Non-profits + grassroot orgs can call or text me directly for varying rates + collaborations
Private Wild Mushroom Classes + Foraging 2024
CALENDAR IS OPEN FOR 2024 PRIVATE CLASS DATES- CONTACT ME FOR SCHEDULING
We offer private class options for folks wanting a more intimate learning experience and to become more confident about what is growing on their land, in parks and urban settings. Classes typically run between 2-3 hours.
LOCATION is agreed upon by interested party and Smugtown Mushrooms
to inquire please call or text 585.690.1926
Meal/Light snacks and refreshments included
Time of year: Generally March-November but could be extended if weather permits
$400 for a group of 2-5 people, each additional person is $75
Rates may vary based on location & travel time
Non-refundable deposit of $100 is required to secure your date.
OTHER CLASS + WORKSHOP OPTIONS
Preparing + Cooking Mushrooms (1-2hours)
Mushrooms are intimidating in the kitchen for some folks, so we are here to demystify and show their diversity in textures, flavors and use.
Together we explore ways one can easily gain access to the nutritious and delicious world of edible mushrooms. With mushrooms gaining popularity, it’s easier to find more exotic and rarer mushrooms in super markets. Together we will prepare and cook various cultivated mushrooms!
Learn to cook with mushrooms that can be made into a variety of different meals.! Olga has been cooking her whole life, the daughter of Greek immigrants who still to this day run a diner in upstate New York, food has been a core part of her experience. Cooking mushrooms in different ways helps spice up basic recipes and lets us expand our abilities to feed ourselves and loved ones.
Class needs: Ideally an indoor or weather protected kitchen, seating for class attendees, 2-3 tables and water. Access to be able to provide a powerpoint presentation would be great but not required. (HDMI hookup to a TV or projector)
Simple Medicinal Mushroom Preparations (1.5-3 hours)
Together we go through various ways we can access the profound ways mushrooms can help us build immunity and strengthen ourselves and our communities. We go over several varieties of mushrooms that are known for their beneficial properties. Learn techniques and recipes to take home with you.
We navigate the complex web & ancient world of medicinal mushrooms. Explore how they grow in nature then, how they nurture us in return. Explore the deep history humans have with medicinal mushrooms & their power to heal. Identifying uses, and ways to prepare them. We will demonstrate the vast options and diversity of properties within just a handful of selected varieties. The most common and popular we will look at & work with is the Reishi or Lingzhi mushroom, the legendary ‘Mushroom of Immortality.’
Journey through other divine healers of the wil; the Turkey Tail mushroom, Lion’s Mane mushroom, & the common culinary mushroom, the Shiitake. Learn about how each of these mushrooms exists in nature, how we can cultivate a working relationship with them in our health regimens and of course keep them sacred and wild where they deserve to remain. Raising awareness of the growing market for these healers and what it means for us to do our part to grow our own, and explore the ethics of this huge growing industry.
-Learn the basic life cycle and biology of mushrooms and their Fungal relatives.
-Learn how mushrooms exist in nature to better understand how they grow, and how we can apply these methods to our lives, agriculture, health regimens and more.
-Journey through a few varieties of medicinal mushrooms that are commonly found in stores.
-We go over methods we can prepare and use these medicinals for both food and/or medicine.
-Tastings of long brewed Chaga tea and freshly extracted tinctures + oxymels.
Optional Add-On:
Preparation of the first part of our double extracted Reishi mushroom tincture, this involves processing the Reishi and storing & soaking it with supplied grain alcohol.
Class Needs: 2-4 tables, seating for attendees, electricity, powerpoint(HDMI connection to TV or projector), water, coffee cups/mugs for tea serving
The Fruiting Body: Immersion into the World of Mushrooms & Fungi
(1-2hours) (this is a general mushrooms 101 style class )
Use all your senses to learn about the vast & diverse world of mushroom & fungi. Examining their ancient story that connects humans and all life to them. Take a look at the roles mushrooms play within our lives, the forest, and in food systems. Learn basic concepts of mycology, and explore into their biology. Enter into the "wood wide web" and find out how they exist in nature & in return be nurtured by them, for food, medicine & ceremony.
-Learn the basic life cycle and biology of mushrooms and their Fungal relatives.
-Learn how mushrooms exist in nature to better understand how they grow, and how we can apply these methods to our lives, agriculture, health regimens and more.
Class Needs: Seating for attendees, powerpoint(HDMI connection to TV or projector)*
*I can do this class analog but its def better with some slides
Mushrooms + Culture of Greece(1-1.5 hours)
Experience and take a visual journey into the diverse and lush natural world of Greece. Ancient forests, traditional land based living still exist, providing a rich culture weaved within nature itself. Connections to fungi are ever present and it’s only gaining more attention. Take a look into the relationships the locals have with certain species of mushrooms, plants, & their recipes for use. Olga Tzogas of Smugtown Mushrooms, based in Rochester, NY returns to her ancestral home to learn and connect deeper to the mycelial communities, and the people still practicing traditional ways of life or those creating a new. Greece is typically pictured by blue bird skies and matching crystalline seascapes, but Greece is home to lush dense forests of several Oak species, Chestnut, Beech, Fir, Sycamores and Pine to name a few. The life they harbor is exquisite. See the similarities of fungal life that are shared on both continents. Together we see a visual depiction of the funga, flora + fauna of this diverse ecological haven of the country of Greece.
Additional Add-on: Cooking demo of common mushroom recipes made in Greece
Class Needs: Electricity, seating for attendees, Powerpoint(HDMI hookup on a TV or projector)
Grow Wine Cap Mushrooms for Food + Soil Health
(2 hours)
Together we will explore the many ways we can integrate Fungi into our systems. One of the easiest ways is by eating them and growing them. Learn some basic methods for growing mushrooms in your garden or indoors.
We will explain direct methods of cultivation of the Wine Cap Mushroom. Wine caps are amazing and delicious mushrooms that can be planted in gardens, grow alongside your plants and create a polyculture of plants, mushrooms, microbes + more.
Wine Cap mushrooms have incredible tenacity and provide so much to us when we tap into their special ecological role they play. They have notoriety for helping with water retention, building up soil, reducing erosion and even repairing soil damaged from human caused pollution. Plus they’re edible and delicious.
-Attendees learn basic lifecycle + ecological roles of mushrooms
-We will visualize what it looks like to start creating mycobeds by growing and sharing the uses of fungi and mushrooms to better create networks and consistent growth of health, sustenance & sovereignty.
Optional Add-on: Togethe, if we have access to a garden, we can install a Wine Cap bed as a hands-on demo component.
MYCELIAL SUPPER CLUB
We pop up in your town and serve up yummy food you cant get anywhere else! We make and serve a mushroom themed meal! This type of activity can be promoted as a ticketed dinner or meal that can include an option of a hands-on cooking demo.
Our hidden joy and talent is that we LOVE cooking, and especially we love cooking for others and offering tasty, different ways to prepare and serve mushrooms. This meal can consist from 2-5 different plates. We can typically accommodate all dietary needs.
Supper Club Needs: Covered or indoor kitchen, water, tables + seating for attendees, plates + flatware(unless agreed that we provide)
