Mycological Society of San Francisco 54th Fungus Fair

Tickets will be available at the door (cash or eventbrite) Workshop tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite up until 5pm Dec 5th but after that will need to be purchased at the door on fair day

The December 2026 MSSF 54th Fungus Fair will display fungi collected in various locations in California. Annual collections have been made by MSSF since 1972. This historical information is a potentially important contribution to science as climate change affects our local ecosystems.

• Creative and hands-on mushroom activities for people of all ages. Dyes, Clay, Sunprints, felting mushrooms, block printing, zine workshop plus microscopy, koji making, medicinal mushroom tincture, and ID workshops!
• Speakers: Thea Chesney, Cat Adams, Alan Rockefeller, Daniel Winkler
• Workshops: Jack Laws, JR Blair, Alan Rockefeller, Olga Tzogas, Elena Hsu, Liz Vermillion, Holly Bazeley, Karen Rusiniak, David Gardella, Mel Gillman, Gabriela Medvetska
• Naturalistic displays of more than 300 species of locally collected fungi
• Identification table - bring your specimens to find out the species!
• Educational tables on varied subjects such as medicinal mushrooms, myco-remediation, cultivation, ecology, psychedelic fungi, dyes from fungi, toxicology, edible mushrooms, and more...
• Microscopes and spore prints
• Vendors with fun mushroom products
• Mingle and meet other mushroom loving people.
• Come and try delicious mushroom dishes from Far West Fungi

• The Fair provides information on the uses and abuses of fungi, with displays and exhibits on ecology, toxicology, and cultivation. Gourmands can learn about the diversity of culinary mushrooms at our culinary table, and throughout the fair purchase books, teas, snacks, mushrooms, and other edibles to create scrumptious dishes.

Info: Why would a mushroom evolve a toxin capable of killing a person? The answer likely has surprisingly little to do with humans. This talk explores the hidden ecology and evolution of mushroom toxins, why people continue to seek out wild mushrooms despite the risks, and how some of these deadly molecules are being repurposed as powerful tools for biomedical research and medicine. Join us for a journey into the fascinating intersection of fungi, evolution, psychology, and toxicology. Bio: Seattle native Cat Adams earned her BS in Biology from the University of Washington, where she fell for fungi. She studied chili pepper seed pathogens at Harvard (MS, Anne Pringle) and the chemical ecology of death caps at UC Berkeley (PhD, Tom Bruns). Her postdoc explored how “fungal farts” from root fungi inhibit bacteria. She has written for Slate and BBC Earth and co-developed “Stumped No More: Tree Identification for Mushroom Hunters.” She loves hunting and cooking mushrooms.

Info: Alan has spent an extensive amount of time over many years in Central and South America studying and photographing the fungi of that area. At this presentation he will share his wealth of information and truly amazing photography. https://www.instagram.com/alan_rockefeller/
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https://x.com/AlanRockefeller

Info: California’s mushrooms thrive nearly year-round, and the West Coast is North America’s richest region for edibles. Daniel shares insights from his book “Fruits of the Forest” in this richly illustrated talk on identifying morels, chanterelles, hedgehogs, king boletes, and lion’s manes while avoiding dangerous look-alikes. Learn proper collecting, safe preparation, medicinal uses, key habitats and seasons, plus fungal fun facts from his research and travels. Bio: Raised hunting mushrooms in the Alps, Daniel is a mushroom educator, photographer, and guide with nearly 30 years on the West Coast. He wrote “Fruits of the Forest,” a field guide to Pacific Northwest edibles, plus several fold-out guides, including Edibles of California. An ecologist, he researched Tibet’s Cordyceps economy, work featured in National Geographic and the New York Times. His company MushRoaming has led mushroom eco-adventures since 2007.

Info: Recent efforts to mobilize people towards increasing our collective fungal knowledge have resulted in some unexpected and exciting discoveries! We'll explore three stories of social and ecological interest. Thea Chesney is a lifelong Sierra Nevada foothill resident and naturalist. She has worked as a botanist, a forester, and a mycologist, and is always happiest working in the field. Her fieldwork and studies are centered in the Sierra Nevada and other California mountains, and include classes in plant and mushroom ID, a future field guide to montane mushrooms, and efforts to catalog the diversity of both plants and fungi in these understudied regions.

Info: FREE! Come create your own mushroom themed Zine with Mel Gillman! Mel Gillman is a mushroom forager, published graphic novelist, comics professor, and chair of the BFA and MFA Comics programs at California College of the Arts. Her work includes comics and zines about wild foods and foraging. Mel will teach a beginner-friendly, all-ages workshop where participants learn basic comics techniques, draw cartoon versions of common California mushrooms, and create a short comic inspired by a favorite mushroom or foraging memory.

Info: ADD-ON TICKET REQUIRED FOR WORKSHOP. ($15) Learn the basics of drawing mushrooms from the side, above, and below. Then, learn to sculpt this basic design to draw the varieties of species you find in the woods. Bring a notebook or journal, a pencil, or your favorite drawing supplies. Paper and pencils will be available if you do not have them.
John (Jack) Muir Laws is a leader of the worldwide nature journaling movement. A wildlife biologist, educator, and author, and an associate of the California Academy of Sciences, he helps people build a deeper connection with nature through illustrated journals and science. His work blends science, art, and mindfulness. Jack teaches that attention, observation, curiosity, and creative thinking are skills, not gifts, and they grow with deliberate practice.

Info: ADD-ON TICKET REQUIRED FOR WORKSHOP ($15) A PowerPoint presentation will introduce the fundamentals of ID. Participants will then practice using dichotomous keys to identify certain mushrooms that will be available at the Fair. Description: J.R. presents how to identify mushrooms by macroscopic features, then guides practice with dichotomous keys on Fair specimens, first as a group, then in small groups. Bring an ID guide with keys if possible: California Mushrooms (Desjardin, Wood, Stevens) is best; Mushrooms Demystified (2nd ed.) and Mushrooms of Cascadia also work. Bio: Blair earned his MS at San Francisco State (1999) under mycologist Dr. Dennis Desjardin. A longtime Mycological Society of San Francisco member, he served as President and Fungus Fair chair for five years. He taught biology at SFSU for 21 years and directed the Sierra Nevada Field Campus for 12.

Info: ADD-ON TICKET REQUIRED FOR WORKSHOP ($20). Description: Alan leads a detailed tutorial on using a microscope to explore fungal structures. A few microscopes may be available to share, and the presentation will be shown on a big screen. Feel free to bring the microscope that’s been sitting in your closet for 10 years.

Bio: Alan Rockefeller is an acclaimed mycologist known for his expertise in DNA barcoding, field photography, and microscopy. In over 20 years, he has photographed and documented more than 2,500 fungal species and spent 15 years studying fungal diversity in Mexico. He has taught thousands of people to sequence their mushrooms’ DNA, uploaded over 700 sequences to GenBank, co-authored papers on new bioluminescent Mycena and Psilocybe species, and identified over 400,000 observations on iNaturalist and Mushroom Observer.

Info: ADD-ON TICKET REQUIRED FOR WORKSHOP ($45). In the first half, we will first learn what koji is, how to make it, and its historical significance in food preservation. The second half of class is dedicated to a hands-on-workshop. We will all roll up our sleeves and ferment a miso made with koji, Rancho Gordo beans, and a seasonal mushroom. Everyone will take home a 6 oz jar of the seasonal miso that will continue to ferment over time.

Info: ADD ON TICKET REQUIRED ($35). Description: Explore how medicinal mushrooms grow in nature and how they help us build immunity and strengthen our communities. We’ll cover mushroom life cycles and biology, the deep human history with medicinal fungi, and a handful of common varieties: Reishi (the “Mushroom of Immortality”), Turkey Tail, Lion’s Mane, and Shiitake. Learn to prepare them for food and medicine, take home techniques and recipes, discuss the ethics of the growing market, and enjoy tastings of fresh tinctures and oxymels.

Bio: Olga Tzogas grew up in Rochester, NY, in a Greek family of chefs, and now guides small groups to Greece to explore its traditional knowledge, fungi, and plants. Inspired by mycologist Steven Daniel in 2005, she founded Smugtown Mushrooms in 2011, an ecological mushroom farm offering grow kits, spawn, extracts, and workshops, including the New Moon Mycology Summit.

Info: FREE! Make mushroom-themed cards, ornaments, rain sticks, collages, hats, clay and felted sculptures, sun-prints and more…
Unleash your inner mushroom fanatic there!

Info: Bio: Liz Vermillion is a forager, herbalist and Chair of the Art Committee of The Mycological Society of San Francisco. At the fungus fair, you will be crafting sculptures inspired by mushrooms using air dry clay, a wooden base to glue it to and other decals like moss, acorns and lichen. You can create mushrooms you've found in real life, from your imagination, banana slugs or even a cute fairy house! Get creative! This fun and interactive workshop is for all ages.

Info: What are cyanotypes? Cyanotypes are a Victorian era print technology discovered in the 1840s that are made by arranging objects on sensitized paper. They are a type of photographic printing using chemicals sensitive to UVA radiation in the 300-400nm range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Karen Rusiniak was inspired by Anna Arkins (1799-1871), an early English adopter of using the cyanotype (sunprint) process to document biological specimens. Karen has found ways of using mushrooms and other specimens from the forest such as lichens and ferns to make frameable art sunprints and invites you to try making one, too. She has taught the process at SOMA Camp, the MSSF Mendocino Woodlands Foray and also at Burning Man.

Info: Bio: Gabriela Medvetska, originally from Ukraine, is a software engineer by day. Having grown up among lush greenery in her grandma's garden, she has developed a deep appreciation for nature and arts. Her creative expression spans diverse mediums, from writing to electronics to cosplay costumes, bringing together her love of the natural world and technical skills. She is the winner of the MSSF Fungus Fair poster contest for 2025 and 2026 and will facilitate a mushroom block printing workshop in the Craft Zone.

Info: Needle felting is a fun way to produce three-dimensional decorative items like ornaments. The basics are quick and easy to learn.
Come felt with David Gardella who became hooked on mushrooms when he found his first Amanita muscaria on his birthday many years ago. He has been a member of MSSF since 2007 and on the governing council since 2009. Throughout the years he has served as MSSF President, Vice President, and Councilor, and has been in his current role of Mendo Camp Director since 2018.

Info: Bio: Holly Brazley has been painting in watercolor, acrylic, and oils for at least 20 years. she taught art classes to multiple ages in public schools as well as private lessons in drawing and painting. Her mushroom curiosity, foraying, cooking, and painting has been ever expanding, for about 15 years, as a member of multiple mushroom clubs.

Event venue

El Camino High School, 1320 Mission Rd, South San Francisco, United States

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