A practical 2 Day Masterclass in mushroom medicine making, backed up with supporting theory tuition and a trip into the forest to see some of the medicinal fungi in-situ.
Avebury World Heritage Site, Wiltshire, UK – 18th & 19th May 2024
COST: £220.00 – Contact fred@thewildsideoflife.co.uk
…also Hollyfort, Co. Wexford, Ireland – 11th & 12th September 2024
For the course in Ireland contact nikki@theplantmedicineschool.com directly.
Cordyceps militaris or scarlet caterpillar club, is a powerful resilience boosting fungal adaptogen, and has been used since ancient times in the far east. It is actually a rare native fungus in the UK that is cultivated to supply the need for medicinal use.
Creating remedies from wild and cultivated medicinal mushrooms.
During this 2 day course you will learn to identify and use a range of wild medicinal fungi from the woodlands and hedgerows together with organically / biodynamically cultivated rarer species such as Cordyceps (or scarlet caterpillar fungus), lion’s mane and reishi, to craft medicinal extracts to support the body’s own healing processes in dealing with many different health conditions. These include, but are not limited to; joint inflammation, HSV, HPV, sciatica, mild cognitive impairment, recent nerve damage, poor immunity, some types of cancer, diabetes mellitus, viruses like colds and flu, elevated cholesterol levels and many other conditions.
You will gain valuable hands-on experience, with experienced tuition from Fred Gillam, an experienced field mycologist and practising herbalist, with a formal training in immunology. As well as studying the mushrooms themselves we will be investigating the way that they interact with our immune systems and gut microbiome. This course is a combination of practical medicine making techniques that you can carry out at home, mushroom identification in the field and essential theory taught by lectures and slides to make your mushroom medicines more effective. You will take home samples of all the medicines that you have made to try!
Lion’s mane, Hericium erinaceus – This mushroom stimulates nerve regeneration, and shows promise for treating depression and mild cognitive impairment. It is a criminal offence to harvest it from the wild however, owing to its rarity. For maximum effectiveness it must be prepared in the right way.
Whilst medical research and clinical trials have contributed much to our knowledge in recent years, a wide range of benefits have been attributed to medicinal mushrooms by some traditional medicine systems for thousands of years. Although they are not a ‘magic-bullet’, certain mushrooms and mushroom extracts can be shown to provide measurable benefits in managing blood sugar levels, cholesterol metabolism, appetite and immunity as well as providing a superb range of nutritional benefits. As always more research is still needed and the annual investment in this research globally is now large. Around the world, medicinal mushrooms are being used to assist the body to fight serious illnesses such as tuberculosis and some types of cancer, alongside more conventional therapies. The global functional mushrooms market is estimated to be worth 64 billion US dollars by the year 2030.
During the course, time will be taken to talk about the medical implications of using medicinal mushrooms as food supplements, the contra-indications, limits and when not to rely on self-treatment but to seek professional medical advice.
Fresh sustainably harvested chaga, Inonotus obliquus; ready for drying and processing into medicine.
You will take home a sample selection of hand-made mushroom remedies that you have made for yourself. More importantly you will be taking away first-hand knowledge of how to re-create them, time after time!
Course Details
(The details below are for the Avebury course in May 2024 – contact nikki@theplantmedicineschool.com for details of the course in
Co. Wexford, Ireland, in September):
- Date, Location and cost:
18th & 19th May 2024
Avebury, Wiltshire, UK
£220.00 per person, contact us for more details. - Tutors:
Fred Gillam & Natascha Kenyon, of the UKI Mycotherapy Practitioners Register / UKI Medicinal Mushrooms Conference. - Timing and dates: 9.30 AM to 6.30 PMM day 1. 9:30 AM to 4.30 PM day 2.
- Includes: Remedies & study materials to take home.
- We will provide tea, coffee and biscuits. The National Trust cafe, Red Lion pub and village shop will all be open for you to grab some food at lunch times (5 minute walk), or bring a packed lunch. Lunch is not provided as part of the course.
- Local B&B and camping details can be provided on request.
- Avebury is on the regular no. 49 bus route (Swindon to Devizes) with buses every half an hour during the day. Swindon is on the London Paddington line.
- CPD certificates can be provided for all healthcare practitioners and these are already accepted by the majority of herbalist professional bodies, including NIMH, IRH, AMH and ARCH.
