By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews
Yachats is in for three days of mushroom mania this weekend as its namesake Mushroom Festival pops up all over town.
And while the mix of speakers, food, workshops and walks is once a year, it also includes a family business that’s a permanent part of the local landscape.
“This year’s festival is bigger and more robust than in the past,” said Bobbi Price, executive director of the Yachats Chamber of Commerce and organizer of the event. “We’re happy to be bringing back a beloved part of the original festival — a Friday night dinner.”
The mushroom dinner is at 6 p.m. Friday at The Commons with live music and will be followed by keynote speaker Langdon Cook at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $75 for both the dinner by Ona Restaurant and Heceta Head Bed and Breakfast, and the talk by Cook, the author of the award-winning book, The Mushroom Hunters.
After that, Saturday is filled with all things mushroom — a free identification display at the Commons’ pavilion, vendors selling mushroom-themed goods in the multipurpose room, and a “Mushroom Café” in the Commons kitchen, hosted by Beach Daisy Wine. Yachats-area restaurants are also planning to feature specialty mushroom dishes during the weekend.
In addition, speakers and workshops will be featured at the Lions Club, Yachats Community Presbyterian Church, Cape Perpetua campground and the Commons. There are also guided walks for all skill levels of mushroom foragers.
Sunday offers a similar lineup, with different guided walks and speakers, including Bob Rudel, owner of Rainforest Mushrooms in Yachats. Rudel will speak on “What is a Mushroom and the Future of Mushroom Farming”at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Lions Club.
“This event is unique because it speaks to all levels of people involved in mushrooms,” Price said. “You don’t even have to be a mushroomer to enjoy the festival — just come shop our local merchants and our festival vendors.”
The Yachats Mushroom Festival is considered one of the best in the region. Many of the speakers, workshop and walks leaders appear courtesy of the Lincoln County Mycology Society, which has worked closely with the Yachats chamber and is also contributing about 30 volunteers.
The city of Bandon, for one, has basically copied the Yachats effort to stage its own fungi festival.
“In the world of Oregon tourism, we welcome sharing these opportunities” with other towns, Price said.
In this first year of organizing the event, Price has overlaid indoor and outdoor “treasure hunts” to engage and entertain visitors. Throughout the weekend, indoor hunts at local stores and galleries offer a chance to find — and possibly later win — mushroom art forms. And on Saturdays through March 2, the chamber and trails volunteers will hide finders-keepers mushrooms of glass and porcelain by local artists at various outdoor locations. Clues to the locations will be posted on social media.
Passion for the business
Bob and Debbie Rudel run Rainforest Mushrooms with their son, Bobby, on a 12-acre spread just north of Yachats. They have been operating their business in Yachats since 2018 after starting out in Eddyville in 1991.
“When I started, there was no information about mushrooms; nobody knew how to grow the specialty mushrooms that I grow,” he said. Now, the company offers a range of mushrooms, from the other-worldly “Lion’s Mane” to the better known Shitake, Maitake and more.
Rainforest grows organic mushrooms certified by Oregon Tilth, a Corvallis-based nonprofit. Rudel said theirs was the first registered organic mushroom farm on the West Coast. No chemicals are involved in the growing process, which involves sterilizing and cloning in humidity- and temperature-controlled environments.
The results are staples at farmers’ markets in Yachats, Newport, Florence, Salem, Eugene and Coos Bay. Customers can buy mushroom “kits” to literally grow their own out of blocks of hardwood sawdust, rice bran and wheat bran. Also available are fresh and dried mushrooms, mushroom powders and tinctures — Rudel says Gov. Tina Kotek is a special fan of the tinctures — and new mushroom beverage mixes.
While the products are visible on their website, purchases at the moment can be made only by texting Rudel at 541-270-4789.
Since he started in the mushroom business Rudel said he’s seen “over 100 mushroom farms come and go; it’s a very difficult business.” Asked what keeps Rainforest thriving, he said “We work harder than anybody else. We have a passion and a relentless pursuit of what we’re going, without giving up.”
Today, Rudel said, increasing numbers of consumers seek out mushrooms not just for the taste, but also for their health benefits. But still, he said, “Most people just want to eat them. And mushrooms are cool.”
People who follow vegan or vegetarian lifestyles also take comfort in the very nature of mushrooms.
“For just about everything we eat, you have to kill something,” said Rudel. “A mushroom is not a seed, not a flower. It’s a fleshy appendage growing out of its own body that’s designed to get rid of its spores. With mushrooms, you’re not killing anything.”
- Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com
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For a full listing of events, schedules and ticket prices or fees, go here