Foraging Level 1: Spring Mushroom Foray [SOLD OUT]

This beginner’s workshop will introduce you to the easy to identify, edible species of mushrooms that can be found in the Maryland area during the Spring months. The class will begin with a talk about the ethics and safety of wild foraging mushrooms. We will also talk about how mushrooms grow, what their characteristics are, and how to spot the best habitats to increase your chances of success.

This class is hands on, so come prepared to walk in the woods. We will likely be off the beaten path, so good woods shoes/boots are a must. Please bring some water, a knife, a collecting basket (or cardboard box), a camera and/or notebook, tick protection, and paper lunch bags to separate your finds.

At the end of class, we will come back together and talk about how to verify our finds. How to use field guides, dichotomous keys, and online resources will be discussed. We will then talk about how to prepare and preserve different species and celebrate all that we have learned by cooking up some of our finds and enjoying the gifts of the woods.

The instructor recommends Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians by William C. Roody as an excellent beginning field guide.

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.

Beginning in 2022, Fox Haven will pay $2 from every ticket sale to the Piscataway Land Trust as a LandBack tax for the land Fox Haven inhabits. Land taxes to indigenous nations function similarly to paying rent or a home mortgage. Payments such as a mortgage provide access to living space, whereas LandBack taxes recognize our access to stolen Indigenous land.

The Piscataway Land Trust is a long-term Indigenous-led effort led by the 501(c)(3) Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians Inc. to restore and rematriate ancestral land and sovereignty in the Chesapeake region to Piscataway and other Chesapeake Indigenous people. To learn more or pay land tax, visit: https://www.piscatawayindians.com/projects