Mingle and marvel at mushroom fest

THIS weekend’s Moorabool Mushroom Festival will bring leading fungi experts and keen citizen scientists together to marvel at the remarkable world of the mushroom.

Taking place at Bacchus Marsh Public Hall this Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 April, the festival will forage over everything from cooking with nutritious mushies to the vital ways in which fungi help keep the planet healthy.

The festival will feature some of the world’s leading mycologists – fungi scientists – including Dr Alison Pouliot, author of Wild Mushrooming, The Allure of Fungi and Underground Lovers.

The makers of fungi-focused nature documentary Follow The Rain, Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak, are also among the lineup of sought-after guest speakers.

Organiser with MYCOmmunity – Applied Mycology Learning Lab, Bacchus Marsh-based mycologist Ema Corro, will be speaking about the way fungi are playing a big role in improving outcomes for local Landcare efforts.

“I specialise in land management with fungi and I have been doing some work with the Moorabool Landcare Network here looking at how we can bring native fungi back into revegetation efforts,” Corro said.

“I will be talking about some of our results. We’re pretty pleased with the results. Our trials inoculating plants using spores of native fungi are significantly improving how the plants are growing.”

Corro said the festival is now in its fourth year and attracts plenty of interest with more and more people appreciating the vital symbiotic role fungi plays in keeping ecosystems, and the planet, healthy

“There weren’t any mycological conferences or events when we started and we just wanted an event where people could get together and discuss mycology and everything from mushroom medicines to cultivation and mushroom art,” she said.

“Mycology has become more popular with more people foraging and getting involved in citizen science. There’s been a bit of an explosion of interest over the last few years.”

This weekend’s festival also features workshops and market stalls themed around mycology.