Old Salem's Annual SpringFest Focuses on Fungi
Contact:
Lauren Werner
Old Salem Museums & Gardens
336-721-7329,
Old Salem’s SpringFest Focuses on Fungi
On Saturday, May 22, Old Salem Museums & Gardens will host their Annual SpringFest, and this year’s focus is fungus. There will be a variety of activities to pay homage to Salem Botanist and Mycologist (those who study the branch of biology concerned with studying fungi) Lewis David von Schweinitz.
Activities include learning about unusual heirloom vegetables used in cooking, dyeing using fungi, mushrooms in medicine, and painting watercolors. There will also be several outside presenters:
• Alan Muskat “The Mushroom Man.” Muskat is a well known mycologist and mushroom expert from Asheville, NC. He leads many forays into the NC forests in search of native fungi, these popular walks sell out very quickly. Muskat has been featured on PBS Folkways and the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods. He is also the author of Wild Mushrooms A Taste of Enchantment along with several articles on mushrooms. See his website http://www.alanmuskat.com/mushrooms.htm for more information.
Muskat will be at the Vierling Wash-Bake house to talk about and show native & wild mushroom species from 11:00-12:00 and 2:00-3:00.
• Dr. Larry Barden, Professor of Biology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Dr. Barden has studied the native North Carolina Schweinitz’s Sunflower as one of his research interests. He specializes in conservation of the sunflower and restoration of the Piedmont North Carolina prairie, its native habitat, and has published several papers on this topic.
Dr. Barden will speak on Schweinitz’s Sunflower at 2:00 p.m. in the Single Brothers’ Workshop Multi-Purpose Room.
• Nell Allen, Rare Plant Curator, North Carolina Zoo. The North Carolina Zoo is actively working to preserve the endangered Schweinitz’s Sunflower through conservation efforts of a piedmont prairie.
Rare Plant Curator Nell Allen will
be behind the Single Brothers’ House (rain location Single Brothers’ Workshop
Seminar Room) with a display of Schweinitz’s Sunflower and the effort to
conserve it.
• Page
& Amy Chandler,
Local Mushroom Growers. The Chandlers will be
behind the Single Brothers’ House to sell the mushrooms grown on their
Guilford County, NC farm.
About Old Salem Museums & Gardens
Old Salem Museums & Gardens is one of America’s most comprehensive history attractions. Its museums — the Historic Town of Salem and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), along with award-winning heirloom gardens — engage visitors in an educational and memorable historical experience about those who lived and worked in the early South. The Old Salem Visitor Center is located at 900 Old Salem Road. The Web site address is www.oldsalem.org and phone number is 336-721-7350.
