Sunday, June 5th, 2022 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM at Kerncliff Park

Identifying Edible And Medicinal Mushrooms

Learn to identify the most common edible and medicinal mushrooms that grow in the spring in Southern Ontario.

Join The Workshop

Get Fascinated By Mushrooms

Discover The Crucial Role That The Kingdom of Fungi Plays in Terrestrial Life On Earth.

If you’ve always been curious about  the different mushrooms you see in the forest then you won’t want to miss this workshop.

Come discover the billion year long story of fungi and how as nature’s organic recycling and detoxification system, fungi are crucial for the health of soils, forests and human beings.

Yet very little is known about them… they are one of nature’s enduring mysteries and studying the living wisdom of fungi may offer the missing link to a more regenerative approach to restoring our environment and healing ourselves.

During this experiential learning workshop in Burlington’s Kerncliff Park along the Niagara Escarpment, you’ll learn how to start identifying and cataloging local mushrooms species with your smartphone.

This way you can start improving your pattern recognition skills and transform your hikes into mushroom identification treasure hunts!

We’ll also cover the latest scientific research into medicinal mushrooms and explore their well-studied healing compounds that are adaptogenic, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, immune-stimulatory, and mood-elevating.

To continue deepening your knowledge and understanding after this workshop, you will get our Digital Field Guide for Identifying Mushrooms, which covers common edible and medicinal mushrooms that are found in Southern Ontario.

The workshop goes rain or shine. Please dress appropriately.

Here’s Are The Learning Objectives For This Spring Mushroom Identification Workshop:

Black Morel

1. Identifying Spring Mushrooms

Gain an understanding of the important edible and medicinal mushrooms found in the spring in our local forests.

Learn to identify 5-10 of the most common edible and medicinal mushrooms that grow this time of the year.

2. Ethical Foraging

Learn essential practices for ethnical foraging mushrooms that can actually increase biodiversity and where you can do it safely and legally in Southern Ontario.

During this workshop, we won’t be picking any mushrooms as it’s not allowed in municipal and provincial parks. You’ll learn where to find Crown Land locally where you can find mushrooms.

 

Mushroom ID Table
Lions Mane Forest

3. Adaptogenic Mushrooms

You’ll learn how fungi are crucial for a both healthy soil microbiome that leads to healthy forests and a healthy human gut microbiome that is crucial for our health and longevity.

The adaptogenic properties of many medicinal mushrooms help our bodies adapt to stress by reducing inflammation, increasing energy and boost our natural immunity.


4. An Ecological Internet

Learn about how mycelium creates what’s called the “Wood Wide Web”, a kind of ecological Internet that interconnects plants and trees in the soil.

A better understanding of these mycelial webs will be crucial for regenerating our depleted soil, restoring forest biodiversity and reversing the climate change.

Mycelial Web Vertical
Mindfulness

5. Ignite Awe And Wonder

This experiential learning experience is designed to ignite a sense of awe and wonder about fungi to motivate continued lifelong learning.

Come learn through direct experience, meet other mushroom enthusiasts and make new friends for better group foraging adventures in the future.

In addition, all participants will get these 3 bonuses for continued lifelong learning.

Take your ecological awareness to the next level.

1. Digital Field Guide To Common Mushrooms of Southern Ontario

Get our digital field guide for identifying and cataloging your mushrooms with your smartphone so rapidly develop your fungal pattern recognition skills.

2. 5 Essential Fungi Documentaries To Broaden Your Ecological Knowledge

Get access to our documentary learning guide covering different topics around fungi and their crucial role in the evolution of life on Earth.

3. Identifying Spring Mushrooms Guide

Learn 6 of the most common edible and medicinal mushrooms that grow in the spring season with a more in-depth downloadable learning guide.

About The Instructor

Kyle Pearce began teaching forest meditation and eco-mindfulness workshops in 2016 in Stanley Park in his home of Vancouver, Canada and since then has lead mindful nature immersion experiences all over the world.

He got into foraging for edible and medicinal mushrooms with the Vancouver Mycology Society and he has previously lead over 15 mushroom identification workshops in Canada, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia.

Awecology grew out of his passion for how experiential learning, group storytelling and transformative nature experiences can be a catalyst for boosting curiosity, ecological awareness and fostering the long-term motivation necessary to create sustainable change.

Identifying Edible And Medicinal Mushrooms In Southern Ontario

We have limited spots for this in-person workshop, make sure you purchase your tickets early.

Join The Training ($35)

About The Location

We will be meeting at the main parking lot of Kerncliff Park in Burlington, Ontario. It’s a 45-minute drive from Toronto or Niagara Falls.

Kerncliff Park is one of the most beautiful places along the Niagara Escarpment offering wetlands for birdwatching, natural springs, large ravines and spectacular vistas of Lake Ontario and the Toronto skyline in the distance.

The workshop will run from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Kerncliff Park (location on Google Maps)

2198 Kerns Road,
Burlington, ON
L7P 1P8

What 5 Previous Workshop Participants Have Said

I loved the "Identifying Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms" workshop! We saw bonnets and turkey tail and oyster mushrooms and shaggy mane and vermillion waxcap and resinous polypore. Not only did we ID and learn about some common local mushrooms, but Kyle also wove in historical snippets, tales of mythology, anthropological facts and spiritual ideas. It was a great adventure in a beautiful location. Very much recommended!

Tracey L.Hamilton, Ontairo

My experience at the mushroom ecology workshop with Kyle was a great introduction into a vast new world of connections. The workshop was ideal for every level, as Kyle catered to the unique interests of all individuals that day. Kyle has a depth of knowledge that spans beyond pure mushroom ecology which creates a very dynamic experience. We were able to find many different species of mushrooms and identify them with Kyle's expertise. Kyle also provided a dense list of references and review from the session so there was no pressure to take notes and tons of resources to consult after the session! The forest meditation was an awesome experience and one that I have added to my meditation practices and can practice on my own. Kyle did a fantastic job making a connection with everyone and ensuring all questions were answered. He is so knowledgable on so many topics that he is able to add context to the geographic location, the ecology of the forest and even some anthropologic history. All around a fantastic experience that I would recommend to everyone regardless of their level of mushroom knowledge/interest.

Brittany B.London, Ontario

I had a really great experience with the edible and medicinal mushroom workshop with Kyle. He was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of information with us. I would definitely be interested in more sessions!

Aaron K.Toronto, Ontario

I went on one of Kyle's meditation and foraging workshops in a local forest last fall and I was immediately hooked. Kyle not only chose a beautiful place to learn and meet like minded people, but has the education and charisma that left me more curious and has peaked my interest in mushrooms not only as a chef but for their amazing medicinal properties and their pivotal part in food sustainability. Kyle is engaged, entertaining and open minded. I could go on and on about going to this workshop I don't know what I expected but it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning and would recommend participating in anything Kyle has to offer because his passion about mushrooms is magnetic!

Dana M.Hamilton, Ontairo

I loved every minute of the workshop. I found Kyle to be very informative and engaging, especially when it came to your knowledge of history. The workshop further piqued my interest in mycology and I really appreciated how you hung around afterwards to answer questions and share more stories. You can really tell how passionate you are about your work, which made the workshop even more rewarding. I highly recommend it to anyone. 10/10!

Christina N.Burlington, Ontairo