Crowds gathered around mycologist Kristin Swearingen under Esther Park’s pavilion on Sunday morning, lined with different mushrooms. Questions abounded about the various fungi, whether they were edible, how they grew, and information about their gills.
Sveta Yamin-Pasternak and Igor Pasternak hosted a field of questions at their PoEM event, explaining their wealth of knowledge on the topic of ethnomycology, or the history and sociocultural use of fungi around the world. The pair brought along samples of artwork, their home library, and hats made from different types of fungi and mushrooms.
At a table not far from the pavilion, Boreal Woods Mushroom Farm owner Matt Meares has an array of mushrooms grown, along with information about his farm’s growing bags and tips on how people can grow their own. All events were part of the first annual Fairbanks Fungi Festival, according to Pam Seiser, one of the event’s volunteers. The entire event brought together mushroom growers, artists and information/educational departments.
“We’re excited because we’ve brought a different culture of mushroom lovers here,” Saiser said. There is an artist who uses it for infusions.”
She added that the timing of the festival would be a good time “when the mushrooms really pop” with the recent late-summer rains that the interior has been receiving.
Sizer led a large group of children around Esther Park. Some were wearing mushroom hats and scrounging around for mushrooms to ask questions.
The number one tip she offered when children found mushrooms was, “Don’t eat mushrooms you find without your parent’s permission first.”
Mycologist Swearingen helped coordinate the event.
Other towns and cities in Alaska already have festivals, including Girdwood and Cordova, Swearingen said. The Fairbanks Festival was originally scheduled for 2021, but organizers have decided to wait for better arrangements to host a “more lively” event, Swearingen said.
“Fairbanks is ready for that,” Swearingen said. The event was also coordinated by fellow fungi enthusiasts Karen Christensen, Meg Waite, Justin Whitaker and Matt Mears.
“Fungus is a very understudied kingdom, and there is a great diversity of fungi in interior Alaska,” says Swearingen. “So I hope people understand just how cool mushrooms are out there, about identification, and about the different uses of mushrooms.”
She added that mushrooms and fungi can be used not only for eating and cooking, but also for arts and crafts. Her master’s thesis examines how fungi can be used to degrade diesel and soil as a form of mycomediation.
“A lot of people have asked me, ‘What is this, is it edible, or is it harmful?'” she said. The cookbooks sparked my initial interest, but the more I learned about fungi, the more I became interested.”
In the PoEM table, Yamin-Pasternak described various uses and their historical use.
For at least two decades, anthropologist Yamin-Pasternak and her husband, artist and art lecturer Igor Pasternak at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, have collaborated on ethnographic topics ranging from food and medicine to spirituality and art. rice field.
Yamin-Pasternak says cultural and historical use can be a broad topic in the United States alone.
“At the same time, what we have noticed over the last 20 years is a growing enthusiasm for mushrooms,” says Yamin-Pasternak. Their interests range from medical aspects to foraging and cultivation.
She said that at events like the Fairbanks Fungi Festival, all these elements come together “in this lovely cross-cultural exchange between communities.”
“Some of you may have heard that you can make many different kinds of dishes from certain types of mushrooms, but I think this is the first time you can make beautiful hats or functional objects. says Yamin-Pasternak. “And by looking at it, they can also learn that there are centuries-old, multi-generational traditions.”
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