Location: Mayne Island Agricultural Hall & Mount Parke

An annual event celebrating Mayne Island mycology. 

If you want to learn more about mushrooms on Mayne Island, make sure to mark November 15th and 16th on your calendars. We’re hosting a series of great events that weekend to help you experience and learn about the amazing world of fungi. 

Join us and the Vancouver Mycological Society’s Paul Kroeger & Sharmin Gamiet who will share their wisdom & provide pointers for all levels of mushroom enthusiasts. 

Exclusive Mushroom Tasting Event & Talk ‘The Mystique of Mushrooms’

Friday November 15th 7pm to 9pm: Ag Hall. Limited Seating – tickets $20 per person (includes a glass of wine and mushroom appetisers). Tickets available at Farm Gate & the Trading Post. Learn how mushrooms inspire, nourish and heal us while making life possible on this planet.

Guided Walk at Mount Parke

Saturday November 16^th 10am to 11:30am: Kim Road Entrance. Our experts will lead a walk at Mount Parke, pointing out various varieties of mushrooms in their natural habitat and will help identify where the elusive, most coveted varieties might be found in season. A perfect primer for the novice mycologist. Please dress appropriately for the conditions. By donation.

Mushroom Identification 

Saturday 12:30 to 3:30pm: Ag Hall~ bring in your mushroom collection for identification by our experts and amateur mycologists. Tables will be set up where you can display your mushrooms. From 1pm to 2pm there will be a presentation on the mushrooms of Mayne Island. At 3:15 prizes to be awarded for the Largest Mushroom and Most Diverse Collection! A concession will be open providing light refreshments including some tasty mushroom treats & chaga tea.

Know Your Mushrooms – A movie.

Saturday 7pm to 9pm, Ag Hall. Popcorn and Chaga Tea will be served. By donation.

Mushrooms – you either love them or you hate them.

If you are a mushroom lover and have never experienced the flavour of the wild varieties that are a part of the biodiversity of Mayne Island, this event is going to be the perfect cup of Chaga for you.

It’s often said that without fungi there can be no forests.  Fungi, and their fruiting bodies mushrooms, play many roles in sustaining the diversity and health of habitats in a forest ecosystem.  They have proven to be an essential service as decomposers in cycling nutrients and in the many symbiotic relationships they form with soil and other plant organisms.

Mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes: some are considered a delicacy (golden chanterelle or morels), others are deadly poisonous (death cap), while yet others have medicinal qualities not readily found in any other food source (lion’s mane). All the more reason to learn basic skills in identification, including the habitat where some of those most delicious varieties are most likely to be found. That is what our weekend extravaganza is all about!

Our guest speakers are well known Mycologists from the Lower Mainland: 

Paul Kroeger has studied mushrooms for over thirty-five years and is a founding member of Vancouver Mycological Society in British Columbia. He has been involved in many projects and studies about diverse aspects of mushrooms, gaining knowledge about fungal ecology, biochemistry of toxic, hallucinogenic, medicinal and edible mushrooms. Years of experience have created unique insights and understanding of fungal life-ways and interactions in temperate ecosystems.

Some of Paul’s many activities and accomplishments in this field include: researching the biochemistry of medicinal mushrooms at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as a long time research associate in their Department of Botany; major contributor to the mycological herbarium collections in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC; significant contributions to the DAOM Herbarium in Ottawa and DAVFP Herbarium in Victoria; frequent consultant for various agencies, including the British Columbia Drug and Poison Information Centre.

Sharmin Gamiet has been working with fungi for over 30 years, focusing on mushrooms and their relatives found in the Pacific Northwest (BC, Washington and Oregon). She has trained at UBC and the University of Washington using the Friesien species concepts, that is macro and micro morphological, rather than genetic traits, used to group fungi. Sharmin has led mushroom forays throughout BC for many years and enjoys sharing and discussing mushrooms in their habitats.

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