Join us for a small, curated offering that assembles people who want to learn about the natural world, eat great food and travel in a way that is in direct relationship to the place, people and ecology.

Submerging in the ecology, the Fungi, and the natural splendor of mainland Greece is a gift. 

While we seep ourselves in the forests and fields, we will be building knowledge of the local ecosystems, learning about the mushrooms and plants we see in the present and their uses throughout history.

This time together is for both the beginner and the veteran forager, herbalist, naturalist and anyone who loves spending time outdoors learning about what grows and lives around them.

See plants and mushrooms you’ve only read about in books, meet trees sacred to the old Gods in local mythology and drink the mountain spring water that’s been gushing from the sacred mountain of Parnassus since time immemorial.

Our acts of learning from the landscape are in direct connection to the folk tradition and the kitchen, whether it’s in our tea pot or meal pot. This is how we often, quite literally, take in the information we are trying to experience, through our senses and specifically our taste buds. Yummy! 

The traditional way of life here in Greece, like many traditional cultures still able to practice their life ways is in direct connection to the land, the seasons and preparations for future meals, medicine and growing cycles.  

Each seminar, we witness and take part in connecting to these cycles, traditional knowledge exchanges and preparations.

We invite local and worldwide experts to share their expertise and gifts with us.

SOME TOPICS + CLASSES COVERED

-Introduction to Mushroom Biology

-Common Mushrooms + Plants of Greece

-Sex Life of Fungi

-Demystifying Fungal Taxonomy + Binomial names

-Blind tea tasting with local plants and mushrooms

-Ethical Harvesting + Gathering of Plants and Mushrooms

-Smelling Your Way Through the Forest

-Ecology of Mycorrhizal Relationships

-Making of Botanical Hydrosols, Syrups + Honeys

-Common Greek Herbs for Immune support

-Cooking wild mushrooms + local dishes

+ MORE!

What else to expect from our time together

We visit open air markets, cheese and specialty mushroom shops and hunt for the best Spanakopita. This is not a high paced, fully loaded agenda, some days we are purely strolling in the mountains, with access to our collective needs and folks have free time to do as they please, others days we have guest speakers leading us on a walk in their neighborhood medicine garden or other days we are sun bathing on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Our groups are small, we cap them at 12 people.

We do this in hopes to keep this as an experience as authentic as possible. Large groups are too much! Huge buses are a nightmare in the mountains. We cant ever sit all together at dinner and the trails and forest prefer smaller groups too :) We love small groups to hold the the sweetness of fall fruits, through the colors of fall blooming flowers, gorgeous sunsets and of course, the futuristic world of Fungi with us . 

Whats Included:

• Ground transit

• Clean and charming lodging

• Most meals! You will not go hungry!

• Tea, coffee and wine/local spirits during meals

• Guided tours and hikes with mushroom and plant experts

• Guest cooks, speakers and herbalists

• Visits to local markets, ancient holy sites, springs, tavernas, and shops

• Interactive learning experiences about Fungi, plants and their gifts.

• Supplies and materials for making food, tea, art and medicines made during the trip.

• Visits to world renown beaches, and remote inlets of nature

• Experiencing Greece and these lands on the off season of the tourism cycle, which is a true joy.

ITS NOT JUST ABOuT THE FUNGI

We meet, the Olive, their anointing oil and holy groves. Wild thyme, mountain oregano and dozens of other aromatics, creeping from limestone and volcanic soils. Citrus, pomegranates and chestnuts dripping from trees. Each representing a story and a connection passed down through the generations. We spend lots of time with new and common plants and eat fruit right off the trees!

We visit breathtaking beaches, soak in hot springs and witness vistas that a camera really cant capture.

We will spend our days learning and sharing, soaking in the scenes, sometimes, its people watching in the city or bird watching in the highlands, we are tapping into our environment!

Accessability

Ever been in the woods or for a hike with a mushroom person or plant nerd?

We walk a lot, but not fast LOL

There's no rush, we observe and often stop on the whim because, well, there will likely be mushrooms popping on the side of a tree and we hope you would enjoy to see and touch, smell and even gather their wonder. Sometimes its the sight of a giant old tree that will require us to pay homage to its glory, to stop, and observe.

We do walk stairs and on paths and roads that are often unkept and rocky.  Tragically, Greece is not the best for its accessibility and we hope to accommodate as much as we can. We do suggest bringing walking sticks or purchasing a traditional shepherds walking stick when we visit Arahova. Its great to have a third leg sometimes!

Whats Excluded:

• Transportation and flights to and from Greece

• Transportation to our meeting points on Day One

• Pre- and post-trip accommodations

• Spa + Hotel Services

• Travel + Personal Injury insurance (recommended!!)

• Additional meals and drinks outside of our collective meals + offerings

• Alcoholic beverages NOT ordered by the organizers

• Passport and visa fees, if applicable

• Earplugs + white noise machines

$800 deposit is needed to hold your space, this is added towards your total registration

payment plans available-contact me directly

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

Click below for 2026 itineraries

HOSTS

Olga Tzogas runs and operates Smugtown Mushrooms, a farm and mushroom production facility that cultivates mushrooms, offers growing supplies and provides classes to her community for over ten years and has been studying mushrooms and plants for two decades. She is a daughter of Greek immigrant parents and grandparents who started a Greek diner in Rochester, NY in the late 1970s that still operates today. Growing up, she returned back to Greece with her family and spent lots of time in her parents village in the northern borderlands. As she became more enamored with Mycology and botanical studies, her times in Greece became anew, and relearning what gifts the land and experience in the Balkan peninsula shared. Olga remembered that this was part of her, a living tradition, to learn from and to share. Its a deep honor and pleasure to be able to return to Greece to guide, host and share what is loved the most; frolicking in the forest and fields looking at mushrooms, plants and birds.

Her love for fungi and plants definitely has a lot to do with the kitchen, and you’ll notice she’s here to feed people and make them feel comfy and held. She loves the act of growing and gathering food with people and cooking afterwards. Her long family tradition of caring and cooking for people extends here in Greece and with many of her class offerings is a huge part of who she is. Let her show you how she learned to cook some mushrooms!

Olga Tzogas has been hosting classes, events, art shows, music events and lastly and more importantly, mushroom and biocentric events for over a decade. She is a co-creator and organizer for the New Moon Mycology Summit, a justice focused mycology and biocentric gathering. In the past, was an organizer for Mycosymbiotics Mushroom and Arts Festival, now called MycoFest and in 2016 was a core organizer for the Radical Mycology Convergence in New York. She started bringing mushroom minded people to Greece since 2016.

Charlie Aller aka Charliceps is a mycologist and lover of nature born and raised in Central Virginia, USA. A life-changing encounter with fungi in 2012 changed the course of Charlie's life and sent him deep into the mycelium underground. He currently works on low-tek mushroom farming and mycological research at Farfields Farm, a diversified research and educational farm in Afton, Virginia. Charlie also grows and forages mushrooms for Mush Luv, a small business founded with partner Nina O'Malley in 2017 that seeks to facilitate closer relationships with mushrooms in our local community and at large.

Charlie joins us for ALL offerings in Greece

Eleni Bourou

Joins us for ALL our offerings in Greece

A pharmacist and herbalist that has been working with plants for the past 15 years, more specifically growing, harvesting and processing plants to produce reliable and effective therapeutic and cosmetic preparations, but also simply observing them seasonally and mediating to bring people closer to plants and their own bodies, through phytotherapeutic consultation and the sharing of relevant knowledge (workshops, plant walks).  Eleni has recently shared knowledge and facilitated herbal workshops in collaboration with institutions and ventures such as: Global Environments Network (GEN), Radical Herbalism Gathering-UK, Herbfeast-Ireland, Herbalism Day-New Guinea Estate/Nea Makri, Queer Spring Fest-Athens, Hearing Voices-Athens. Eleni is interested in herbal community projects in which she has often participated as a coordinator or simple member and the use of plants in reproductive and sexual health.

Eleni comes from a family of healers – Western-educated as well as traditional – which has been a stimulus for exploring the contrasts, convergences and tensions between the Western biomedical-pharmaceutical and the holistic-traditional health care model. Starting from studies in Pharmacy (UOA) Eleni continues to educate themselves on plant therapy (The Plant Medicine School, Medicum college, Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, Northeast school of Botanical medicine) but also subjects such as nutrition, traditional Mayan womb massage and more traditional practices..

Already planning your own trip to Greece?

My team and I are available for private multi-day mushroom, ecology and folk centered trips in Greece during Spring + Fall

Olga + her network of locals are available to translate and provide care and connection to those in search and want to travel of their ancestral villages or regions. We are here to get you a more authentic experience rooted in traditional practices, care for the land + people.

NEED MORE INFO?

email me directly: smugtownmushrooms@gmail.com or send me a message through the button bellow