{"id":945,"date":"2013-08-25T17:03:19","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T23:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/?p=945"},"modified":"2013-08-25T17:03:19","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T23:03:19","slug":"delectable-fungus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/articles\/delectable-fungus\/","title":{"rendered":"Delectable Fungus"},"content":{"rendered":"

via Derek Franz-Vail Daily
\n<\/strong>dfranz@eaglevalleyenterprise.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every year, discovery is the core theme of Eagle\u2019s mushroom festival \u2013 everything hinges on what the foragers find in the forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the fun of it, you never know what might be around the next bend,\u201d said Katrina Blair, an expert on wild edibles who is joining mushroom expert Larry Evans to lead this year\u2019s foray.<\/p>\n

Now in it\u2019s sixth year, what started as a simple, educational mushroom hunt has grown into the Eagle Wild Mushroom & Wine Weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The weekend kicks off with a \u201cMushroom, Merlot and Mingling\u201d at Paradigms Restaurant in Eagle from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, and continues with more events through Sunday, Sept. 1. (See info box for more details and a complete schedule.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are building on the food element this year,\u201d said Jen Radueg, events director for Always Mountain Time, which is organizing the weekend activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we took over the event from Tom Boni and we would like it to be a real foodie fest, involving as many restaurants and businesses as possible,\u201d Radueg said.<\/p>\n

Eagle Town Planner Tom Boni first brought Evans to town six years ago to lead an educational foray. Boni is still involved but he said the event has grown so much that it was time for a professional to take charge of the organization.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adding new flavors<\/p>\n

Similar to previous years, Paradigms Restaurant will host the opening party Friday evening. The next two days will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Brush Creek Pavilion with presentations and films by the experts before attendees scatter into the woods around Eagle to see what they can find.<\/p>\n

From 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, anyone can participate in the forage for wild mushrooms and other edibles. Registered participants will return to the Brush Creek Pavilion in Eagle between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. to sort and identify the day\u2019s bounty.<\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s expertise on wild edibles brings a new aspect to the foray this year. Foragers will search for other edibles in addition to morsels of delectable fungus. (See sidebar for more about Blair\u2019s wild diet.)<\/p>\n

Whatever the foragers manage to find will be prepared into a three-course wine-pairing dinner at the Brush Creek Pavilion by executive chefs from Adam\u2019s Rib Country Club and Old Kentucky Tavern, with help from Blair and others. The feast is $75 per person for those who aren\u2019t already registered, and it begins with a tasting at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Paradigms Restaurant is offering a separate three-course mushroom-themed dinner as well Saturday for $25 each.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve done one big dinner with everyone on Saturday night,\u201d Boni said.<\/p>\n

While Saturday\u2019s pairing is all about the wine supplied by Veraison Distributing, Sunday evening concludes with a pairing of mushroom dishes and locally brewed beer from Bonfire Brewing. The \u201cButtons and Bonfire\u201d tasting wraps up the weekend from 4 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Discovery<\/p>\n

In spite of all the careful planning going into every detail for the event, it all depends on one variable aspect \u2013 what will the foragers find?<\/p>\n

It is a challenge for the chefs to plan a feast of which the exact ingredients and quantities are unknown until the final hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a wild edibles salad, I think we\u2019ll probably find some bluebell flowers, dandelion greens of course, some gooseberries and maybe some wild strawberries or raspberries, but I don\u2019t know,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s Rib Executive Chef Michael Connolly said he\u2019s sure there will be watercress and serviceberries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of that stuff around this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from that, Connolly is feeling the pressure of preparing gourmet food for a large group of people and not knowing precisely what he will have to work with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to get as much in order as I can this week,\u201d he said. \u201cWaiting to see what comes in is the fun and creativity of it, but this is for a lot of people and I want it to go well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob Cohen, owner of Veraison Distributing, is anxiously awaiting some indicators that will help him select wines for the dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will discuss it closely with the chefs and others in the company,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to match things up and it will be a fun exercise. If you have a delicate food element and a big, bold wine, you won\u2019t taste the food and the inverse is also true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen said a variety of pinot noirs is a likely selection.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bet is a pinot noir is going to go well with mushrooms, but when I say pinot noir, it doesn\u2019t narrow it down because there are so many flavor profiles,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise, we\u2019ll look toward wines from the south of France and Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen said this is his first year participating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a unique event and I hope it keeps going,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of \u2018farm to table\u2019 it\u2019s backcountry to table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boni said education has always been at the root of the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve been coming to this for six years, you\u2019re getting to be a pretty good forager,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t guarantee you\u2019re going to find anything \u2013 that\u2019s the nature of mushrooms \u2013 but you\u2019ll learn a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information about the Eagle Wild Mushroom and Wine Weekend can be found by clicking here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year, discovery is the core theme of Eagle\u2019s mushroom festival \u2013 everything hinges on what the foragers find in the forest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 19:14:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}