Foodville - 'Shroom Festival in Stevenson and Martin Street Mules
5:30am, 3-19-2026
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Mushrooms have gained immensely in popularity over the last few years. I think they're cute. My daughter spends her meal meticulously picking every hint of mushroom out of her pasta if she has to. "It's a texture thing!" she says with a wince.
I visited the Stevenson Mushroom Festival last fall and am just getting this piece ready for Foodville. What I learned there is that mushroom people are very passionate about mushrooms, forests, and the smell of fresh moss. My kind of people.
I got to talk with Anna of Brown Bottle Farm who, along with her husband Ryan, are cultivators, educators and curators of mushrooms. Anna gives us some insight on cultivating and growing oysters, lions mane and many other mushroom varieties, as well as some delicious culinary ideas.
Right next to Anna's booth, we visit the Poison Control booth and talk with Dr. Scott Phillips, a toxicologist, about how to be safe with mushrooms. I learned that I have limited my enjoyment of mushrooms all of these years, because of a belief system i carry from my childhood in Indiana, that I will certainly die if I eat anything other than the store bought clinically raised button mushroom. However, as Dr. Phillips advises, proceed with education as well as caution, and enjoy!
Then we transition into a lovely few minutes with Daviid Benedictus, of Martin Street Mules who I got to interview at the Kiggins Theatre after quite a successful Council for the Homeless Fundraising event last fall. David and his band mate Clancy play American Roots music around Vancouver and donate their proceeds to the Council for the Homeless. Here he busts some of the cultural myths we may have about homelessness and gives us some inspiring ideas of ways to help our neighbors.
Also in this episode, the sound of a mushroom being caressed, and The Gathering Mushroom Song by the Baka Pygmy people in 1977, as well as Invisible Man by Martin Street Mules.