Fall is the season for apples, butternut squash and pumpkins — but it’s also high time for mushrooms. Chefs from local caterers, restaurants and epicurean shops will be serving up fungus-based dishes at the 14th annual Wild Mushroom Festival at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center on Sunday.

The festival combines wild mushroom walks, talks and exhibits with local music and delectable if not surprising mushroom-based dishes. Edible mushrooms are sourced locally and flown in from across the country. The event fits the bill for locally sourced farm-fresh cuisine and brews, too, with chefs pairing traditional and new flavor combinations.

Last year’s festival drew more than 450 attendees who sampled mushroom beer, mushroom ice cream, oyster mushroom stew and sauteed mushrooms on crostini, prepared by a dozen vendors. Organizers are preparing for a larger crowd this year. Here’s a sampling of what chefs are preparing.

Chef Sherry Pocknett of the Mashantucket and Pequot Museum and Research Center plans to serve up venison and mushroom skewers and mushroom-laced corn cakes with a mushroom chutney sauce. The Mashpee Wampanoag, who has established a reputation and following for her Native American cuisine served at powwows, first learned the seasons and preparation of indigenous foods from her parents.

“We need to think, live and eat by the seasons,” says Pocknett, who grew up on Cape Cod. “Indigenous foods fit into that, from the first fiddleheads, burdock wild turnip greens and the first fish in the spring to the corn in autumn.”

Professionally, she worked at The Flume, a recognized Native American restaurant on Cape Cod. The restaurant was owned by her great uncle, Earl Mills Sr., Chief Flying Eagle of the Mashpee Wampanoags and author of the “Cape Cod Wampanoag Cookbook.” She turns to his son, Earl Jr., for advice on indigenous plants.

Pocknett is passionate about serving up indigenous foods, from frog legs and turtle soup to smoked salmon, striped bass, mussels and quahogs. A popular side is her “three sisters rice,” which includes corn, squash and beans.

“Corn is our life blood,” she said. “Everything with us revolves around corn, from ceremonies and medicinal to our staple food.”

Pocknett remembers finding Chicken of the Woods mushrooms, bright orange and yellow fungi that grow on white oak trees, when her family brought in felled trees for firewood.

“They have that beautiful woody taste,” she said. “In this area, Pequots and Naragansetts would have collected mushrooms in the cool rainy summer. The more rain, the more mushrooms.”

For the festival, Pocknett’s take on Johnny Cakes, or a griddled corn cake, will include sautéed chopped oyster mushrooms, whole-kernel corn and scallions. These will be topped with a tomato and mushroom chutney created by a friend and fellow chef. Sautéed onions, garlic, olive oil and chicken of the woods mushrooms are simmered in a homemade tomato sauce.

“The mushrooms really enhance the corn cake and make it moist,” she said. “You can use different mushrooms for different taste and make your own creation by adding some herbs. I also like to season with sea salt and pepper.”

Pocknett says the secret to good corn cakes is not to flatten them on the griddle, simply flip them over and finish browning the other side until the cake is cooked through.

“You want the cake to be airy and light, so you can put some more butter or the mushroom chutney on top,” she said.

Mushrooms also can be used in desserts, from ice cream to baked treats.

Erin Morris and Gabriella Withrow, two professionally trained pastry chefs who launched Zest Fresh Pastry in The Velvet Mill in Stonington three years ago, are whipping up Melville Cheesecake Brownies with candy cap mushrooms. The brownies feature the Melville soft cheese made by Brian Civitello and his Mystic Cheese Company, and candy cap mushrooms, which taste surprisingly like maple. While the cheese is uber local, the mushrooms are produced and freeze-dried in Oregon.

“It’s amazing. It tastes like maple cheesecake brownies, the whole bakery smells like maple when you’re baking them,” said Withrow. “They were a big hit last year.”

The cheesecake mushroom brownies were a serendipitous creation last year, she said, when the Nature Center brought by some extra candy cap mushrooms. The chefs put both the sautéed mushrooms and the cooking liquid in the recipe.

Zest Pastry also will serve a savory bread pudding. Ingredients include a variety of cheeses and wild mushrooms and leeks. While customers will find a wild mushroom bread pudding on Zest’s holiday season menu, the brownies are special for the festival.

It’s tradition to drink Cottrell’s Old Yankee Amber Ale at the festival, thanks to long-standing donations from the Pawcatuck-based brewery. It also will be the second year to sample a mushroom-based brew that the brew master created especially for the season.

“Old Yankee is such a good pairing with the flavors of mushroom dishes,” said Bergin O’Malley, marketing director for Cottrell Brewery. “But since we also have a small brewing set-up that the brewers use to create a new beer every week for our tasting bar, we decided to experiment with a mushroom beer.”

Last year’s brew, made with oyster mushrooms, was such a hit that it sold out in 45 minutes, O’Malley said. The brewery is donating twice as much of both ales this year.

This year’s brew is made with shiitake mushrooms from Smiling Goat Farm, head brewer John Andorfer’s farm, and oyster mushrooms from Hillside Mushrooms, which also will be at the festival.

Cottrell’s describes the mushroom beer as a well-balanced earthy brew. The mushrooms bring out the earthiness and the hops give it its grapefruit, citrus notes and caramalt provides a touch of sweetness.

“We like to experiment with fresh, local ingredients and create these craft beers,” O’Malley said.

This year’s festival also includes Big Y and Mohegan Sun, two new sponsors. The Gray Goose Cookery in Old Mystic Village returns, and owner Suzanne Lane will again be serving her sautéed mushrooms on crostini.

While festival organizers encourage greater awareness and appreciation of wild edible mushrooms, both the Nature Center and the CT Valley Mycological Association strongly stress proper identification of any fungus before one tastes or serves it.

“You have to be very careful; you don’t want to eat any mushroom without making sure that you’ve checked in with a professional on its identity and whether it is edible,” said Molly Check, DPNC education director. “There’s really only a handful of edible mushrooms that are relatively safe, and many of our favorite edibles have dangerous lookalikes. So you really have to do your homework and learn from experienced mushroom experts.”

SHERRY POCKNETT’S JOHNNY CAKES WITH MUSHROOMS

2 cups of yellow corn meal

1 cup white flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon baking soda

2 tablespoons sea salt

1 8-ounce can of whole kernel corn

1 bunch of scallions or green onions, chopped

1 cup chopped wild mushrooms

½ cup melted butter

2 cups of water, or enough to make a batter the consistency of pancake batter

Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix together the corn, chopped onions, mushrooms and melted butter. Combine wet and dry ingredients and the water. Don’t over-stir the batter. Fry the corn cakes in olive oil on a hot griddle; flip but don’t flatten the cakes.

IF YOU GO

What: Wild Mushroom Festival

When: Sunday, Sept. 27; 1-4 p.m.

Where: Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, 109 Pequotsepos Road, Mystic

Cost: Tickets are $20/adult (includes 10 food tickets) and $10/child (13 and under; includes 5 food tickets); ages 2 and younger are free. Additional food tickets on sale at the festival for $1 each.

Info: http://dpnc.org