Los Angeles Mycological Society Fair

Today was the Los Angeles Mycological Society Fair.

The husband and I had been planning a trip to the LA County Arboretum, he hadn't been since he was too young to remember and I had never been. 

We decided that it being Valentines day we would treat ourselves to a fair. 

We had been to Mo's Mushroom Talk earlier in the week at our local organic gardening club and had picked up an oyster mushroom kit from him at that time, it is sitting safely in our closet growing quietly in the dark, however we did take a peak just for you...

(more updates to follow).

Anyway, back to the fair, we began with a mushroom walk which seemed a bit crowded, so, after the first stop we broke off and took a little wander till it was time for Mo's in depth demo on cultivating kits. 

I learned more this time around from him as he was actually focusing his presentation on the kits (last time he was just delivering them). This time they had a variety of kits for sale, oyster, pink oyster, shitaki, and portobello mushrooms. Having already got one variety going we decided to just wait till we see haw well we do. 

After his presentation we grabbed lunch and take a wander through the amazing gardens. These gardens are large and I will dedicate at least another whole post to them, maybe two as the damage from this years storms really does need to be seen to be believed. Anyway after that we wandered back and took some pick of the exhibits As you can see some were huge...

Some were wet...

Some were dry...

and from the desert...

Some looked poisonous...

Some were poisonous...

And then it was time for the cooking demo by Nancy Silverton and her son Matt. Nancy owns Mozza Restaurant which has just opened a local branch down here in OC. For many years Mo has been her restaurants supplier for fungi and other produce. I caught a nice pic of Nancy Mo, and Matt during the demo...

They were talking about how the nutritional value of mushrooms in increased through cooking them, helps break down the cell walls and access their goodies.

Nancy served a salad that would eat your face while Matt prepared a wonderful mushroom risotto, there was talk of portobello ice-cream but only as a historic event. 

Rocket, piave cheese, white button mushrooms, champagne vinegar, lemon juice, shallots, and olive oil. Quite wonderful!

They then moved on to their book signing for their new book...

I'm sure it is full of wonderful recipes, at some point I will be picking it up I am sure.

 At this point we were fairly thrashed, and although we would love to join LAMS they meet during the week up in LA which is further than we go on school nights. That being said we will keep an eye on their calendar and hopefully they will have weekend foraging events so we may yet join.

Thank you LAMS for a great Valentines treat!