass Tickets (from Saturday, Aug. 4 to Thursday, Aug. 16) = $175 per person. For those who come late to the Shroomfest and have not pre-paid, ticket prices for the remainder of the event will not be negotiable but you can purchase a ticket for individual events.
For those who want to attend only individual events, individual workshop/lecture/event tickets will be available on site or at the door for between $10 and $25 each.
There may also be offering some special culinary events this year that the weekend pass will not cover. We will announce those as they are confirmed.

Group Discounts

Half-price Young Adult tickets are not available for group discounts.

Group Full Pass Tickets (until Saturday, Aug. 4):
Two People (same payment) = $300 ($150 per person)
Three People (same payment) = $435 ($145 per person
Four People (same payment) = $570 ($143 per person
Five People (same payment) = $700 ($140 per person)
Six People (same payment) = $810 ($135 per person)

What are you waiting for, get your tickets today!

Make your tax-deductible donation to Shroomfest

stits — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 00:28:34 +0000

Make your tax-deductible donation to Telluride Mushroom Festival before the end of the year!

A personal or business donation to the Telluride Mushroom Festival is a great way to help fund year-round educational programming and outreach in Telluride and beyond. This year’s educational programming includes workshops and classes in the areas of medicinal fungi, remediation and restoration classes, cultivation workshops, culinary and food presentations and fermentation offerings. We are currently offering outreach at middle and high schools, colleges and universities, mycological societies, national events, and governmental institutions.

Your donation to Telluride Mushroom Festival is tax-deductible and paves the way for educational offerings, scholarships for students, and helps start myco-projects in communities around the world.

Please take a look at our website www.shroomfest.com for more information, or if you are interested in being one of our sponsors contact esculenta@shroomfest.com.

Checks can be mailed to:
Telluride Mushroom Festival
PO Box 1770
Telluride, CO 81435

Paypal can also be used via our tickets@shroomfest.com address.

Thank you for supporting Telluride Mushroom Festival!

— with Gary Lincoff.

Michael Beug on Mycological Taxonomy AKA Who’s Your Daddy?

stits — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 02:51:13 +0000

Here’s one that many people have asked for where Michael Beug talks about the current state of Mycological Taxonomy (and all it’s frustrations), take a look and enjoy!

Shroomfest 2011 Video with Anna McHugh : Crazy About Mushrooms – Mycological Lore

stits — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 04:42:02 +0000

This was one of the true Gems from Shroomfest 2011, Anna gave this talk at the Wilkinson to a full audience and those not in attendance ended up kicking themselves for not being able to get in. Anna went over a series of her interviews with fungophiles all over North America and the legends that exist within these communities.

Here’s a description about the talk and Anna from her website :
www.crazyaboutmushrooms.com :

What do the poisoned Emperor Claudius, the Aztec storm deity Quetzalcoatl and a 5,500 year-old Ice Man have in common? They were all crazy about mushrooms! “Crazy About Mushrooms” is a dynamic, multimedia presentation that brings the story of the mysterious mushroom to light. Anna McHugh is an award-winning journalist, writer and mushroom lover from Nevada City, CA. In the fall of 2010, Anna produced a public radio documentary about mushrooms and the people who love them for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For the project, Anna chased down the most prestigious, quirky, and dedicated mushroom nuts in America and recorded their stories. Throughout the course of her travels Anna gathered a basket load of mushroom lore. From tales of Russian mobsters trying to corner the morel market to discussions of how to use fungi to remediate contaminated coastlines, Anna’s archive of interviews breathes life into the science and enchantment of mycology. Using a blend of recordings, images and scientific storytelling, Anna illustrates how a passion for mushrooms transforms our relationship to the planet.

Video of Gary Lincoff’s talk on The Philosopher’s Stone from Shroomfest 2011

stits — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 03:59:53 +0000

Shroomfest is putting more presentations on Youtube and we’re starting with an absolute gem, Gary Lincoff’s The Philosopher’s Stone – Or How Mushrooms Can Save You Thousands of Dollars in Therapy and Free You from the Prison of Time and Space. Amazing talk Gary, everyone at Shroomfest can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for us next year!

Shroomfest 2012 featured Kat Harrison, Tom Volk and the irrepressible Gary Lincoff

shroompa — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 05:23:03 +0000

by Art Goodtimes

In spite of the lingering drought in most of Colorado, this year’s Mushroom Festival, sponsored by the Telluride Institute and one of the oldest on-going events in the country (going on 32 years), saw plentiful fungi of all kinds Aug. 16-19, 2012, as the heavily loaded identification tables in Elks Park demonstrated. The entire town got involved. For four days, simultaneous events took place in the 500-seat Palm Theatre, the smaller but cozy Nugget Theatre, the award-winning Wilkinson Library, historic Swede-Finn Hall, town-owned Elks Park across from the County Courthouse on Main Street, a County meeting room in Miramonte Building, various foray locations in the local Uncompahgre and San Juan National Forests and even at Smuggler Joe’s brewpub – where several tasty myco-medicinal brews were concocted especially for the festival.

One of my favorite edibles is looked on askance by many – Hawk’s Wing (Sarcodon imbricatus, formerly Hydnum imbricatum). As Wikipedia notes: “It is reported as edible but of poor quality in the United States by some sources, but as deliciously edible by others.^”Being in the latter camp, I felt wonderfully vindicated when a dish made of its toothy flesh won the Chefs Cook-off this year at the Wilkinson. Over a hundred people sampled various mushroom dishes before the winners were chosen – a couple from Southern California, Andre Kohler and Erica Wohldmann. Last year the winner made Candy Cap ice cream.

It was impossible this year to catch every presentation, so here are some of the highlights from my limited perspective.

We learned from flamboyant University of Wisconsin mycologist Tom Volk (both arms covered in rainbow-hued mycelial tattoos and sporting wildly dyed forelocks) that unbaked bread dough, taken in quantity, could make one drunk, thanks to its yeast content – yeast being a eukaryotic microorganism classified in the Kindom [sic] Fungi, with 1500 currently described species. We also got a hands-on lesson in manipulating yeast to make kombucha and mead from Ken Litchfield of Merritt College in Oakland, California.

Ethnobotanist Kat Harrison of the non-profit Botanical Dimensions traced the introduction of entheogenic shrooms into Western culture and then compared techniques of use from traditional Mazatec shamans in southern Mexico where she’s conducted years of enthnobotanic research to our own initiatory attempts to incorporate sacred visions into a post-industrial American society unscientifically fearful of anything psychedelic. A panel discussion of hallucinogenic mushrooms as medicine emphasized the growing body of scientific knowledge proving their value, from relieving cluster headaches to providing life-changing experiences of balanced wholeness with the universe.

Professional jazz singer Ruthie Ristich of Boston showed a film and gave a talk that acquainted us with the legendary East Coast mushroom guru Sam Ristich, her father, who charmed and tutored legions of mushroom seekers, including our own resident mycologist Gary Lincoff. And Lincoff led a special Ophir foray up the Waterfall Canyon trail that culminated in a gourmet mushroom feast, prepared by amazing chef Lisa Dahl of Sedona’s Cucina Rustica, at Bob Kingsley’s spectacular OPUS Hut on the San Juan County side of Ophir Pass. In spite of 30 years residency in the region, it was my first time ever over the Ophir Pass jeep trail, made all the more thrilling by our driver’s announcement that he was running out of gas on the long climb up the San Miguel side. A friendly jeeper saved the day and gave us enough petrol to make it down safely.

Maya scholar John Major Jenkins explained to us the origins of the Mayan Calendar long count in Izapa, Mexico – how it was tied to startling astronomic observations of the Sun’s conjunction with the center of the Milky Way galaxy and how it was clearly perceived by the Maya as a time of transformation, not a Christian apocalypse. Myco-historian David Rose expounded on Mushrooms in Science Fiction, Daniel Winkler on Mushrooms in Tibet, and Fungi magazine editor/publisher Britt Bunyard on “Mycorrhizatopia – Fungi as the Puppet Masters of the Universe”.

Lecturers including a couple of teenagers – Devon Enke of La Veta on “Oil-eating Mushrooms” and Norwood’s Sklyer Hollinbeck sharing his paper on Myco-Remediation at the Missionary Ridge Fire near Durango. Maya Elson and her cohorts alerted us oldster fungophiles to a new developing group of Radical Mycologists who are marrying social activism to mycology and holding “convergences” around the country. The next Convergence is planned for Port Townsend, Washington, in October.

Of course, the high point of the festival was the annual parade

down Telluride’s ColoradoAvenue, led by the Amanitamobile. YouTube has videos. And the parade was bigger than ever this year, with Mason and Piper Cornwell of Grand Junction winning the Shroomfest Parade Costume Contest in the Kiddie division with their Alice and the White Rabbit costumes.

Attorney Brian Vicente of Sensible Colorado sought support for Amendment 64, the Regulate-Cannabis-Like-Alcohol Constitutional Amendment that will be up for consideration in Colorado’s November election. It’s a measure that makes good scientific and social sense, and as a 4^th term Green County Commissioner, I’m publicly a supporter along with ultra-liberal Dem. U.S. Rep. Jared Polis and former ultra-conservative U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (now there’s an unusual conjunction)

Jo Norris of Arizona’s Rim Institute gave a special workshop on “Connecting to the Feminine in Shamanism”, and the festival ended with a panel discussion by Norris, Marie Luna, Teresa Frank and Annie Enke on the relationship of plant and fungal allies to world consciousness.

Last year, to honor outstanding individuals who’ve expanded our knowledge of mycology, Shroomfest initiated a Founders Award that was given to Dr. Emanuel and Joanne Salzman of Denver for their creation and nurturing of the Telluride Mushroom Festival. Named for them, this year the “Salzman” was given to Linnea Gillman of Denver, a long-time member of the Colorado Mycological Society, the North American Mycological Association and Fungophile, Inc. – the non-profit umbrella under which the festival operated for its first 25 years

This August the festival added a new award in honor of Dr. Andrew Weil of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona — the medical doctor, author, lecturer and psychonaut who was a regular faculty member of the festival for several decades. The Telluride Institute felt that the exploration of the entheogenic properties of mushrooms and other plant and fungal allies, which has been such an essential part of Shroomfest, deserved its own prize. The first “Andy” went to Kat Harrison for advancing our knowledge and understanding, forwards and backwards, of entheogens — in all their goddess guises.

Planning has already begun for next year’s Shroomfest32, and a poster by Inkling Cruz Garcia celebrates the Perseid Meteor Shower, which will occur right around the time of the event, Aug. 15-18, 2013. <www.shroomfest.com>

-Shroompa

Thank You Fungophiles!

stits — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:21:31 +0000

The 2012 Telluride Mushroom Festival concluded with the Closing Ceremonies with Lindamarie Luna at the Palm Theater. Everyone at Shroomfest would like to thank the artists, presenters, sponsors, and especially the amazing Attendees for making this our best year yet, and encourage one and all to join us next August for The Telluride Mushroom Festival 2013. We’ll see you at Shroomfest!

stits — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:56:00 +0000

On Thursday, August 16th, author and world Renowned foray leader Gary Lincoff will take guests on a morning foray in the mountains near Telluride, after which they will proceed to the Opus hut where a multi-course meal will be prepared by world class chef and author Lisa Dahl. All participants will receive a signed copy of Dahl’s book. The event will go from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and cost $285.

If you would like to attend this amazing event please purchase tickets online or email Scott.

Menu:

L’antipasto:  Wild mushroom bruschetta with sautéed porcini and chant lemon and garlic aioli Proscuitto wrapped peaches with balsamic reduction.

Il primo: Porcini and wild rice bisque accompanied by a grilled eggplant, caramelized onion and chèvre Pizzetti

Il contorno: A sampler of fennel and arugula slaw, marinated button mushrooms and farro with roasted enoki mushrooms, and organic Campari tomatoes with super Tuscan extra virgin olive oil

Il secondo: Wild mushroom lasagna with quattro formaggio, finished with delicate white truffle béchamel

Il dolce: Strawberries balsamico and mascapone cream and Meyer lemon cookies

Buon Appetito!!!