FRIENDS OF FUNGI FORAGING: FALL WEEKEND RETREAT

With John Michelotti, Aubrey Carter, Erwin Karl and Gabriela D’Elia

September 20 - 22, 2024

Address: 375 Panterkill Road PO Box 70 Phoenicia, NY 12464 United States

  • Deluxe Queen – $1,110.00
  • Standard Single - Shared Bath – $1,014.00
  • Standard Double Full - Shared bath (Shared Room) – $906.00
  • Standard Double Twin - Shared bath (Shared Room) – $864.00
  • Economy Single - Shared Bath – $838.00
  • Economy Double - Shared Bath (Shared Room) – $818.00
  • Economy Quad - Shared Bath (Shared Room) – $768.00
  • Camping – $584.00
  • Commuter – $558.00

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 private-walk leaders: Aubrey Carter, Erwin Karl, Gabriela D’Elia, and John Michelotti

Schedule:

Friday, September 20

  • 3 – 6 pm Check-in
  • 6 – 7 pm 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, September 21

  • 8 – 9 am Breakfast
  • 9:30 am Characteristics to Identify Mushrooms
  • 10 am Pick up Bag Lunch
  • 10 am – 3 pm Extended Mushroom Identification Walk: Finding Food and Medicine
  • 3 – 4:30 pm Break
  • 4:30 – 6 pm Cooking, Dehydrating and Preserving Mushrooms
  • 6 – 7 pm Dinner
  • 7:30 pm Evening Program
    • Groups of Mushrooms and ID Table Walk Through
  • 9 pm Optional: Open Discussion at Fire Pit and Music Jam (bring instruments)

Sunday, September 22

  • 7 – 11 am Check-out of Rooms
  • 8 – 9 am Breakfast
  • 9:30 am – 12 pm Morning Program
    • Mushroom walk
    • Edible/Medicinal Mushroom review
    • Foraged Mushroom Collection Review
    • Closing Circle
  • 12:30 – 1:30 Lunch & Departure

*Please note that schedule is subject to change. 

About the Leaders

John Michelotti

John Michelotti is the founder of Catskill Fungi which empowers people with fungi through outdoor educational classes, cultivation courses, mushroom art, and mushroom health extracts. John is a past president of the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association (MHMA) where he co-founded the Catskill Regional Mycoflora Project as well as the Gary Lincoff Memorial Scholarship. He served on […]

Learn more about John Michelotti

Aubrey Carter

Aubrey graduated from Indiana University in 2016 with a BS in Biology. He has worked at several different ecological institutions in and around the NYC area, including the Central Park Conservancy, the Westchester Land Trust, the Stamford Land Conservation Trust, and Sleepy Cat Farm. Currently the Assistant Ecological Manager at Manitou Point Preserve near Garrison, […]

Learn more about Aubrey Carter

Erwin Karl

Erwin Karl is a farmer, mycologist and educator who has led walks and workshops for Catskill Fungi and Mid Hudson Mycological Association. He serves as site manager at the CycleX farm in Andes, NY where he has been involved in building maintenance, construction and agriculture for more than a decade. His projects in mycology, permaculture, […]

Learn more about Erwin Karl

Gabriela D’Elia

Gabriela D’Elia is the Director of the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS), VP for Mushroom Society of Utah, Project Leader for FunDiS Local Project Northern Utah Funga, and founder of her company Moon Mushrooms, which focuses on holistic mycology, crafting tiny batch tinctures, and MycoAstrology.

Learn more about Gabriela D’Elia

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