Mushroom Foraging for Absolute Beginners: How to Not Get Poisoned

Porcini, chanterelle, parasol, chicken of the woods, puffball, oyster… What's more iconic of autumn than brightly-colored mushrooms popping up out of the fallen leaves?

You probably already know that with a little searching, even us city-dwellers can find loads of delicious fungi almost right outside our front doors, thanks to the amazing forests around Berlin. Yet, you're likely also aware that when it comes to mushrooms, it takes knowledge and experience to distinguish the delectable from the deadly.

Join Simka (they/them) for a crash course in mushroom foraging in Grunewald Forest. Here we'll dive deep into mushroom identification and get you started on your path to mushroom foraging. As you learn the basics of how to find, identify, collect, and prepare the wild edible mushrooms that are currently in season, you'll start to understand which mushrooms to stay away from – and how to get confident enough to bring your own harvest home.

With hands-on examples and an interactive approach, we'll cover:

🍄 The 3 best edible mushrooms to start out with as an absolute beginner
🍄 How to look at and identify a mushroom
🍄 Some large & important families to be aware of
🍄 Common poisonous mushrooms and how to avoid them
🍄 Basic mushroom biology
🍄 Fungal growth habits
🍄 What you need to get started foraging
🍄 How to harvest and clean your finds
🍄 Where to look for edible mushrooms
🍄 Sustainable foraging practices
🍄 Cooking and preservation tips and recipes
🍄 How to keep learning
🍄 …and much more.

After the theoretical introduction, you'll have the chance to ask all the questions you've ever had about mushrooms and foraging!

The last hour of the class will be a self-paced practical immersion, where you'll have the chance to use your newfound knowledge to find mushrooms in the forest, then bring them back to your guide to double check and ask any more questions you might have.

This class assumes zero prior knowledge of mushrooms and foraging. If you wouldn't know a porcini if it bit you on the nose, question which mushrooms it's safe to handle, and love the taste of mushrooms but have no idea where to even begin with identifying them in the wild – this class is for you!

When: Friday November 1st, 12:30 - 15:30
Where: Grunewald Forest, near S-Bahn Grunewald (~ 5km walking in total)
Cost: Sliding scale 30€ / 25€ / 20€ or pay what you can

Attendance is limited to 14 people, so registration is required!

The meeting and ending point for the tour are accessible with public transportation. The exact meeting point, along with what to bring, will be sent via email after registration. Don't forget to read your confirmation email carefully.

A note on pricing & philosophy:

I offer my foraging tours with some sliding scale / pay-what-you-can tickets, because it's a deep value of mine that this learning – which radically connects us with ourselves, the land, and one another – should be accessible for everyone.

However, I do rely on this income!

That means: if you have the means, please pay the full fee, or more (paying more allows more subsidized spaces for those who aren't currently able to pay as much!)

If you don't have the means, please feel fully invited to pay whatever you can.

And if you want to come, but genuinely cannot afford any extra expense, reach out to me directly for a 100% discount, no questions asked. I have absolutely been there, I see you, and I want you here.

Please note: I am currently only able to offer a certain number of supported access/pay-what-you-can tickets for each tour, because this is my full-time job and I do rely on this income. If you don't see any left, I hope you'll join me for the next tour instead!

I'm trying to do things differently, because it matters to me. Please join me in the complexity of building a better, more equal world!

Registration and cancellation:

Once you register for the workshop, you'll receive an email with all details on the exact meeting location as well as what to bring.

The event will go ahead regardless of the weather. The plants and mushrooms don't mind if it's wet!

If you can't make the event, you may cancel by email up to 48 hours in advance. This ensures another participant can take your place. Refunds for cancellations within 48 hours of the event are not possible.