September 20th - September 22nd

*Registration will be up soon

Join the Catskill Fungi team for a weekend of fun, wonderment and enlightenment as we delve into the forests of Menla, and engage the fungal residents there. Take a hands-on approach to learn how to identify common fungi in the forest. Through using your senses, you will be acquainted with multiple species and confirm your IDs. Learn to sustainably harvest mushrooms in the forest, how to clean them, cook them, and eat them.  We will also dehydrate mushrooms to make teas and medicinal tinctures. This ID focused course is for any beginner or Friends of Fungi alumni to take a deeper dive into befriending and foraging fungi.

Participants will learn to:

-Identify common edible and medicinal mushrooms

-Cook and eat wild and cultivated mushrooms

-Preserve and store mushrooms

-Make mushroom tinctures and extracts with medicinal mushrooms

Finish the weekend with:

-Confidence in identifying some edible, wild mushrooms

-Foraging hand lens and Mushroom journal

-Medicinal mushroom tinctures

-Dehydrated mushrooms

-Deeper connection with fungi, nature, self, and friends

Many people say "I would never trust myself to eat mushrooms from the forest." This is a healthy fear and an important first step to safe foraging. John didn't trust himself until someone showed him which mushrooms were edible, and he was confident he could tell them apart from their lookalikes. At some point we all learned to recognize and name different animals. Now we would never mistake a deer for an elk. One mushroom at a time, we learn to identify different species of fungi. This weekend get to know your common, easy, edible wild mushrooms. Learn to look, smell, and feel the differences between some obvious edible mushrooms that have few or no poisonous lookalikes.

There is no greater act that connects you directly to nature and the land than confidently finding something in the forest, identifying it as nourishing food or medicine, working with that organism to prepare it, and ingesting the nutrients it has to offer you. We are happy to help show you how to trust yourself and your resources to get to know, forage, identify, and prepare easy, edible and medicinal mushrooms. 

This is Friends of Fungi's 11th session, and we are looking forward to another wonderful weekend of foraging!

Catskill Fungi professional guides, presenters, and mushroom walk leaders:

Aubrey Carter, Erwin Karl, Gabriela D'Elia, and John Michelotti

Schedule

Time Activity

Friday

3-6pm Check-in

6-7pm Dinner

7:30 PM Evening Program

Intro and Welcome Circle

Evening Presentation: Mushrooms 101 - Biology and Ecology of Fungi - John

How to use INaturalist, FUNDIS, and Resources

Saturday

8-9am Breakfast

9:30 AM Characteristics to Identify Mushrooms

10:00 AM Pick up Bag Lunch 

10-3pm Extended Mushroom Identification Walk: Finding Food and Medicine

3pm-4:30pm Break

4:30-6pm Cooking, Dehydrating and Preserving Mushrooms

6-7pm Dinner

7:30 PM Evening Program

Groups of Mushrooms and ID Table walk through

9:00 PM Optional: Open Discussion at fire pit and music jam (bring instruments)

Sunday

7-11am Check-out of Rooms

8-9am Breakfast

9:30-12pm Morning Program

Mushroom walk

Edible/Medicinal Mushroom review

Foraged Mushroom Collection Review

Closing Circle