CANCELLED: Fall Culinary and Medicinal Mushrooms with Jess Starwood

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CANCELLED: Due to a family emergency, we must cancel this event. Please contact mailto:register@herbwalks.com to be added to a list to hear if we are able to reschedule it.

Special guest author-forager-chef-mushroom expert Jess Starwood and I will begin this full day workshop on Sunday, November 3, with a foraging walk on the Ojai Meadows Preserve among the oaks, sycamores, and eucalyptus. This diverse Ojai habitat is home to several species of fungi and numerous edible and medicinal plants. We will be in search of Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus gilbertsonii), a fall season delicacy, for our afternoon snack.

In the photo montage above you can see a specimen I recently found on this same trail. Of course, we can’t guarantee which mushrooms we’ll find on November 3 as that is unpredictable, dependent on rainfall, weather, and other factors. If we don’t find it, Jess will provide a substitute from her foraged pantry. We will discuss sustainable foraging and identify edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms that can help to nourish and heal us in the winter months to come.

In the afternoon, we will gather in downtown Ojai for a wild mushroom cooking demonstration followed by a slideshow talk on medicinal mushrooms known for building immunity as we enter the cold and flu season. Jess has earned the Integrative Psilocybin Mushroom Specialist certification so she will also discuss psilocybin mushrooms (Psilocybe species), including instruction for how to grow them at home. Afterwards, Jess and I will have our books on hand for sale and signing.

ABOUT JESS STARWOOD:
Jess Starwood is an established author, naturalist, chef, herbalist and educator. She wrote and photographed Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager’s Guide to Finding, Identifying and Using More Than 25 Wild Fungi. She is also the founder of SunRaven Apothecary which offers small-batch handcrafted herbal goods for the journey of the body and mind.

Jess has been teaching foraging, wild foods and nature education classes for children and adults for over ten years in Southern California. She also leads group adventures across the US and Mexico.

With a Master’s of Science degree in Herbal Medicine, Jess is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Science in Integrative Health from the American College of Healthcare Sciences. She has earned the Integrative Psilocybin Mushroom Specialist and Integrative Cannabis Specialist certifications.

Jess is the President of the Los Angeles Mycological Society and Editor of the amateur mycology journal McIlvainea. She also serves on the board of directors for the Arizona Mushroom Society. Jess is a frequent contributor to Edible Ojai and Ventura County magazine.

Her website is at www.jstarwood.com. She can be found on Instagram @jess.starwood.

ABOUT LANNY KAUFER:
Lanny Kaufer has been leading Herb Walks in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since 1976, educating hundreds of locals and visitors on the flora of the area with a focus on herbs that can be used for food and medicine. As an herbal educator, Lanny also leads workshops and presentations throughout the Ojai-Ventura-Santa Barbara area on the edible and medicinal uses of California plants. He holds a degree in Biology from UC Santa Cruz and is the author of Medicinal Herbs of California: A Field Guide to Common Healing Plants (Falcon Guides, 2021).

The cost for the workshop is $145/person, payable in advance by personal check or on PayPal (see below). PayPal price includes their fee of $5.55. No dogs or smoking, please.

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