By Leslie Weinberg
The 25th Annual Kennett Square Mushroom Festival will be from Sept. 10 to 12 on State Street in downtown Kennett Square. Of the total U.S. mushroom production, Chester County mushroom growers account for 54 percent. Commercial mushroom production in the U.S. began in Kennett Square more than 100 years ago.
“It’s exciting to be celebrating our 25th year,” says Mushroom Festival coordinator Kathi Lafferty. “We’ve planned all sorts of great events for this year’s festival.”
The community parade — with its “Kennett Square is Cool” Float Contest, marching bands and community groups — will kick off this fun(gi) weekend on Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. On Saturday, visitors can enjoy an antique and classic car show. Six local finalists will compete during the Amateur Mushroom Soup Cook-off to be named “Best Mushroom Soup of the Brandywine Valley.” WSTW-FM will be sponsoring a Saturday afternoon concert by Bombshel at the Special Events Tent.
There are lots of great events for the family throughout the weekend: The Old Fashioned Carnival at 600 S. Broad St. (Friday from 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday from 4 to10 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m.); guided tours of local mushroom farms; the Grower’s Exhibit, where you can see the stages of mushrooms; live music and lots of children’s entertainment, including ventriloquists, magicians, musicians and jugglers. The Street Fair has more than 200 vendors and even has mushroom sculptures, mushroom jewelry, and lots of varieties of mushrooms to sample — from mushroom ice cream to grilled portobello mushrooms.
Sunday will be kicked off with a mushroom 5k run/walk, and it will be “Go Pink Day” to benefit cancer research. Did you know mushrooms are incredible healthy? Four the country’s leading nutrition and cancer researchers will be giving lectures on this low-calorie, fat-free and cholesterol-free food. Enjoy some local wine or a fresh bowl of mushroom soup at the Soup and Wine Festival.
Throughout the weekend, guest chefs will be doing live cooking demonstrations in the Culinary Tent. Local and regional chefs including Dan Butler (one of the first chefs in America experiment with portobello mushrooms), Ray Maxwell (Wyncote Golf Club), Steve Latona (The Restaurant School of Philadelphia), Alfred Jackson (Kennett Square Inn) and Janet Zappalla, (TV host and author of “My Italian Kitchen”) will be sharing their recipes.
Talula’s Table, Portobello’s, Half Moon, Kennett Square Inn and Newton’s adopt a mushroom menu for the festival. Last year, Talula’s Table offered mushroom crepes and Kennett Square had mushroom dip.
“It’s nice to see lots of people fill up the town and fun to see the town come together over one food item — something they are all proud of,” said Talula’s barista Sarah Reese.
One thing you can’t miss while you are at the Mushroom Festival: Mushroom ice cream from Woodside Farm Creamery of Hockessin. Eight years ago, festival coordinators approached the owner, Jim Mitchell, and asked if he could come up with an ice cream containing mushrooms. He rose the challenge, and they now serve cream of mushroom and pumpkin mushroom (both contain frozen mushrooms and have an earthy taste), and chocolate toadstool — a chocolate ice cream with white chocolate mushrooms.
“We came up with something that people found unique. The comment we get a lot is, ‘It’s not as bad as we thought it would be,’” Mitchell said. “We enjoy going to the festival every year. It gets bigger and bigger.”
For ages 12 and older, admission is $2 (all proceeds benefit local and regional non-profits). Leave pets at home. The festival offers three parking lots and a shuttle service for $5 a car. For a full schedule of events, visit www.mushroomfestival.org.
