375 Panterkill Road PO Box 70 Phoenicia, NY 12464 United States
September 18 - 20, 2026
About this Retreat
John Michelotti is the founder of Catskill Fungi which empowers people with fungi through outdoor educational classes, cultivation courses, mushroom art, and mushroom health extracts. John is a past president of the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association (MHMA) where he co-founded the Catskill Regional Mycoflora Project as well as the Gary Lincoff Memorial Scholarship. He served on the
Mushroom Advisory Panel for Certified Naturally Grown to develop ecological standards in mushroom production. He was chosen by the Catskill Center as a "Steward of the Catskills" for his contribution to the environment. His goal is to educate and inspire people to pair with fungi to improve health, communities, and the environment.
Catskill Fungi
Catskill Fungi produces high integrity, triple-extracted health tinctures from mushrooms that are wild-crafted or grown near our family farm in the Catskill Mountains. We enjoy sharing our love of mushrooms on our guided mushroom walks, medicinal and cultivation workshops, and our fungi retreats. Catskill Fungi has a foundation of permaculture principles. This means the core of our business is about helping people and improving the planet through our work with mushrooms. We practice sustainable harvesting, leave-no-trace principles, and compassion for the environment. We aim to empower people to grow edible mushrooms as a fun source of fresh food, to heal themselves through utilizing health properties of fungi, and to explore the historical uses and present day innovations of this exceptional kingdom.
Aubrey graduated from Indiana University in 2016 with a BS in Biology. He has worked at several different ecological institutions in and around the NYC area, including the Central Park Conservancy, the Westchester Land Trust, the Stamford Land Conservation Trust, and Sleepy Cat Farm. Currently the Assistant Ecological Manager at Manitou Point Preserve near Garrison, NY, Aubrey became deeply fascinated with fungi after reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, and has since devoted much of his life to cultivating that curiosity. Aubrey publishes a newsletter every Monday, entitled 'Mushroom Monday', which features photos and a profile of a different mushroom he has found throughout his travels. All archived posts can be read on mushroom-monday.com. He also leads public and private mushroom walks in Central Park, and is an active member in the New York Mycological Society. After five years in NYC, Aubrey has recently settled in Putnam Valley, NY and is spreading his mycelium in this fungal friendly part of the state.
Erwin Karl is a farmer, mycologist and educator who has led walks and workshops for Catskill Fungi and Mid Hudson Mycological Association. He serves as site manager at the CycleX farm
in Andes, NY where he has been involved in building maintenance, construction and agriculture for more than a decade. His projects in mycology, permaculture, beekeeping, canning, fermentation and wildcrafting build upon pursuits cultivated while growing up in a family that grew produce and kept livestock. He shares his interests by co-hosting the Farm Hour on WIOX (91.3 FM), writing plays about the Catskills for Preserve Players, and volunteering at the Michael Kudish Natural History Preserve.
Gabriela D’Elia is the Director of the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS), VP for Mushroom Society of Utah, Project Leader for FunDiS Local Project Northern Utah Funga, and founder of her company Moon Mushrooms, which focuses on holistic mycology, crafting tiny batch tinctures, and MycoAstrology.
Details of this retreat
Join the Catskill Fungi team for a weekend of fun, wonderment and enlightenment as we delve into the forests of Menla, and engage the fungal residents there. Take a hands-on approach to learn how to identify common fungi in the forest. Through using your senses, you will be acquainted with multiple species and confirm your IDs. Learn to sustainably harvest mushrooms in the forest, how to clean them, cook them, and eat them. We will also dehydrate mushrooms to make teas and medicinal tinctures. This ID focused course is for any beginner or Friends of Fungi alumni to take a deeper dive into befriending and foraging fungi.
Participants will learn to:
-Identify common edible and medicinal mushrooms
-Cook and eat wild and cultivated mushrooms
-Preserve and store mushrooms
-Make mushroom tinctures and extracts with medicinal mushrooms
Finish the weekend with:
-Confidence in identifying some edible, wild mushrooms
-Foraging hand lens and Mushroom journal
-Medicinal mushroom tinctures
-Dehydrated mushrooms
-Deeper connection with fungi, nature, self, and friends
Many people say "I would never trust myself to eat mushrooms from the forest." This is a healthy fear and an important first step to safe foraging. John didn't trust himself until someone showed him which mushrooms were edible, and he was confident he could tell them apart from their lookalikes. At some point we all learned to recognize and name different animals. Now we would never mistake a deer for an elk. One mushroom at a time, we learn to identify different species of fungi. This weekend get to know your common, easy, edible wild mushrooms. Learn to look, smell, and feel the differences between some obvious edible mushrooms that have few or no poisonous lookalikes.
There is no greater act that connects you directly to nature and the land than confidently finding something in the forest, identifying it as nourishing food or medicine, working with that organism to prepare it, and ingesting the nutrients it has to offer you. We are happy to help show you how to trust yourself and your resources to get to know, forage, identify, and prepare easy, edible and medicinal mushrooms.
This is Friends of Fungi's 12th session, and we are looking forward to another wonderful weekend of foraging!
Catskill Fungi professional guides, presenters, and private-walk leaders: Aubrey Carter, Erwin Karl, Gabriela D'Elia, and John Michelotti
Schedule:
Friday, September 18
3 - 6 pm Check-in
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 pm Evening Program: Intro and Welcome Circle
Evening Presentation: Mushrooms 101 - Biology and Ecology of Fungi - John
How to use INaturalist, FUNDIS, and Resources
Saturday, September 19
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am Characteristics to Identify Mushrooms
10 am Pick up Bag Lunch
10 am - 3 pm Extended Mushroom Identification Walk: Finding Food and Medicine
3 - 4:30 pm Break
4:30 - 6 pm Cooking, Dehydrating and Preserving Mushrooms
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 pm Evening Program
Groups of Mushrooms and ID Table Walk Through
9 pm Optional: Open Discussion at Fire Pit and Music Jam (bring instruments)
Sunday, September 20
7 - 11 am Check-out of Rooms
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Morning Program
Mushroom walk
Edible/Medicinal Mushroom review
Foraged Mushroom Collection Review
Closing Circle
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch & Departure
*Please note that schedule is subject to change.
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