Shaggy Jack's Wild Mushroom Foraging Workshops & Excursions 2021 Hello, everybody, mushroom season is finally here! We're off to a late start due to the heatwave and drought on the Sunshine Coast this summer, but the rains are upon us and nature's bounty awaits! The ever-popular Shaggy Jack's Wild Mushroom Foraging For Beginners class is back for its 4th season! This 6-hour, two-part workshop immerses you in all the basic tools you need to know to start foraging for edible wild mushrooms in our region, followed by a forest walk in which you get to apply your new knowledge with the help and support of Shaggy Jack! Part 1 is a 3.5 hour slideshow presentation that teaches you the basic ecology of mushrooms, what you need to know to safely identify them, targeting productive mushroom habitat, and how to identify a few dozen of the most popular edible & medicinal mushrooms in our Coastal forests. Along the way, I share information about processing, cooking and preserving each mushroom. Part 2 is a 2.5 hour Forest Excursion, a walk in the woods to one of Shaggy Jack's favorite mushroom spots, where you get to pick and bring home a variety of good edible mushrooms to try out, with Shaggy Jack there to answer your questions and help you make correct identifications. The cost for the 2-part workshop is $75/person, with special group discounts if you sign up with family, friends or co-workers! NOTE: Due to COVID restrictions, the classroom portion of most workshops will be held via Zoom. After taking the Zoom class, students may opt to join any forest walk that is scheduled. The only in-person appearance I will be making this year will be at the MushrooMania festival in Gibsons which runs October 29th to 31st. MushrooMania will feature a showing of the movie Dosed, speakers and workshops about culinary, dying, medicinal and entheogenic mushrooms, a mushroom marketplace and more! There will also be a special price for my class: $60/person - sign up now because seats are limited. This year, I am teaming up with chef/forager Benjamin Berwick of Dachi restaurant in Vancouver to host Forage To Feast events - 3 hours of foraging followed by a gourmet forest cookout with mushrooms you picked yourself! Featuring locally foraged & grown foods + regional craft beverages, you won't want to miss this unique experience! $125/person + group discounts. For the more adventurous foragers, I offer 5-hour Forest Foraging Excursions for intermediate to advanced hikers who have experience with mushrooms but want to up their games. For Graduates who have previously taken my classes, I offer discounts on all workshops and excursions so you can refresh your knowledge of mushrooms. Families who want to bring children along can inquire about custom outings that are affordable and age appropriate, considering that children may not be able to stay out as long as adults. Mushroom-lovers will also want to keep their eye out on the Sunshine Coast and BC Ferries for the latest issue of Sunshine Coast Palate magazine, which includes 12 pages of mushroom articles adapted from my upcoming book, including a comprehensive Guide Toe Edible Wild Mushrooms Of The Sunshine Coast (which you will want to keep!), Shaggy Jack's Top 10 Culinary Wild Mushrooms and an indispensable Guide To Mushroom Foraging Guides. You may purchase some of these books directly from me. For more information and to register for any of my workshops or excursions, visit my website at www.shaggyjack.com/workshops Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. You may call or text 604-366-1950, or email me at shaggyjackswildmushrooms@gmail.com Hope to see you in the forest! Cheers, Shaggy Jack
