Mushrooms were front and center this weekend after a sparse
showing of spores at last year’s Mushroom Mardi Gras, mushrooms
were back in front and center this weekend. Almost every food
vendor featured the fungi on their menu: sauteed, deep fried,
stuffed or sprinkled on quesadillas or sandwiches.
Morgan Hill
Mushrooms were front and center this weekend after a sparse showing of spores at last year’s Mushroom Mardi Gras, mushrooms were back in front and center this weekend. Almost every food vendor featured the fungi on their menu: sauteed, deep fried, stuffed or sprinkled on quesadillas or sandwiches.
On paper, last year’s Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras was a success: more than 45,000 visitors, despite bad weather; about $40,000 raised for scholarships. But that’s if you overlook one nagging factor: mushrooms were scarce.
This year, though, the champignon was flowing after event coordinators sent a memo reminding vendors that it was, after all, the Mushroom Mardi Gras.
And with that came the most mushroomy Mardi Gras in recent memory, vendors and attendees agreed.
An estimated 65,000 to 70,000 people attended the two-day event, held at the Community and Cultural Center on East Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road and extending down Depot Street to East Second Avenue. And with the rise in crowds came a rise in revenue, which was up 30 percent over last year, according to event manager Sunday Minnich.
And the crowds wanted mushrooms. So in demand were the fungi that vendors like San Jose’s Oak Grove High School Band & Color Guard and Sippin’ Good Fried Veggies had to make emergency trips to buy more.
Reno resident Brad Good’s Sippin’ Good Fried Veggies, sells deep-fried zucchini, onion rings and mushrooms. About 12 p.m. Saturday he was almost depleted of fried fungus, a problem he was able to solve a few minutes later with a short drive.
He said he doesn’t usually get to fry local produce. However, for his first time at the MMG he acquired his mushrooms from Monterey Mushrooms, which is headquartered in Watsonville.
“I normally get my produce from Sacramento,” Good said. He travels the region about this time each year selling fried vegetables at similar art and food festivals.
Oak Grove started the weekend with 500 pounds, and then had to go out and buy 50 more.
“Ours is the hottest item,” Oak Grove parent Tom Martin boasted. Oak Grove’s signature dish was sauteed mushrooms on garlic bread.
Across the food court was Mardi Gras mainstay, the Britton Home and School Club booth, serving their perennial favorite, stuffed mushrooms.
Parent Andrea Pasek said their booth was definitely busier than last year. They’d bought 680 pounds of mushrooms and as of Sunday morning were well on their way to using all of them.
“It’s a tradition, everybody expects us to sell them,” she explained, adding that they still use the recipe taught to them by Patty Rockwell, a Britton Middle School foods teacher who died of cancer last spring.
“I like to think that we have the signature mushroom dish at the festival,” Pasek said.
At least one patron agreed. Hollister resident Jennifer Szyndrowski said she’s been coming back each year for the stuffed mushrooms and she was pleased to find more selections this year.
“I like them all,” Szyndrowski said.
Gilroy resident Dan Mitchell started off with the shrimp scampi with mushrooms and pondered which foodstuffs to have next.
“As long as I can have some stuffed mushrooms later, I’ll be happy,” he said.
Mark Hopping said his company, Marin County-based Pedemonte and Co., would go through all of the 100 pounds of mushrooms serving them on chicken sandwiches and Philly cheesesteaks.
“They like mushrooms on everything,” Hopping said of the crowd.
New vendor Live Oak softball served grilled portabellos sprinkled with pepper and parmesan.
“The portabellos did really well,” Coach Fred Cisneroz said. They’d planned on serving barbecued oysters but wanted to serve something to go with them, Cisneroz said. That’s when he remembered the grilled mushrooms that a parent who works at Monterey Mushrooms had served at a recent barbecue. Sure enough, the portabellos were a hit.
“We’ve had a lot of customers come back for them,” Cisneroz said. They’d sold 75 pounds as of 2 p.m. Sunday.
However, one booth was noticeably missing. Watsonville-based Monterey Mushrooms had arranged for an interactive display, showing how mushrooms are grown and harvested, but they didn’t come.
“We were very disappointed that they didn’t have their mushroom display this year,” Minnich said, adding that she didn’t yet know why they didn’t show but that she was sure there was a good reason.
A phone call to Monterey Mushrooms was not returned Monday.
