It’s Northern California’s rainy season, and folks out on a hike can expect to see many ‘shroom heads starting to poke through the duff. Some are pretty to look at, many will make you sick, and a few of the right ones are delicious when sauteed with a little brown butter.
If you’d like to learn more about the region’s mushrooms, Berkeley is having an excellent two-day event on the weekend of Feb. 1 and 2. The 2025 Tilden Fungus Fair gathers scientists, cooks, artists and children’s entertainers to toast the fungi kingdom — sometimes literally — and is absolutely free to all attendees.
The programming takes place at the Tilden Nature Area’s Environmental Education Center (1500 Central Park Drive, Berkeley), which can be reached by car or by bus with a brief walk (AC Transit #67). You can find the full schedule posted at beacons.ai/tildenfungusfair or see what’s happening below. Note that the fair takes place rain or shine; the weather report is indicating the former.
Saturday, Feb. 1
10 a.m.: Doors open
11 a.m.: Damon Tighe, CA FUNDIS (California Fungal Diversity Survey) Finds
Noon: Cooking Demo with Eleana Hsu of Shared Cultures, a San Francisco producer of koji-based foods
1 p.m.: Bay Area Applied Mycology (BAAM) Presentation
1 p.m.: Dr. Brian Perry, director of the HAY Fungarium, on Fungal Bioluminescence
3 p.m.: Children’s Puppet Theatre
3 p.m.: Mushroom Dyeing Demo with Siobhan
Sunday, Feb. 2
10 a.m.: Doors open
11 a.m.: Ben Anderson, gardener with the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, on Fungi of the East Bay Oak Woodlands
Noon: Morels Cooking Demo with Morgan Evans
1 p.m.: Library Story Time with Berkeley Public Library
1 p.m.: All Things Dry Saute, a Cooking Demo with Ricardo Gianoli
3 p.m.: Christian Schwartz, naturalist, on the Fungi of New Zealand
3 p.m.: Children’s Puppet Theatre