Making Friends with Fungus

June 11th, 2011, 10-2 pm

at a secret enchanted location
near Asheville, NC

“O Tiger-lily,” said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, `I wish you could talk!”

“We can talk,” said the Tiger-lily, “when there’s anybody worth talking to.”

Alice was so astonished that she could not speak for a minute. It quite seemed to take her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving about, Alice spoke again, in a timid voice– almost in a whisper. “And can all the flowers talk?”

“As well as you can,” said the Tiger-lily. “And a great deal louder.”

“It isn’t manners for us to begin, you know,” said the Rose, “and I really was wondering when you’d speak.”

Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass

Can mushrooms talk? In this workshop, we'll learn the basics of wild mushroom hunting, but we'll also learn why you might want to "meet it before you eat it." After sixteen years of eating, making medicine from, selling, and teaching about wild mushrooms, I can assure you that befriending fungi is far more valuable than simply "using" them. We'll talk about how Nonviolent Communication (NVC) can turn foraging --which means "plundering"-- into a mutually rewarding exchange. For more on NVC, visit my relationship school, The REAL Center.

$40-60/person sliding scale, $15-40 after June 6th.