Can a mushroom make you move? It did for us. Oregon’s mushroom culture was one of the things that first drew my husband from the Midwest to Oregon back in 2008, and my family relishes any chance to go to #mushroomcore events like the Mushroom Festival, an event put on by the Cascade Mycological Society at the Mount Pisgah Arboretum. On a rainy morning at the end of October, we took our teen boys there for a full day of fantastic fungi — our 13-year-old a mushroom fan who loves to cook and our 15 year-old mushroom skeptic.

It’s easy to love a mushroom, and I do. They’re strange, colorful, curly or capped, domed or cup-like, rigid or soft, totally alien-looking and full of personality. In the woods, I often scan the forest floor like a maniac to find them, but at the Mushroom Festival, that work has been done for you by members of the Cascade Mycological Society, who display recent finds on three extended tables under cover at the Oak Grove Pavilion.

People look at a long table display of all types of mushrooms.
: Emily Grosvenor

Exploring the display tables at the Mushroom Festival at Mount Pisgah.

The presentation is an eye-opener for anyone who thinks mushrooms just look like that capped character from Mario Cart. The society has them laid out according to morphological type, such as gilled mushrooms (like that red and white one you should not eat, Amanita), pored mushrooms (like edible Boletes), toothed mushrooms (like Lion’s Mane), coral mushrooms (like Ramaria, which branch like coral), cup or saddle mushrooms (like morels), polypores (shelf fungi like turkey tail), as well as puffballs, stinkhorns and other bizarre forms.

We picked a spot at the Chanterelles (Oregon’s state mushroom) and started snaking through the exhibit, where it is just as fun to see people react to the weirdness of mushrooms as it is to look at them. Some varieties were more familiar to our boys, like the aforementioned and highly edible chanterelles, which we eat at home. Others are not immediately recognizable, like the Staghorn Jelly Fungus, which grows like yellow grass on conifers and hardwoods. Or how about that Cat’s Tongue, which looks like some ghost’s clubbed fist, translucent and – this was on the card – gregarious when growing on rotting logs.

A person holds two boxes full of colorful and diverse mushrooms.
: Emily Grosvenor

Professional foragers bring all kinds of edible options to take home, so there is no fear if you're new to identifying varieties.

Some mushrooms are obvious favorites for teen boys – say, the Butt Rot fungus, which sent my middle schooler howling. But there are so many ways in with mushrooms, especially the most memorable: Can you eat it, will it kill you, or, as one mushroom hunter put it to me, will it “make you wish you were dead.”

Others are memorable because of their inventive common names (like the Purple Fairy Club), or where they grow. You can make an entire game out of practicing the scientific name of these mushrooms. And we did. “Albatrellopsis fiettii!”

We had fun looking at the Amanita as always; those are the easily recognizable red-topped and white flecked gilled mushrooms that look like ones from Mario Bros. game. (Our boys once started a neighborhood newspaper when we saw a crop of them growing in a friend’s yard. Sadly, it lasted only one issue before folding).

A log with bright blue mushrooms growing from it.
: Emily Grosvenor

The Blue Elf Cap won Best in Show at the Festival.

After two rows, we happened upon the festival’s Best in Show mushroom: A spate of Blue Green Elf Cup (Chlorociboria) growing on a small log. When growing on the exterior of a rotting log, it presents as tiny, delicate, turquoise dots like freckles. Despite its shocking blue color, it’s one of the most walked-by mushrooms of the woods, so it was fun to see it as the star of the show.

Whether the mushroom was edible was the most important information for my younger son, who has begun what I can only call a Ramen Era. We were surprised to discover so many categories beyond edible/poisonous. Can you eat it but it does not taste good, or tastes like nothing? Is the texture too barky to be alluring? Do they become edible when cooked well-done? Here, it brings dividends to consult on-site experts.

Outside, all of us had fun testing our mushroom mettle at a table with questions cards. What mushroom was often used to create ink? Inky cap!

A hand holds out a mushroom crepe with mushrooms displayed behind it.
: Emily Grosvenor

At the festival an on-site crepe company offered three varieties of mushroom crepes, including a chanterelle, cheese, and spinach crepe with dairy-free and gluten-free options.

We were ready for food, so we headed to the food truck area in search of inventive ways to use mushrooms, stopping at a crepe cart for two different types of chanterelle crepes. This has been an especially good year for chanterelles, with even hobby forages coming out of the woods with 20-30 lbs. at a time.

Crepes in hand, we headed first to the culinary tent, where a chef was sautéing porcini for use in a salad, and then to the music tent, where five adorable toddlers had gathered for live music, not unlike mushrooms standing sentinel in the woods.

A person stands dressed as a mushroom holding two decorated staffs with mushrooms on them.
: Emily Grosvenor

The Mt. Pisgah Mushroom Festival is a stage for exemplary mushroom cosplay and costumery.

One of my kids spotted a woman who was dressed as a chanterelle, so we followed her to the vendor area, where artists and entrepreneurs sell mushroom-themed everything. People dressing up like mushrooms or in mushroom garb are one of the great delights of the festival, and they are usually very excited about taking a picture with you and your kids. The creativity had us dreaming about what mushroom we would show up as and what mushrooms seem more high-fashion (again, the chanterelle).

A baby with a pacifier and mushroom hat in a backpack.
: Emily Grosvenor

Visitors to the Mushroom Festival understand the assignment: Go full mushroomcore to have even more fun.

When it comes to mushroom stuff, we are headed towards Peak Mushroom, with every available surface being explored for showing mushroom love. I ended up bringing home a mushroom prayer flag to fly in our dining room, as well as a bag of Chanterelles, Lion’s Mane, and Black King, from Rainforest Mushroom Co., a frequent vendor at the event. Our kids love this stuff, especially when we can tell them about the shroom’s medicinal properties, like that of the hairy-looking Lion’s Mane (support cognitive function, reduce inflammation and promotes nerve growth).

Two kids smell truffles in a glass.
: Emily Grosvenor

Smelling an Oregon truffle should be a right of passage for all Oregonians.

Nearing the end of our day, we took some mushroom selfies (the kids banned me from posting) wearing a morel hat and holding some giant mushroom replicas, and made time for a sniff of the Oregon White and Oregon Black Truffle varieties at the stand hosted by the Oregon Truffle Festival. I went years ago back when I first started my mushroom obsession, and it was a blast to see the boys’ reactions to earthy and alternately garlicky and sweet aromas wafting forth from what look like tiny nubbed potatoes.

A quick trip through the path hosting the Scarecrow Contest and we were off to the parking lot and we were back on the walking trail along the river, primed for scanning for whatever might be lurking there in the groundcover.

I remembered that I had recently met the winner of the Joriad Truffle Dog competition, part of the coming Oregon Truffle Festival, and we made a vow to hit her up soon for that promised dopamine-driven walk in the woods.

Mushrooms growing out of blocks.
: Emily Grosvenor

Kits from Rainforest Mushroom Co. let you grow your own at home.

Tips for attending the Mushroom Festival:

  • A shuttle runs from near the grassy lower parking area (not the graveled parking lot), but many families prefer to take the river walk along the Coast Fork of the Willamette River, about half a mile.
  • Visitors who need mobility help over the grassy terrain and dirt paths can reserve a track chair through David’s Chair for pickup directly at the Arboretum.
  • It’s best to buy your tickets ahead of time to avoid losing time at the entrance. Tickets go on sale in late September. (And they typically sell-out.)
  • Plain for unpredictable weather. Rain doesn’t deter the crowds here at all, and the main mushroom presentation, culinary tent, and music seating are in covered areas, but the kids, activities, food, and product vendors are outdoors.