For the Foragers

You may have noticed that, unlike some others, our mushroom courses are not listed as foraging courses, but identification courses...

But what does that mean?

I want to be absolutely clear, that we are not 'anti forager' - We know, and there is evidence to back it, that foraging can be excellent for mental health, and that means it can be a lifeline... We also know from experience that it is an excellent 'gateway drug' for mycology... we at Petrichor might be ecology-surveying, microscope-staring, aspiring-DNA-sequencer geeks, now - but all of us came to mycology through the foraging pipeline!

What I have noticed about many foraging courses (which was never how I liked to teach even when I was labelling them that way) is that many will focus on showing you an edible mushroom, and naming it, and then telling you how to differentiate between that and one other species they think it looks like... and that leaves so many gaps and potential for confusion! What is a lookalike depends entirely on your experience...

On our ID courses we focus on teaching you the skills to begin learning to identify any mushroom you find, no matter what your reason for doing so, yourself. This is not an overnight process, and if we find any of the big, extremely common choice edibles we will happily do a specific run through of how you can be absolutely certain for that species - but generally the idea is to help you understand the bigger picture.

If you come on a course with us you can expect to learn -

What some of the important features of mushrooms look, smell, feel and even taste* like in real life.

How fungi work, at least in ways that might help with identification, or teach about conservation and sustainability.

What information is important - so you can start taking note of those features, and filtering out some of the white noise.

How to narrow down where to look in your fungi books by ruling whole families and areas in or out.

What some of the descriptions in your books actually mean, and how to interpret them when we aren't there.

Where to find good support to help you after the course is over.

I guess you could think of it in terms of giving a fish or teaching to fish!

Once you start to feel confident with your identifications, and have had them confirmed etc - you can find edibility information much more easily!

So whether you are one of us like the lady who called us over to ID a beautiful tiny wee bonnet, without noticing the massive cep right next to it - or you would just like to learn how to ID so that you can forage safely and with confidence, you are welcome on our courses - and we hope they may open your eye to things you had never even known about!

We have several dates available to book right now (Oct-Dec) through this link, and we would love to have you join us!

https://www.petrichorecology.com/book-online

Hope to see you soon! - Mushketeer Iona🌈‍🟫

* - at your own discretion! Nibble and spit tests are important when identifying some mushrooms, but this is entirely optional!