Deep in the subterranean bowels of the Armory, fungi enthusiasts joined to celebrate the Somerville Mushroom Fest on Sunday. The event was organized by Bay Staters, a local nonprofit dedicated to spreading the good word on mushrooms throughout Massachusetts.
On any other day the group might have met up for a mushroom-centric group forage, cooking class or gardening workshop for the pure pleasure of community. Sunday’s event carried with it the weight of recognizing the five-year anniversary of Somerville’s decriminalization of psychedelic, or “entheogenic,” mushrooms of the psilocybin variety.
In addition to lobbying for the change, Bay Staters contributed to the language of the 2021 referendum that made Somerville the first city east of the Mississippi to decriminalize the fungi. Making psilocybin mushrooms legal and available for use is one part of the group’s expansive wellness agenda.
To be clear, James Davis, founder of Bay Staters, loves all types of mushrooms, magic or otherwise. In a slide presentation during the festival, Davis walked through the history of mushrooms, fast forwarding through the formation of planet Earth around 4.5 billion years ago to the good stuff: the genesis and development of fungi around 1 billion years ago.
You probably wouldn’t want to eat any of the primitive, creepy-crawly mushrooms that ruled the planet during the Proterozoic Eon. From the look of the artist’s reproduction, these mycelial monsters might have eaten you.
In addition to the history lesson, Davis explored the manifold ways mushrooms have affected our lives in the present day. Mushroom-based antidepressants, improved gut health, decreased criminal recidivism, even a mushroom-based concrete that serves as an eco-friendly insulation alternative. The possibilities seemed endless.
The audience – young and old, longtime members and new arrivals, committed psychonauts and the merely curious – listened with rapt attention while enjoying a complimentary buffet of snacks and fizzy drinks.
In the crowd was Nino Lambert, who wanted to record an episode about psychedelic therapies for his “Eternal Search” podcast.
There was a muralist from Salem named Columba, who talked about the power of psilocybin to combat addictions and addictive behaviors.
And there was a mother from Cambridge, who attended on behalf of herself and her daughter. They were interested in psilocybin mushrooms as a tool to promote calm and fight anxiety. Said the mother, “If she does it, I’ll do it too.”
A number of new staff were also present. Bay Staters recently received a sizable donation in the will of a mushroom enthusiast, catapulting it from a typical nonprofit with shoestring budget to an organization with a five-year plan and 14 new employees. What does a mushroom nonprofit do with all that money?
For starters, hand out free mushrooms. Or at least their makings At the end of the meetup, Davis stationed himself by a table in front of the room, greeting a long line of people interested in the free grow kits on offer for multiple fungi varieties. Each kit contained the necessary substrate for mushroom growth and a plastic spore syringe. The future mushroom growers traded cultivation tips.
You need the right substrate, moisture and temperature. Davis also recommended talking to your mushrooms once in a while, citing fungi cultivation as a practice closer to caring for a pet than a plant. While it’s not guaranteed to produce higher yields, it can’t hurt.
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