22 Jul Telluride Mushroom Fest: Featuring Keynote Speaker Gabrielle Cerberville!
Calling all mycophiles, myconauts, and mycocrazies: come to Telluride this summer and “Rewild!” Each year Telluride, Colorado is the epicenter of the largest wild mushroom happening in North America. Plans are now set for the 46th Annual Telluride Mushroom Festival (TMF), August 12 – August 16 , 2026.
Go here to get your pass.
Go here for more on the history of the Telluride Mushroom Festival. (Scroll back to 2009.)
And please scroll down to learn more about a popular returning guest speaker: Gabrielle Cerberville. She delivers the Thursday night keynote address.
In her wild and crazy world the sound of music made way for the sound of mushrooms.
Meet Gabrielle Cerberville, aka,”Chaotic Forager” and sometimes, the Internet’s “Mushroom Auntie.” Online her high-energy, funny, science-based videos about finding, identifying, and cooking wild plants and fungi have drawn a following in the millions across social media platforms.
As a child Gabrielle preferred improvising original pieces over playing what she was assigned. She went on to study music composition, first at Cairn University, then at Butler University, where she graduated in 2014. Gabrielle later pursued graduate work at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and is now working toward a PhD in music composition and computer technologies at the University of Virginia.
As a fungi fanatic, Gabrielle was late bloomer. Her interest in all things mushrooms took off around age 25, after a lifelong love of plants.
Gabrielle’s first edible find was a honey mushroom (the “ringless honey mushroom”), which she photographed and posted to a mushroom Facebook group out of idle curiosity.
Her version of Alice’s rabbit hole opened from there.
After moving to Kalamazoo, Gabrielle began documenting her finds on TikTok where an early video about a puffball went viral with millions of views. The platform took off during the pandemic when people were paying fresh attention to their own backyards. (Check out that video if you are a fan of puffballs as pizza dough.)
One of Gabrielle’s central projects is her debut book, “Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal Life,” published by Harper in October 2025. Described as a memoir and illustrated field guide with recipes, her core thesis is that foraging is the past, present, and future of food, and the key to a reciprocal relationship with the land. Also that engaging with wild food helps build a kinder relationship with ourselves.
“Gathered” moves season by season through harvests and missteps, with recipes such as Chanterelle Peach Pie with Basil and Pulled Hen of the Woods with Juneberry BBQ Sauce. It also chronicles Indigenous practices of honoring the earth alongside Gabrielle’s own road to self-discovery.
For more, please check out TIO’s conversation with Gabrielle:
No Comments