What room has no doors? A mushroom! This is one of my daughters’ favorite jokes at the moment. Why? Because she is currently in her mushroom era. For months, her art has been filled with mushrooms, mushroom houses, fairies living in mushroom houses and you guessed it, more mushrooms! She even made a clay mushroom in pottery class! I don’t really know what kicked off her mushroom obsession, but I’m loving it. The art, not the mushrooms. 

The hilarious thing is I hate mushrooms! I think it stemmed from an irrational fear as a child from the warning never eat a mushroom you find in the woods; it might be poisonous! I don’t know that I was very likely to pick and eat random things to begin with. However, sometimes things stick with you in your mind as a child rational or not and it carries through to adulthood in weird ways. 

Mostly I can avoid mushrooms in my adult life. I do 99% of the grocery shopping and cooking in our house and therefore pick mushroom free recipes! However, years ago shortly after my husband and I got engaged we went down to Mendocino, CA to visit my husband’s sister. I was meeting her and her husband for the first time and of course wanted to make a good impression. We flew into San Francisco and played tourist for a few days then headed along the coast for family time. My sister-in-law was an excellent host and was very excited to take us into the town of Mendocino as there was a festival going on. I think you can guess where this might be going. It was a mushroom festival and street fair. There were mushroom arts and crafts, but the bulk of the festival was folks selling a massive variety of mushrooms. We were there to pick out our dinner! The entire meal she had planned and then served was mushrooms. There was some sauce for the mushrooms, I politely ate my dinner, dying a little on the inside with each bite. However, I survived. Though if I recall I went to be that night hungry having eaten only the smallest portion I felt I could politely get away with. Years later long after we were married and I’d spent a great deal of time with my sister-in-law, I admitted to her my hatred of mushrooms. She laughed and laughed remembering our first trip to Mendocino and the mushroom festival! 

Here’s to all who hate mushrooms but still think they make cute art! My newest carved stamp!