Immersion Description
In this four month immersion, we will come together to learn about the vast & diverse world of mushroom & fungi. Examining their ancient story that connects humans and all life to them, we will gain comprehensive training to start seeing and sensing the mushrooms and Fungi all around us!! We will see them exist in their wide ranging habitats, from the city to the forest and field. This immersion will replenish our skills and senses to connect to our fungal relatives and their kin to truly get to know these intelligent beings, that can feed, transform, heal and even kill. During our time apart participants will be encouraged to spend time outdoors observing their environments and building relationships with our mushroom kin. Together we will explore the many ways we can integrate Fungi into our systems. One of the easiest ways is by eating them and using simple teas to gain their nutritional value. Opening our senses, opening our hearts, minds and spirits to the world of mushrooms + Fungi.
Throughout our four months together we will be exposed to a wide array of mushroom relatives. Keeping us observant and immersed in the fungal world around us whether we live in a city or the woods.
Immersion Includes
4 month series: 1 session per month
Sundays: July 18 , September 12, October 3, November 7 Time: 4-7pm EST / 1-4 PST
Knowledge shares will be 3 hours, with a short break in the middle, some small group time.
Month 1~ July 18: FUNGI-mentals of Mycology
Learn basic concepts of Mycology
"wood wide web”
Learn who some of these millenia-old famous all-star mushrooms are and ways to incorporate + gain access to these mushrooms, for food, medicine and healing.
Mushroom decoctions
Meeting Oyster and Shiitake
Cooking Demo
Month 2 ~ September 12: Mushroom Literacy and Anatomy
Ethics of foraging, do’s and dont’s, and how to properly harvest based on your needs
Shapes, sizes and morphology of mushrooms + fungi and the stories they tell us
Fungal Habitats and Ecological functions
How mushrooms grow and disperse spores
How to start identifying mushrooms
Learning how to use a field guide or dichotomous key
Seasonal Mushrooms
Sharing findings of the month
Month 3 ~ October 3: Medicinal Mushrooms: their History, Uses and Preparation
Peoples mushroom history
Medicinal mushrooms & their power to heal and transform around the world
Creating reciprocal relationship with medicinal and sacred mushrooms
Honoring long standing ceremonial traditions
Meeting: Turkey Tail, Lions Mane, Reishi, Chaga, Psilocybe and others
Varieties of extraction for use and preference of compounds desired
Sustainability and sourcing literacy
Commodification
Double Extraction Tincture
Month 4 ~ November 7: Cultivating and Working with Fungi for Food, Medicine and Resilience.
Basic methods for growing mushrooms in your garden or indoors
Methods of cultivation & substrate formulation.
Setting up labs, fruiting rooms and other small DIY grow spaces indoors for year round production
Discussing the benefits and setbacks of indoor & outdoor production
Ways fungi can help heal environments, us and our communities
Mushroom food preservation
Resource Package
Limited resource packages available
(2) 3oz Dried Reishi-one pack for tincture making, the other for tea!
3oz Dried Chaga
4oz Dried mix of dried Oyster + Shiitake Mushrooms
Smugtown Mushrooms double extraction mushroom tincture
Starter pack to begin growing Oyster mushrooms off common household waste streams
4oz ethanol - to make your own extract
Zine
Misc mushrooms art, info and references
Please select resource package option if interested
Exchange
Sliding scale: $222-$777 (for all four sessions, 12 hours total class time + resources and self guided initiatives)
When choosing the tier on the sliding scale please be honest with what you can afford. If you can pay at the higher end, please do so as that gives space for folks who can’t.
For more information on sliding scale please check out this amazing work!
For lower rate/scholarships please email herbancura@gmail.com with subject Mushrooms
REGISTRATION CLOSES July 15
Access Information
*ASR Captioning provided
*Spanish translation available
This immersion is open to everyone!
Virtual Gathering
4-7 EST / 1-4 PST
Link will be sent 3 days before the immersion
This immersion share will be recorded and available for 30 days.
Facilitator
Olga Tzogas started her love affair with Fungi and plants over 15 years ago, with the help and guidance of family, teachers and students. In 2011, Smugtown Mushrooms was started, which provided cultivation supplies to grow mushrooms, indoors or outdoors, for food or for medicine. We also host workshops, organize events and bring community together for the love of mushrooms alongside the continuous path towards social + environmental justice. Olga continuously is eager to learn more and embrace the never-ending, vibrance of mushrooms, fungi and the natural world. Olga teaches workshops throughout the continent about wild mushroom identification, medicinal mushrooms, biology, and mushroom cultivation. Olga, alongside the collaboration of the collective, The Mycelium Underground, helped create the New Moon Mycology Summit in 2018. She was a core organizer for the 2016 Radical Mycology Convergence and the MycoSymbiotics Festival from 2015-17. Annually, Olga guides small groups immersing in land based and traditional knowledge of Northern Greece, highlighting the fungi and plants there.