Note: This walk is at capacity; please join our waitlist as cancellations do happen. Thank you for your interest!
Summer rains summon an astounding variety of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. Join The Nature Museum on a wild edible mushrooming adventure called "The Wild World of Mushrooms” on Saturday, August 25th. Your mycological tour guide, Ari Rockland-Miller, will give a colorful presentation introducing the region’s most distinctive and delicious species, followed by a guided foray in the rich woods nearby conserved by the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association. Ari makes mushroom hunting accessible, safe, and wildly entertaining.
Rockland-Miller will introduce participants to the Northeast’s safest and most distinctive gourmet and medicinal fungi, emphasizing his “ForageCast” strategy. Workshop participants will also discover how to best cook these fruits of the forest and will get a taste when our wild finds are served up right on the spot following our foray. Once you put on your forager’s eyes, your hikes will never be the same again!
Please come dressed for a summer hike over uneven terrain and bring a water bottle. This workshop will begin at The Nature Museum at 186 Townshend Road in Grafton. Following a presentation by Ari, we will foray on nearby land that is part of the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association, just a short drive from the Museum.
Spaces are limited on these walks and participants are strongly encouraged to purchase their tickets early. This program is geared to adults and youth over 15 years old. It is not appropriate for younger children to attend.
Cost: $30; must be reserved in advance
About Ari Rockland-Miller
Ari Rockland-Miller is a writer, instructor and lecturer on wild and cultivated mushrooms and edible plants. He is co-founder of the popular blog The Mushroom Forager (www.themushroomforager.com). The Mushroom Forager's work has been featured on CNN's Great Big Story, New England Public Radio, Vermont Public Radio, WCAX, and in magazines including Vermont Life and Northern Woodlands.
Ari is an ardent mycophile who enjoys nothing more than the exhilarating feeling of the mushroom hunt. Over the years he has found hundreds of pounds of gourmet and medicinal wild mushrooms, and he loves to share his knowledge and adventures with blog readers and workshop participants. Ari has facilitated over 150 presentations and hands-on workshops to over 3,000 mycophiles from around the world.
He finds inspiration in the gourmet mycorrhizal mushrooms, like porcini and chanterelles, which only thrive in the wild and resist cultivation. He became an expert in cultivating shiitake mushrooms in agroforestry systems when he managed Cornell University's Mushroom Research Project and Cornell University's agroforestry teaching site and farm, the MacDaniels Nut Grove. He has a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from Vermont Law School. Ari lives in Burlington with his wife and daughter.