Description
Wild mushrooms – Wild camp – Wild cookery
Three days of deep forest immersion exploring all thing fungi
Join foraging guide Mark Williams of Galloway Wild Foods and Steven Hanton of The Wilderness Folk School for an immersive fungi-themed 3 days of mycology, mushroom hunting, wild gastronomy, outdoor cooking, camp craft and bushcraft skills in the stunning woodlands of Perthshire.
This long weekend consists of talks, forays, presentations, workshops, hands-on cookery, fungal medicine-making, mushroom crafts, wild living skills and relaxed camp living. We will be based in a stunning private riverside oak woodland campsite. Expect wood smoke, parachute shelters, and deep immersion in Perthshire’s spectacular forests in all their autumn glory.
While our main theme for the course is fungi, we will also take an interest in plants and their uses.
The event is suitable for fungi novices, though those with a basic understanding of fungi looking to improve their ID skills and connect more deeply with mycology will also enjoy it.
Steven Hanton
Meet Your Guides…
Steven Hanton is a bushcraft expert with over 20 years’ experience in wilderness skills, bushcraft and remote travel. He has spent extensive time with indigenous peoples across the globe for whom bushcraft is still a way of life, but he is no more at home than when exploring the fantastic woods, rivers and mountains of his native Scotland. A resident of highland Perthshire, Steven is passionate about the natural history and wildlife of the area and brings a wealth of experience to this exciting collaboration. As well as sharing years of practical fungi foraging knowledge, Steven will run the expedition style camp, bring some bushcraft magic and teach some exciting campfire cookery techniques.
Mark Williams.
Mark Williams of Galloway Wild Foods is a passionate mycophile, wild gastronomer and professional wild food educator, who has been teaching about wild mushroom identification and edibility for 30 years. Mark is a font of knowledge and enthusiasm on wild fungi, specialising in making this often daunting subject fun and accessible to novices, while providing solid foundations for a lifetime of discovery, enjoyment and worry-free wild eating. Mark writes widely on this subject and works closely with leading mycologists, landowner/conservation organisations such as The National Trust and Scottish Natural Heritage. Mark’s wild mushroom cookins are legendary! Mark is also a member of the Association of Foragers and the British Mycological Society.
Steven and Mark share a love of the outdoors and the natural world, and know how to make it fun and accessible. You will leave with new skills, knowledge and insights into the remarkable world of fungi, as well as outdoor living and fire cookery skills.
Our camp for the course will have sheltered fire cookery and workshop areas
Location:
Aberfeldy area. Our camp will be in a privately owned oak woodland. Ticket holders will be notified of the exact meeting point and kit list a month prior to the event.
Format:
This is a holistic and immersive weekend based around a fully provisioned wild camp, with food included in the ticket price. You should bring your own camping gear, but full camp infrastructure including fire-pits, sheltered social spaces, hygienic outdoor toilet and shower and lots more will be set up for you.
Steven and Mark will set up and provision a well stocked wild kitchen
The weekend is designed to give a full and rounded insight into the fungal kingdom and to help those with a basic grounding in fungi identification and usage take their skills to the next level. While we will certainly take an interest in edible fungi, and eat plenty, the weekend is about exploring and understanding ALL fungi. Camp life and outdoor skills will also be a core part of the weekend, and you can expect plenty of expert guidance around wild camping and cookery skills throughout.
The course includes slide presentations, hands-on workshops, wild food cookery using open fires, discussion of the most useful fungi textbooks, and exploration of a diverse range of (very mushroomy) forest habitats.
While our focus for the weekend is fungi, we will certainly not ignore the useful and delicious wild plants we encounter along the way!
Chaga and hen of the woods tea. We will explore medicinal and utilitarian uses of fungi on the course.
Expect:
The event takes place from 6.30pm on Thursday 3rd October to 4.00pm on Sunday 6th October.
You should be happy camping in autumn conditions, and have your own camping gear (a full kit list will be issued prior to the event).
You should be prepared to contribute (with guidance/training) to camp life with such tasks as fire-tending, food preparation and washing up.
You should be of moderate fitness and comfortable outdoors in all weathers.
Chanterelles hot-pickled with pineapple weed. We will explore pickling and other mushroom preservation techniques on the course.
What is Included in the Ticket Price?
- Breakfast,lunch and dinner from Thursday evening until Sunday lunch. Cooking and eating together are integral parts of the weekend and the event is catered to a high standard using a wide range of wild mushrooms/herbs and wild meat. Most dietary requirements can be accommodated, though if you don’t eat wild meat you will miss out on some of the highlights. While Steven and Mark will lead the cooking, you will be expected to be an active participant in food preparation and cleaning up afterwards (ie. don’t expect to be waited on!).
- Camping Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. We’ll be wild camping in a beautiful private oak woodland by a river for all three nights. You’ll pitch your own tent (we can help if required), but we’ll have great camp infrastructure set up for you, with a parachute shelter, a social fire area, a fire cooking areas, clean drinking water, an outdoor, private, rustic-but-hygeinic toilet, a camp shower, and a kettle always on the go. Don’t want to camp? While we recommend camping on site to get the most out of the course, you may also stay off-site, but this does not reduce the ticket price. The campsite is not accessible for campervans, but there are nearby off-site campervan options if required.
- Tuition, presentations, guided walks, workshops and practical sessions on wild mushrooms, bushcraft and general outdoor skills with Mark and Steven. The weekend will be full, but gently paced. After being talked through camp safety and etiquette, Mark will give a short presentation before we set off for a guided foray around the woodland around the camp on Friday. On Saturday we’ll have a short drive (car sharing) to a remarkably fungi-filled forest. Each foray will be followed by a workshop session back at camp, getting to know our finds using field guides before laying out and labelling them, then processing for for preservation, medicinal use, or dinner. The Sunday will be left flexible to respond to needs and interests of attendees. The guided forays move at a slow pace, covering under 2 miles over about 3 hours, but you will be on your feet for up to 4 hours and should be comfortable on pathless, boggy and hilly terrain. The event is timed to allow us to encounter the widest possible diversity of fungi (expect over 100 species), but this can be a wet time of year.
We will spend time identifying, laying out and labelling our finds
Topics covered include:
Fungi Skills and Knowledge:
- The important roles fungi plays in nature
- How to go about identifying important families and species of fungi
- How to make and use spore prints to help identify fungi
- The role foragers can play in enhancing and recording fungal diversity
- Multiple fungi habitats, including ancient oak, beech, conifers, birch and ancient pasture
- Tree identification in relation to finding and identifying mushrooms
- How to observe and record key features of fungi
- How to home in on the most rewarding edible species
- Responsible harvesting: ethics and sustainable harvesting practices
- Important poisonous species
- Medicinal and utilitarian uses of fungi
- Psychedelic fungi
- Preservation and cooking techniques
- Key resources for taking your personal learning forward
- Using fungi in wild cocktails
- Fungi lore, tales and stories – by the campfire!
We will prepare food using a variety of fire cooking techniques
Campcraft and Wild Cookery:
Steven has a vast knowledge and experience of bushcraft and will be sharing his passion and insight throughout the course. In particular we will be exploring:
- Fire lighting, management and specific fire lays for cooking
- Wood choice for cooking fires, hot-smoking and poisonous woods to avoid
- Underground (hāngī) cookery
- Wilderness cookery techniques – planking, broiling and campfire breads
- Making amadou and other utilitarian uses for fungi
Cooking wild mushrooms in the forest. Image ©GallowayWildFoods.com
Further Information: All ticket holders will be emailed full details of our meeting point and the kit you need to bring 1 month prior to the event. To ensure you receive the email, follow the instructions that come with your booking confirmation. If you have specific questions that aren’t answered here, please email mark@gallowaywildfoods.com .
Learn about and enjoy fungi-themed cocktails
Please note that Due to the complex nature of fungi and mushroom identification, this event is not recommended for children under 16 years. All tickets are charged at full price and all under 18s must be accompanied by an adult who is also attending the course.
Sorry, this event is not suitable for dogs.
Please read the IMPORTANT INFORMATION tab on this page before booking and again before setting off for the event.
Wild Mushroom Paté
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