Forage Series Class: The Mushroom Foray

The Mushroom Foray – October 29th : Possible projects include hops tincture (sleep aid), dandelion tonic or edible greens, lambs quarters greens, and the antioxidant-rich immunity booster, elderberry syrup.  If we are lucky, wild maitake (hen of the woods) or chicken of the woods mushrooms will be available to make a soup or stir-fry. (we will do one or two of these).  Ethical, forest-friendly harvesting methods will be discussed.

Come prepared for a fun walk in the woods to observe and forage for wild edible plants and possibly mushrooms, depending on what is available and in season.  We will prepare a shared dish or two featuring wild edibles and possibly a tincture made of wild-forged herbs.

This class is good for a newbie, but if you have them, bring your favorite manuals and books so that we can share our knowledge, experience, and favorite wild-foraged foods and medicines.  Bug spray, layered, protective clothing, and shoes or boots suitable for walking through the woods are recommended.

Facilitator:

Marie Erb-Crow has gathered and prepared wild edible plants and herbs since childhood.  For seven years she ran a landscape design company specializing in eco-friendly design and woodland property preservation.

A firm believer that food is medicine, she makes her own sleep aids and tonic tinctures and she harvests and prepares wild mushrooms and edible plants for her family.

Mushroom Cultivating in the City

Growing your own shiitake mushrooms is a delicious way to make use of your shady spaces. Shiitakes also boost your immune system and are a key component of growing a well-balanced diet yourself. If you’re growing for market, shiitakes are a low maintenance specialty item that is well worth the effort. At this workshop, participants will learn how to plug logs and successfully grow their own shiitakes.

Teacher Bio:
Nazirahk Amen, ND, L.Ac. is a homeopath, naturopathic physician and oriental medicine practitioner for over 15 years in the Washington DC Metro area and resides in Takoma Park, MD. In addition to a busy medical practice, he manages about 5 acres of orchard and vegetable production. He is the owner of Purple Mountain Organics, which offers fine quality tools, growing supplies and sustainable ag services. Dr. Amen is first and foremost a spiritual adherent practicing and refining harmonious living skills for himself and the greater community and is excited to share information and skills gained from this journey

Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest

Sept 18  10:00am – Noon & 6:00pm – Dusk
Set up for Mushroom inoculation workshop
-logs
-wood chips and sawdust
-cardboard
-carpet

Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest

***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***

Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended

If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help! 

Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest

Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest

Sept 4  10:00am – Noon & 6:00pm – Dusk
Set up for Mushroom inoculation workshop
-logs
-wood chips and sawdust
-cardboard
-carpet

Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest

***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***

Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended

If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help! 

Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest

Mushroom Identification 101

Interested in learning to identify local fungi?

In this beginner’s workshop of mushroom identification basics, you’ll learn some of the “do”s and “don’t”s of wild mushroom hunting, then spend time in the woods collecting mushrooms to practice identifying. Once we have our gathered mushrooms, the instructor will take us through some of the basic language and taxonomy of mycology, and we’ll spend some time applying these terms to identify our specimens. Learning will also include how to use a field guide, and the ethics of collecting wild mushrooms.

Please bring drinking water, a knife, a small trowel, small-to-medium paper bags, a collecting basket, and some way to keep time so you don’t wander too far during the gathering portion.

If you are sincere about pursuing mushroom knowledge, it is recommended that you acquire at least one field guide and bring it to the workshop.

**This workshop is limited to 15 participants**

Workshop Date: July 9, 10am- 12pm                 Cost: $30
Location: Hunt Valley, MD                    Instructor: Daniel Kemp

**Notice of cancellation must be given 48-hrs in advance of any of our workshops or events in order to request a refund. Cancellations are subject to a $5 restocking fee. **

About the Instructor

Daniel has spent years among indigenous cultures in North America, Asia and the South Pacific, living with various medicine men and women being the recipient of both their healing and knowledge of the natural world. Returning to the environment of his youth after many years abroad, that longing to stay connected to the natural world lead him to seek out the woods whenever possible. In this reconnecting to the forests of his youth, its bounties opened up to him. Especially alluring were the myriad fungi that appeared and reappeared year after year. This foraging has blossomed into a lucrative job at certain times of the year as local chefs are turning more and more to the forgotten tastes of our wild foods. When Daniel is not out in the woods foraging for mushrooms and other edibles, he can be found administering acupuncture or massage to his patients or guiding his yoga students to connect breath with body and mind.  He has also completed his permaculture design course and has a special affinity for natural building.

LowTech Mushrooms

Learn how you can start growing mushrooms with materials you probably already have around the house. Starting with a presentation on the life cycle of mushrooms we will work on cultivating an understanding of our fungal friends as we go through hands on demonstrations from taking spore prints, and easy clones, to starting spores, or commercial culture, on a small amount of material to be expanded onto bunker spawn totes for starting outdoor patches, or straw and logs for fruiting indoors and outside! We will have models of small scale fruiting chambers for growing fresh mushrooms in or outside the home! Participants will leave with starter cakes with their choice of oyster, shiitake, wine cap, nameko, lions mane, and or reishi mushrooms plus straw logs of pink oyster mushrooms!

Date: July 2 from 4-9 pm           Cost: $40

Location: Charm City Farms Brick Barn          Instructors: William Padilla-Brown

**Notice of cancellation must be given 48-hrs in advance of any of our workshops or events in order to request a refund. Cancellations are subject to a $5 restocking fee.**

About the Instructor

William Padilla-Brown is a social entrepreneur, certified permaculture designer, and multidisciplinary citizen scientist. He has run a non-profit in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania for the past 3 years called Community Compassion, focusing on radical sustainability. He has educated children and adults on topics varying from mushroom cultivation to nutrition via. various workshops and programs. William dropped out of high school at age 16 and has since been pursuing a non-traditional independent approach to his higher education actively promoting alternative education options. William also runs a biology lab/observatory, and mushroom microfarm, MycoSymbiotics, LLC

Medicinal Mushrooms

This 1-day class is a deep exploration into the world of mushrooms and mushroom medicine. Through lecture and demonstration, we’ll explore the life cycle of fungi, and the basic biology and ecology of mushrooms to understand why mushrooms are medicinal for us and how growing conditions affect their medicinal and nutritional content.

We’ll then explore the amazing medicinal qualities that come from mushrooms, especially local wild species, and how to prepare them.

Participants will taste some amazing medicinal mushroom teas and learn easy ways to use mushrooms for immune health. Participants will also walk away with samples of locally harvested medicinal mushroom tea.

This class covers three main topics:
*The lifecycle and basic biology of mushrooms
*An introduction to the amazing medicine from medicinal mushrooms
*The ability of mushrooms to degrade toxic man-made waste in nature

Date: June 19, 9am- 1pm        Cost: $40

Location: The Johnston Square Brick Barn, Baltimore 21202       Instructor: Jared Urchek

**Notice of cancellation must be given 48-hrs in advance of any of our workshops or events in order to request a refund. Cancellations are subject to a $5 restocking fee. **

About the Instructor:

Jared Urchek, L.Ac, CZB, is a Five-Element acupuncturist, certified Zero Balancer, and a cultivator of gourmet & medicinal mushrooms.  He is enthralled by the beauty and the healing power of Nature.  Growing up in the woods of northeast Ohio, he found the woods to be comforting, healing, and inspiring even as a youngster. Learning about the wonders of the fungal Kingdom through a permaculture class started a lifelong passion for the cultivation and use of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. Jared is also profoundly inspired by Chinese medicine and its ability to help people heal on all levels – body, mind, and spirit. Imagine his surprise in learning that all the great medicinal and gourmet mushrooms were also potent Chinese medicinal herbs? Jared offers private and group acupuncture sessions, a growing line of medicinal mushroom products, and various classes and workshops to spread the healing knowledge of these vital traditions.

About the Location:

The “Brick Barn” is a brick garage turned classroom space on Charm City Farms’ newest Permaculture farm space, a triple vacant, city-owned lot in the Johnston Square area of Baltimore. The Brick Barn serves as a classroom space for Permaculture Design Certificate courses, a workshop, and a community gathering space, with future plans to include produce processing and to serve as a local goods trading post.

The address to the barn is 1310 Hillman St, Baltimore, MD 21202, directly across from Green Mount Cemetery.

Mushroon Foray and Walking Lecture

Sunday, June 5th from 9am to 11am
$20
Michael Weese leads a mushroom foray and walking class over Fox Haven land.
What will we find on this mushroom foray? Who knows! Mushrooms fill different niches in different areas and arrive as fruit at different times of the year. Every foray is a treasure hunt! Experienced forager and grower Michael Weese will lead this foray to discover the species that are present on June 5th at Fox Haven Learning Center. For each species found on this foray Michael will give a thorough discussion on its life cycle, ecological niche, and culinary, medicinal and ethnobotanical uses. Join the hunt!
Michael will be vending his own mushroom merchandise after the class!
Register with Lacey at lacey[at]foxhavenfarm[dot]org