Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sequim Mushroom Show

Hello everybody who loves Sequim and a Sequim vacation,
First of all, thanks to all of our Sequim Town blog followers for being so dedicated with reading about our life in Sequim as retired people and what's it like to come to Sequim on vacation.

I tell you what, life in Sequim is never boring. Even if you cannot do tough hikes in the Olympic Mountains anymore or bike the Olympic Discovery Trail, just hop in your car and drive to one of our many Sequim events. Just as Sequim events attract people from other parts of the Olympic Peninsula, we Sequim residents like to visit events in Port Angeles or Port Townsend. But this time we got lured to a Sequim event, not far from our own house.

Some of the 500 visitors at the Sequim Elk's Lodge Mushroom Show
Early Sunday afternoon, we did not hop in our car but we hopped on our bikes and rode to the Elk's Lodge in Sequim, where the Annual Wild Mushroom Show took place put together by the members of the Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society. We were extremely surprised about the huge number of people and the number of mushrooms! It must have taken the members a lot of time to pick the variety of wild mushrooms and to display them wonderfully on green moss on different tables, the edible ones separated from the poisonous or not recommend ones!

Mushrooms on display
All the mushrooms had signs which stated their botanical names, whether it's edible and if so, what the taste is like! Three wild mushroom experts helped visitors who had brought mushroom samples or a whole basket with mushrooms to get their mushrooms identified.

What a beautiful sample of a mushroom. Unfortunately, one of the most poisonous mushrooms
Mushroom basket
Bottom line of the Wild Mushroom Show was sharing with the public that there are many wild mushrooms growing on the Olympic Peninsula - over 300 fungi, can you imagine?! - but a lot resemble each other and it's not always easy to identify the good from the bad. So if you are not certain about a mushroom in your basket, don't eat it.

Sequim boy using the Giant Puffball Mushrooms displayed out side the Elk's Lodge as drums
If you love eating mushrooms, you might want to join the Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society in order to know better next time. As this fall season's weather has been wetter than usual, wild mushrooms are growing everywhere in Sequim and surroundings. Mushroom picking can be fun when spending a fall vacation in Sequim!

Mushroom chart of mushrooms growing on the Olympic Peninsula

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