Ergot Museum/Finnish Fashion

A Flippism is the Key cultural double-header:

Ergot: a fungal disease of rye and other cereals in which black, elongated, fruiting bodies grow in the ears of the cereal. Eating contaminated food can result in ergotism.

I would have never imagined that there was a museum dedicated to a parasitic fungus, much less one in my home state. In the thirties this facility was built to extract ergot from rye in Dassel, Minnesota. It was active until the early 70s, when the medicinal compounds extracted from ergot were synthesized. The building still stands—it is part of a community center—but does contain much of the ergot extraction machinery in situ:



On a more modern note: the museum recently featured this trippy exhibit of modern Scandinavian textiles and garments:



The exhibit, Deep Roots (Juuret Syvällä), has now closed but will re-open at The Craft Museum of Finland 5 June.