Mushroom Foraging in Grunewald

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? Bring out the foraging basket, because it's that time of year again! These crucial, mysterious members of our ecosystem are finally beginning to pop up en masse to spread their spores – and provide tasty meals to the critters around them, including us humans.

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, as is well-known, when it comes to mushrooms it takes knowledge and experience to distinguish the delectable from the deadly.

Join Simka (they/them) for an adventure into Grunewald Forest, where we will get acquainted with the most common & delicious edible and medicinal wild autumn mushrooms growing in this area – no experience necessary.

Together we'll explore the forest floor and learn the basics of how to find, identify, collect, and prepare the wild edible mushrooms that are currently in season. Here you will learn which mushrooms to stay away from – and how to get confident enough to bring your own harvest home.

Fungi play crucial, unseen roles in our ecosystem. Yet only when they fruit do we see them above the forest floor in the form of mushrooms, which come in an enormous diversity of shapes, colors, sizes, textures, smells, and flavors. With around 10,000 species of fungi in Europe alone, there is so much to discover!

Because fungi are such fickle fruits and their appearance is determined by many factors, including the weather, there's no guarantee the conditions will be right for an abundant harvest. But there's always something around to fill the foraging basket – so in case the mushrooms end up more sparse than we hoped for, we'll take a closer look at the delicious edible plants & herbs that line the path instead.

The tour will take us through beautiful forest scenery, where we will have plenty of time to relax, explore, and take in the serene surroundings.

When: Saturday October 26th, 12:00 - 16:00
Where: Grunewald Forest, near S-Bahn Grunewald (~ 5km walking in total)
Cost: Sliding scale 45€ / 35€ / 25€ 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.