Mycology masters stopped by the SGW campus to teach Concordians everything there is to know about fungi during Fungi Fest Montreal.
The most exposure many of us will get to a wild mushroom is the plastic-wrapped packages under cold grocery store fluorescents or picking pixelated plants in farming simulators like Stardew Valley.
That simply won’t do for the organizers of Fungi Fest Montreal, an event dedicated to showcasing the beauty and variety of mushrooms in Canada and beyond.
The 2024 edition came to campus on Oct. 23. The schedule included a myriad of activities and panels in the McConnell Library 4th SPACE and the temporary greenhouse on the Hall Building’s 7th floor.
In the corners of the 4th SPACE, lined-up tables were covered in all manner of mushroom-related items brought by passionate foragers and vendors. Outside the library, growers showed off their wares of fungi-related products, including rows and rows of fresh mushrooms.
From listening to fungi TED talks to attending mushroom growing workshops, curious students got the chance to look at, touch, and even smell different kinds of mushrooms, many of them for the first time.
Melany Kahn, a second-generation mushroom hunter and educator who gave a TED talk at the event, believes these gateway experiences are crucial.
“You can actually touch all mushrooms, even poisonous mushrooms,” she said. “‘Don’t touch it’ means ‘don’t learn about it.’”
That being said, it is important for people to wash their hands after touching an unknown mushroom.
To her, immersing oneself in the world of fungi contributes to opening all five senses to nature as a whole.
Her children’s book, Mason Goes Mushrooming, strives to provide that introduction to mushrooms and foraging to children and families. Kahn based the character of Mason on her own son.
“My goal is to provide an access point,” she said. “For kids, families, grandparents, anyone who wants to learn. You’re never too young or too old to start foraging.”
For the book’s illustrations, Kahn enlisted the help of her friend Ellen Korbonski. Each page features colourful paintings designed to teach kids about fungus species and where to forage them, along with simple recipes that use mushrooms as the starring ingredients.
Together with Korbonski, she combines art and science so that anyone can understand fungi, even skeptics (people with “mycophobia,” as she calls them).
Coming to mycology with a similar approach is biotechnician Mathias Rocheleau-Duplain, who tabled for his organization Mycosphaera in the 4th SPACE. Although he began his career by cultivating fungi in labs, he has since expanded to fungi DNA sequencing, mycological surveys, and photography.
His team at Mycosphaera is a small group of seven, each with their own specializations, from videography to taxonomy. Together, they advocate for mycology as a science.
“Everyone in mycology is an amateur,” said Rocheleau-Duplain. “It’s what you call a citizen science. We want to push it further.”
Like Kahn, Mycosphaera uses art as an entry point for their advocacy, particularly photography and artistic works. The team’s current goal is for mycology to be legitimized as a study in universities.
Fungi Fest ran from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a plethora of different experiences for all ages and backgrounds. The festivities brought the dizzying diversity of fungi to Concordia and encouraged us all to look a little deeper at the lifeforms thriving beneath our feet.
