Yachats Mushroom Festival workshops provide a more hands-on, experiential way to explore the world of mushrooms. Experience forest bathing, learn how to use your camera to capture the micro-world of mushrooms, and sample mushroom culinary delights. Some workshops require a fee for participation. We cannot offer refunds if your plans change, but you can transfer your ticket to another participant by sending them your event confirmation and receipt and authorizing them to use it.
Friday Workshops
Friday 1pm - Truffle Dog Hunting Event | Sarah Colby
Location: Mary's Peak, Philomath, OR
Participate in a truffle dog hunting event on Marys Peak! We will most likely find non-culinary truffles at the higher altitude. Participants will learn how the dogs work and have the opportunity to help dig up a truffle. We will hunt in two types of forests alongside a professional dog-hunting team and guide.
Important: Please provide a phone number when registering so we can contact you in the event the park closes due to snow.
Presenter: Sarah Colby Sarah has been hunting truffles with her dogs for 15 years. In addition to volunteering with the North American Truffling Society (NATS), she is part of a cooperative of hunters working to promote Oregon truffles and responsible truffle harvesting on private forestland. The cooperative harvests culinary truffles and sells them to restaurants and at the Portland Farmers Market, with a percentage of the profits going back to landowners.
Sarah and her dogs also assist with NATS forays to investigate non-culinary truffles. During Oregon’s culinary truffle season, she offers private tours that include truffle dinners.
Saturday Workshops
Saturday 10am-12pm - Forest Bathing for Adults | Irene Bailey
$30
Location: Meet at Information Tent near the Pavilion for the Trolley
While offering a renewed sense of interconnection with the natural world, forest bathing also allows access to beneficial nervous system states that can support long-term health and well-being. Research has proven that forest bathing boosts immune strength, improves cognitive functioning, and reduces stress, anger, anxiety, depression and sleeplessness. Offered through a series of guided invitations, the walk will help participants move beyond the busy mind and open to a deeper sense of connection with the natural world. By being present and opening our senses, we will intimately explore the abundance of mushrooms. Adults Only.
About the speaker: Irene Elle Bailey is a designer and facilitator of nature connection and mindfulness offerings that support the remembering that we are intimately and inseparably connected to all life. Over the past 20 years, she has worked with numerous environmental and sustainability education programs. She is the founder and director of Temenos Rising where she shares retreats, workshops, forest bathing walks, and mentorship, all held in deep relationship with the natural world. Irene holds an MS in Leadership for Sustainability Education from Portland State University and is a certified Forest Therapy Guide with the Association for Nature and Forest Therapy.
Saturday 11:30am-1:15pm - Catching 'Em, Keeping 'Em, Cooking 'Em | Lincoln County Mycological Society
$12
Location: Presbyterian Church
In this workshop, LCMS and NATS presenters will share their best tips on harvesting, preserving, and cooking wild mushrooms with a focus on the edible wild mushrooms of the Oregon Coast and Oregon truffles. The discussion will include their knowledge of flavor profiles and the physical diversity of these mushrooms to decide how best to prepare them for the table. Following the presentation, participants will enjoy a sampling of “small bites” of several different mushroom dishes made with locally foraged mushrooms and prepared by the Lincoln County Mycological Society’s Kitchen Elves. Each dish is intended to illustrate how people of the world incorporate mushrooms in their cuisine as we celebrate a World of Mushrooms.About the speakers:
Anna Moore retired from UC Berkeley in 2005 and lives in Florence Oregon where she forages in the Siuslaw National Forest for mushrooms and hikes the local beaches for agates. She became interested in mushrooms in the mid 1980's and has foraged for them in California
Cathy Piazza, a native Oregonian, has lived in Lincoln County since 1988. She is a retired teacher who has been a member of LCMS for more than 5 years. She enjoys foraging mushrooms and eating them as often as possible. This is all she thinks about during the mushroom season.
Sunday Workshops
Sunday 10am-12pm - Forest Bathing For Adults | Irene Bailey
$30
Location: Meet at Information Tent to Ccatch the trolley
While offering a renewed sense of interconnection with the natural world, forest bathing also allows access to beneficial nervous system states that can support long-term health and well-being. Research has proven that forest bathing boosts immune strength, improves cognitive functioning, and reduces stress, anger, anxiety, depression and sleeplessness. Offered through a series of guided invitations, the walk will help participants move beyond the busy mind and open to a deeper sense of connection with the natural world. By being present and opening our senses, we will intimately explore the abundance of mushrooms. Adults only.
About the speaker: Irene Elle Bailey is a designer and facilitator of nature connection and mindfulness offerings that support the remembering that we are intimately and inseparably connected to all life. Over the past 20 years, she has worked with numerous environmental and sustainability education programs. She is the founder and director of Temenos Rising where she shares retreats, workshops, forest bathing walks, and mentorship, all held in deep relationship with the natural world. Irene holds an MS in Leadership for Sustainability Education from Portland State University and is a certified Forest Therapy Guide with the Association for Nature and Forest Therapy.
Sunday 10:30am-12pm - Mushrooms Up Close: A Hands On Adventure for Kids | Jennifer Macone
$20
Location: Yachats Commons
Youth (suggested ages 5-12) are invited to a hands-on workshop to explore all things mushroom. Learn mushroom basics, start a spore print, and get creative with mushroom based art.
About the speaker: Jennifer Macone has been cultivating, wild harvesting, and researching mushrooms for over 20 years. She is co-owner of The Mushroomery, a certified organic mushroom farm nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Lebanon, Oregon. Jennifer is dedicated to providing the public with a wide variety of cultivated and wild, gourmet and medicinal mushrooms weekly at farmers' markets. She also loves sharing her knowledge—from indoor and outdoor mushroom growing, to preserving mushrooms, and preparing them in delicious and creative ways.
Sunday 11am-1pm - Photographing the Micro World of Mushrooms | Jamie Kish
$20
Location: Neptune South Parking Lot
Join Jamie of Girl In Water Photography, for a fun fungal romp around the forests of Cape Perpetua, while practicing mushroom photography basics!About the speaker: Jamie is a biologist/field guide for the Cape Perpetua Collaborative, and local photographer, Girl In Water Photography. When she isn't leading tidepool tours, beach cleanups, or sea star surveys, she's out in nature with their camera, trying to capture the intricate details of life that keep them going. Visit her website at https://www.girlinwater.com.
Sunday 2-3pm - Truffle Dog Demonstraion | Dr. Charles Lefevre
Location: Adobe Resort Lawn
Truffles often hide underground, and help from those with a good nose can help uncover them. That’s why man’s best friend, whose strongest sense is the sense of smell, are perfect truffle hunters. Learn more about how dogs are trained to hunt truffles and watch these skilled canines search for and find truffles during the truffle dog demonstration! Please note that no other dogs are allowed at the demonstration so that the truffle dogs may be at their highest focus.Dr. Charles Lefevre is the founder of New World Truffieres, Inc., a pioneering company dedicated to the cultivation of truffles in North America. He is also a co-founder and organizer of The Oregon Truffle Festival. Dr. Lefevre earned his Ph.D. in Forest Mycology from Oregon State University in 2002, where he conducted research on the host associations of the American Matsutake mushroom. You can reach Dr. Lefevre at info@truffletree.com or www.truffletree.com.
