San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Fungus Fair Draws Hundreds Mushroom Fans

Published

1 year ago

December 17, 2023

San Francisco Fungus Fair Draws Hundreds Mushroom Fans

Dressed with mushroom hats on their heads, self-proclaimed fungus fans Ashley Gates and Bri Sturgess gawked at the various fungi displays at the 51st annual Fungus Fair organized by the Mycological Society of San Francisco.

“We really love mushrooms,” Gates said. “I love that it’s a trend right now.”

READ MORE: Inside the Bay Area’s ‘Huge Underground’ Wild Mushroom Market

Hundreds of fungus-obsessed Bay Area residents like Gates and Sturgess packed into El Camino High School in South San Francisco this weekend to listen to experts, buy mushrooms directly from foragers and talk with vendors who create mushroom-inspired merchandise.

Ashley Gates and Bri Sturgess pose with their mushroom-inspired hats at the 51st annual Fungus Fair at El Camino High School in South San Francisco on Dec. 16, 2023. — Ashley Gates and Bri Sturgess pose with their mushroom-inspired hats at the 51st annual Fungus Fair at El Camino High in South San Francisco. | Source: Joel Umanzor/The Standard

Sturgess, who accompanied Gates to her first ever Fungus Fair, said that the crowd at Saturday’s event made her feel surreal.

“I went a couple years back when they held it at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens,” she said. “To see the scale of it now is really exciting.”

READ MORE: San Francisco Gets a Magic Mushroom Church That Actually Feels Like a Church

The size of the crowd Saturday was one of the topics of conversation that could be heard around the humid cafeteria which held an area for displays, a psychedelic-expert table and a number of edible mushrooms from shitake to lion’s mane.

Ken Litchfield, cultivation expert and member of the Mycological Society of San Francisco, said organizers hope they can keep the event at the high school.

Vendors sell various types of edible mushrooms at the 51st annual Fungus Fair at El Camino High School in South San Francisco on Dec. 16, 2023. — Vendors sell various types of edible mushrooms at the Fungus Fair. | Source: Joel Umanzor/The Standard

“It is the best one we have put on in quite a while,” he said. “We have to make sure that they are happy with us and we are happy with them. There’s a few things to tweak.”

Litchfield said the group planned to host the event at the First Unitarian Universalist Church & Center, but pivoted to have it at the high school. He raved about the location.

“It is one of the best venues we have ever had,” he said. “We are going to try to have it here next year.”

Mushrooms protrude out of a mushroom exhibit at the 51st annual Fungus Fair at El Camino High School in South San Francisco on Dec. 16, 2023. — Mushrooms protrude out of an exhibit at the fair. | Source: Joel Umanzor/The Standard

Fungus fans looking to buy edible mushrooms had an array of options to select from, with prices set per pound. Many fungus shoppers walked around with bags filled with mushrooms.

Natalie Wren, president of the Mycological Society, said it was the first time hosting the event at El Camino High but felt that having more space gave the event a chance to have more speakers.

“We have more speakers than usual because of the amount of space,” she said. “This is a great venue for us. It is perfect.”

READ MORE: You Can Get Magic Mushroom Chocolates Over the Counter in San Francisco Now

Wren said that the event encompasses the complexity of fungus and mushrooms with many coming to the event with different connections to the topic.

“Mushrooms matter in different ways for different people,” she said. “Some people are here to eat them, some want to learn how to forage them. Some people want to talk about them and some just want to look.”

This year, Wren added, the Fungus Fair resumed its mushroom soup sales, which were paused after 2019 due to the pandemic. Bringing the soup back on the menu gives people who might not like to eat mushrooms a chance to try them out.

“Maybe people think they don’t like mushrooms and then decide that they do after tasting the soups we have,” she said. “I think a lot of people are afraid of mushrooms because there is so much in the news about mushroom poisoning.”

Both Wren and Litchfield pointed out that the event acts as a space to educate those who may have misconceptions about mushrooms.

READ MORE: It’s Mushroom Season in the Bay Area. Here’s How To Forage and Not Die

“This is all an educational experience,” Litchfield said, adding that the goal of the event is to popularize fungus and mycology while celebrating those who came before and passed traditions down from foragers from yesteryear. “We are planting seeds right now who took it and ran with it from way back and who are still doing it.”

One of the benefits of the event is showing attendees how mushrooms can be used in a variety of ways, which, he says, is evident with the variety of vendor tents.

Elissa Callen poses with her fungus-based pigments and inks at the 51st annual Fungus Fair at El Camino High School in South San Francisco on Dec. 16, 2023. — Elissa Callen poses with her fungus-based pigments and inks. | Source: Joel Umanzor/The Standard

“I don’t know how much money these vendors have made, but you can tell that it is a passion,” he said.

For Elissa Callen, an artist who was selling various pigments and fungus-based inks at the fair, the opportunity to sell her products increases accessibility of fungus to everyone is her passion. She said she vended and held a workshop at last year’s Fungus Fair.

“I found it is a great reward for people,” she said. “Using this to gain more curiosity and interest in these things that we live with that aren’t really far away. How can we engage our environments and how we look at them and learn.”

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Related Topics:Featured Foraging fungi mushrooms Mycology San Francisco

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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco hotel workers agree pay rise after 3-month strike

Published

2 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

San Francisco hotel workers agree pay rise after 3-month strike

What’s New

Hilton hotel workers in San Francisco voted on Christmas Eve to approve a new union contract after a 93-day strike, according to the Unite Here Local 2 union.

The union, which represents about 15,000 workers in the region, announced that the deal settles the last of the city’s 2024 hotel strikes, covering approximately 900 Hilton workers.

Newsweek has contacted Unite Here Local 2 and Hilton via email for comment.

San Francisco Union Square Hilton Hotel workers strike on September 3, 2024. Workers voted on Christmas Eve to approve a new union contract after a 93-day strike, according to the Unite Here Local 2 union.

Justin Sullivan/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Why It Matters

The new contracts after this year’s strikes establish significant improvements in wages, health care and workload protections for workers at Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott-operated hotels.

The agreements conclude months of labor unrest that involved thousands of workers and disrupted San Francisco’s hotel industry.

What To Know

Hilton workers voted 99.4 percent in favor of the agreement on Christmas Eve, which includes a $3 per hour immediate wage increase, additional raises, and protections against understaffing and increased workloads.

The four-year contract preserves affordable union health insurance and provides pension increases. The deal covers workers at Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55, with 650 workers having actively participated in the strike.

This agreement follows similar contracts reached with Hyatt workers on Friday and Marriott workers last Thursday, covering a total of 2,500 workers who had been on strike since late September.

What People Are Saying

Bill Fung, a housekeeping attendant at Hilton San Francisco Union Square for 29 years, said: “These 93 days have not been easy, and I’m so proud that my coworkers and I never gave up. We stood together through the rain and cold, and even though there were some hard days, it was all worth it. We will go back to work with our health care, good raises, and the confidence of knowing that when we fight, we win.”

Lizzy Tapia, President of Unite Here Local 2, said: “Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott workers refused to give up their health care or go backwards – and we proved on the picket line that we’re not afraid of a tough fight. As contract talks begin with the city’s other full-service hotels in the new year, they should know that this is the new standard they must accept for their own employees.”

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie said on X: “All those that have been out on strike will be back to work, and just in time for Christmas. So, things are looking bright as we head into 2025.

What Happens Next

Unite Here Local 2 said it would push for other full-service hotels in San Francisco to adopt the same standards established by the Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott agreements when contract negotiations resume in 2025.

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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco hotel workers approve new contract, ending 3-month strike

Published

10 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

San Francisco hotel workers approve new contract, ending 3-month strike

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Hilton hotel workers who have been on strike for the past three months voted Tuesday to approve a new union contract.

The approval by Unite Here Local 2 in San Francisco settles the last of three hotel strikes in San Francisco this year, union officials said.

The strikes at Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton hotels throughout the city began in the fall. Marriott workers reached agreements on Thursday, with Hyatt doing the same on Friday.

San Francisco Hyatt Hotel union workers unanimously approve new contract

The Hilton agreement is the same as those ratified by striking Hyatt and Marriott workers last week, according to Ted Waechter, spokesperson for the Unite Here Local 2 union.

The agreement applies to about 900 workers, 650 of which have been on strike for over three months, according to Waechter. The hotels include the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and about 250 workers at Hilton’s Parc 55 hotel, who had been prepared to go on strike.

All the deals with hotels include keeping the workers’ health plan, wage increases, and protections against understaffing and workload increases.

Many of the 2,500 hotel workers had been striking for about 93 days, picketing daily in Union Square, which is the site of a Hilton and the nearby Grand Hyatt on Stockton Street.

SF Hyatt Hotel union workers on strike to vote on ratifying tentative agreement for new contract

“These 93 days have not been easy, and I’m so proud that my coworkers and I never gave up,” said Bill Fung, a housekeeping attendant at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square for 29 years. “We stood together through the rain and cold, and even though there were some hard days, it was all worth it. We will go back to work with our health care, good raises, and the confidence of knowing that when we fight, we win.”

Hilton media representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie on Tuesday issued a statement welcoming an end to the strike, saying it came just in time for the holiday season and allows workers to return to work for key events such as the JP Morgan Health Care Conference and NBA All-Star Game.

Unite Here Local 2 represents about 15,000 hotel, airport and food service workers in San Francisco and San Mateo counties and represented the striking hotel workers.

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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Giants Gold Glove Catcher Projected For Huge Season

Published

19 hours ago

December 24, 2024

Press Room

San Francisco Giants Gold Glove Catcher Projected For Huge Season

The San Francisco Giants have made some huge offseason moves already and hope they aren’t done just yet, but as is the case for every team that doesn’t win the World Series, the most important development will have to come from within.

One player who took a huge step from 2023 to 2024 and will try to improve even further in 2025 is Giants catcher Patrick Bailey. After a beyond solid rookie season in 2023 in which he finished in the top-ten for the National League Rookie of the Year, Bailey won a Gold Glove in 2024.

While the offensive output was similar to his rookie season and not anything to write home about, there’s confidence the bat will come along for the 25-year-old.

In an article naming breakout stars in 2024 who are due for a huge season in 2025, Bailey was one of the first names mentioned by Will Leitch of MLB.com.

“Bailey led all players in Statcast’s fielding run value metric (plus-22), and FanGraphs, which factors pitch framing into its WAR calculation, had Bailey third among catchers with 4.3 WAR,” Leitch wrote. “At age 25, Bailey already has won as many Gold Gloves as Posey — now his team’s president of baseball operations — did over his whole career.”

Leitch pointed out that Bailey has established himself to be San Francisco’s catcher of the future, something that seems undeniable at this point. If the former first-round pick can develop his bat to the point where he is hitting at least close to the same rate as he was raking in the minor leagues, he will have a chance to become one of the best catchers in baseball.

Through 218 games over his first two seasons in MLB, Bailey has posted a batting average of .234, an OPS of .640, slugged .348, and has hit 15 home runs and 94 RBIs. Certainly not numbers that will blow you away at the plate, but his defense has more than made up for it and allowed the Giants to be patient with his bat.

In 193 minor league games since being drafted No. 13 overall in 2020, Bailey hit .251 across all levels and had an OPS of .779. He also showed an encouraging level of power with 25 home runs, but has struggled to replicate that in the big leagues thus far.

Having already established himself to be one of the best in the game on defense, Bailey will have a chance in 2025 to enter the upper echelon of catchers across the game if he can have the breakout season he appears poised to.

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