Friday, July 12, 2013

Event: Fungus & Forage Festival- A Walk on the Wild Side

It’s a day to take a walk on the wild side!
The Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market

Fungus & Forage Festival
 

This Sunday, we honor those gifts generously offered by Mother Nature; specifically mushrooms, and the herbs growing wild beneath our feet generally referred to as weeds. Both enjoy a timeless history which goes far beyond mere culinary delight. In the barn, the Connecticut Mycological Society returns to provide a stunning display of our state’s wide variety of mushrooms. Their members will be available for discussion and the 3 Foragers will lead free identification walks at 12:00 and 1:00, focusing on edible wild foods.

While at the barn, stop to chat with the folks at 
Connecticut Herb Association and learn about their mission to share herbal information. Their members will lead weed walks at 11:30, 12:00 and 1:00 to discover and identify local herbs that traditionally have been used as medicine and food.

Maggie's Farm will be talking about and demonstrating mushroom growing at their tent from 12:30 to 2:00. They’ll bring shiitake and oyster mushrooms for sale.

In the market field, you’ll find 
CT NOFA (Connecticut’s branch of Northeast Organic Farming Association) whose members are supportive of practices that encourage a healthy relationship with the natural world and ecologically sound farming. They can also show you how mushrooms can be grown in compost material!

At Joan Blade Johnson and Melanie Johnston’s booth, you can see how natural dyes from foraged local flora can be used to make art. Our own yards are a great source of plant materials that can be easily gathered and used for fabric dyeing.  Roots, nuts, flowers, bark, and lichens are just a few of the natural materials that can be used for dyeing. Creating rusted artwork from foraged (recycled) materials is satisfying and organic… stop by to learn more!

Note: Image borrowed from: 
https://sites.google.com/site/smutheoryoft/

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