Coastal fete to celebrate edible fungi.

Byline: LARRY BACON The Register-Guard

YACHATS - Since he was a young man, John Ullman has had a love affair with Italy. When he can get away from his catering business in Yachats, he spends as much time as possible at his second home in an Italian hillside village.

One of the Italian experiences he has enjoyed most is the fall village mushroom festivals where people come together to feast and enjoy the natural gift that magically appears in their fields and forests just before winter's arrival.

The mushrooms, he said, have a special power to link all the people of the village - the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the businessmen and the farmers, the churchgoers and the communists.

"They all get together and celebrate," Ullman said.

So it seemed a great idea to try to duplicate the magic and joy of his Italian mushroom festival experiences in Yachats, where he has lived since 1989. It made sense, Ullman said, because the countryside around Yachats becomes a mushroom hunter's paradise each fall.

Community leaders bought into the idea. The first Yachats Village Mushroom Festival happened in 1999. This weekend is the third. Ullman said the festival has been all that he hoped for and has gotten bigger and better every year.

Of course, one of the things he likes best about the Yachats festival is that - as in Italy - it brings so many different kinds of people together for a good time. Organizations from volunteer firefighters to the local youth activities program participate and offer a wide variety of activities, many of them raising funds for worthy causes, under the sponsorship of the Yachats Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ullman said the mushroom festival is based on a living, growing thing that visitors can find themselves just by enjoying a short walk in the woods.

"Rather than create something that doesn't exist," Ullman said, "we just celebrate what we have."

Naturally, most of the festival events involve food. There's a "Rainforest Fungi Feast" at the Yachats Commons tonight. Local restaurants will be serving special mushroom dishes - from the Dungeness crab-stuffed mushrooms at La Serre Restaurant and Bistro to the grilled portabello mushroom sandwich at the Grand Occasions Deli and Cafe.

Twice on Saturday Ullman will give free mushroom cooking demonstrations at the Siuslaw National Forest's Cape Perpetua Visitor Center south of Yachats. One of the dishes he will show how to prepare is a fresh chanterelle salad with winter vegetables.

"The other will be a panade which is a kind of spread that's had on roasted bread done with wild mushrooms and capers and shallots," he said.

Mushrooms are a delight to cook with, Ullman said, because they come in so many shapes, colors and textures, offering a range of tastes from the peppery chanterelle to the meatlike chicken-of-the-woods and portabello.

Fungus finding and identification also will be part of the festival.

All day Saturday, a large display of edible and poisonous mushrooms will be shown at the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center. Mushroom experts will be on hand to answer questions and help novices identify their finds. Mushroom posters and literature will be available.

Both Saturday and Sunday, mycologists will lead free guided mushroom identification walks from the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.

A shuttle bus will provide transportation between downtown and the visitor center on Saturday.

It's not a huge festival, but sponsors predict that the community's population of 635 will double on Saturday. And for those who don't get enough mushrooms to eat while they are in town and don't have the skills or time to hunt some down in the nearby woods, Ullman suggests that they stop by the local market, which sells wild mushrooms supplied by local pickers.

Ullman said that, during the festival, wild mushrooms will be selling for $2.99 a pound. "They cost $7.10 anywhere else," he said.

YACHATS VILLAGE MUSHROOM FESTIVAL

Here's a schedule of mushroom festival events:

Today

6 p.m. - Yachats Rainforest Fungi Feast. Dishes prepared by local restaurants and caterers. Includes the tongue-in-cheek Fungus Fashion Show. $25 per person. Proceeds benefit the community fireworks fund. Reservations and information at [phone]. Yachats Commons, Highway 101 and West Fourth Street.

Saturday

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. - Native forest fungi displays and educational exhibits. Cape Perpetua Visitor Center south of Yachats.

9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. - Food tasting and service by Bonaventura Specialty Foods. Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.

10 a.m. and 2 p.m. - Guided mushroom identification walks. Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - Harvest Festival Farmers' Market. West Fourth Street off Highway 101.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.- Yachats Lions Harvest Garden with live music, jambalaya, and mushroom burgers. Yachats Lions Hall, West Fourth and Pontiac Streets.

Noon and 2 p.m.- Mushroom cooking demonstrations by chef John Ullman from Bonaventura Specialty Foods. Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.

1 p.m.- Salmon bake. Dinner for $10, two salmon kabobs for $6. Benefits Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program. Yachats Commons Grounds.

Sunset - Free bonfire and s'more feed by the Yachats Volunteer Fire Department. Yachats Commons.

Sunday

10:30 a.m. - Mushroom brunch followed by guided mushroom identification walk. $25 per person. Food by Bonaventura Catering. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Call [phone] for reservations. Proceeds benefit the Lincoln Chapter of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.

Noon and 2 p.m. - Free guided mushroom identification walks. Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.

CAPTION(S):

YACHATS VILLAGE MUSHROOM FESTIVAL WHAT: Food and displays WHEN: Opens tonight with a dinner and `fungus fashion' show; all day Saturday; brunch and mushroom walks on Sunday Schedule of events / 5D