Wild fungus weekend
More Belly Up
- Cast yourself into the Inferno for a chili cook-off
- You can tell a lot about a person by the bees they keep
- It's Valentine's Day soon, and that means it's time to make some heart-shaped pizza
- Learn to cut your own meat at Underground Food Collective’s Whole Hog Breakdown
- Get out to Bookless to party in the stacks of the Central Library Jan. 28
No related
Wild mushrooms cannot be cultivated but must be gathered, adding extra drama to the wonderful taste experience each piece of fungus contains. With spring comes the end of the morel-gathering season and the Morel Mushroom Festival in Muscoda, about an hour west of Madison. Now in its 28th year, the annual wingding centers on the cult of the wild mushroom. Various shroom-centric events such as designated forums for buying and selling morels and "biggest, smallest, and most unique" morel contests began on May 5, but the festival proper is on May 14-16. On Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m., fried morels will be served at Mushroom Headquarters (the Kratochwill Memorial building) and Spurgeon Vineyard & Winery (16008 Pine Tree Rd., Highland, 608-929-7692), and Meister Cheese (1160 Industrial Dr., Muscoda, 608-739-3134) will hawk its wares from booths in the Mushroom Headquarters parking lot. A custom car show, an antique tractor pull, and a tour of local effigy mounds all round out the event, making for a fun small-town experience smothered in shrooms.
FATSOMETER: 5. Wine, cheese, and festival snacks tend towards the fatty; but mushrooms carry low levels of fat and are packed with vitamins. It's a wash.
