How the deadly death cap lunch has slowed mushroom sales in Australia
A festival dedicated to mushrooms will be held for the first time, just weeks after a death cap lunch killed three Aussies and left another fighting for life.
The Australian Mushroom Festival will be held at Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Markets next month, where producers will attempt to clear up recent public misconceptions about the fungi.
Organizers insist the fungus celebration was two years in the making and in the pipeline, long before an ill-fated family lunch in regional Victoria ended in tragedy.
Mother-of-two Erin Patterson, 48, remains at the center of a now infamous lunch at her home Leongatha, in Victoria’s southeastern Gippsland region, on July 29, which left three of her former in-laws dead from suspected mushroom poisoning.
Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, became seriously ill and died just days after lunch. Heather’s husband Ian eventually suffered liver failure.
Mushroom sales have since fallen by up to 10 percent, with growers keen to demonstrate how to consume them safely.
Mushroom sales have fallen due to the Leongatha tragedy. The photo shows Erin Patterson who cooked the fateful meal
The October 13 to 14 event is being hailed as one of the tastiest events on the foodie calendar.
‘This exciting event will delight mushroom lovers of all ages with something for everyone, including a vibrant mushroom marketplace with a variety of mushroom-related products and experiences showcasing the talents of local producers and growers, celebrity chefs, cooking demonstrations, grow rooms, food and drinks to see. more food,” reads a description of the event.
Guest speakers are expected to discuss the impact of the Leongatha lunch on growers and the commercial mushroom industry.
“Let’s face it, an ordinary person will now see mushroom burgers and say ‘oh my god’,” Kura Antonello of the Australian Mushroom Growers Association told NewsCorp.
Mushroom growers hope to boost the mushroom’s reputation at a festival in Melbourne next month (stock image)
Erin’s former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson (pictured) died a week after attending the luncheon
AMGA Managing Director Leah Bramich added: ‘We are fortunate to have delicious mushrooms of the highest quality, grown by experienced mushroom growers.
Highlights include masterclasses, live cooking demonstrations and an alley full of vendors offering mushroom delicacies including lattes, gin and desserts.
Participants can also speak with mushroom growers and learn how the agaricus variety is grown in controlled environments.
It comes after a mushroom grower recently revealed it is ‘basically impossible’ for a death’s head mushroom to end up in button varieties sold in supermarkets.
Georgia Beattie told ABC Radio National that commercial mushroom farms are not set up to grow death caps.
“This death cap mushroom is a special species, which we call symbiotic, and it needs a tree to grow on,” she said.
‘We have multiple checkpoints, both at (the distribution center) and before (the mushrooms) go into the store. If someone wants to do something, we can record it very quickly.
“There is now rigor around these certifications and processes. We just encourage people to buy Australian grown produce and not forage.”
Ian Wilkinson and Heather Wilkinson (both pictured) became seriously ill. Mrs Wilkinson died while her husband suffered organ failure