Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to chat with internationally renowned wild foods expert, wilderness skills teacher and founder of “Rural Courses”, Michael White. Michael caught the foraging bug young and early experiences of loading sheep feed buckets full of field fungi and eating them piled high on buttered toast, sentenced Michal to a life dedicated to the hunt! Foraging for plants and fungi rubbed shoulders with hunting, fishing, and farming to the extent that eating from the land became his norm and to buy from the shops an uneasy extravagance. Four years in London studying classical singing was enough to confirm that city life, or that of an opera singer was not for him and on graduating he flung himself into almost total self-sufficiency. Skills learned in childhood became essential tools for putting food on the table and driven by necessity, his foraging abilities improved rapidly. In his early 20’s Michael began teaching foraging and self-sufficiency skills. This side of life has grown into a new passion, taking him into cities, other countries, schools, but mostly the forest, to inspire and educate thousands of people about the awesome word of fungi, foraging and life on the land. Currently life is very full for Michael raising three children, teaching, expanding his understanding about medicinal mushrooms and living off the land. His greatest pleasure is to share knowledge and a love of the natural world with his son and two daughters and the fantastic people he meets through courses and workshops.
TOPICS COVERED:
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Ep. 17: Corvidopolis - Art, Nature & The Mysteries of the Mushroom Tarot (feat. Chris Adams)
Ep. 16: Scotland's Wild Food Stories - Pioneering Research on the Culture of Foraging (feat. Leanne Townsend)
Ep. 15: The Art of the Mushroom - Spirituality, Myth and Psychedelia (feat. Michael Campbell)
Ep. 14: Decriminalize CA - Decriminalizing Psilocybin, Protecting Democracy (feat. William Goss)
Ep. 13: Natura Design - Building a Better World with Mushroom Materials (feat. Ashley Granter)
Ep. 12: Wholesun - Empowering the Medicinal Mushroom Industry, Shaping the Future (feat. Jme Bonfiglio)
Ep. 11: Masterclass in Transforming Ecology with Soil Biology & Mycoremediation (feat. Craig Trester)
Ep. 10: Mixing Chemistry & Mycology in the Appalachian Rainforest (feat. Mandie Quark)
Ep. 9: Wild Kingdom - Medicinal Mushrooms, Regenerative Foraging and Spiritual Connection (feat. Neil Thenier)
Ep. 8: Let Wild Mushrooms & Plants be Thy Medicine (feat. Jess Starwood)
Ep. 7: Gnome Life - Wild Mushroom Identification & Exotic Forage Adventures (feat. Tugrul De Luce)
Ep. 6: The Lion King - DIY Mycology & Lions Mane Mushrooms (feat. MycTyson Mushrooms)
Ep. 5: Wild Food Foraging & English Folklore with a Freudian Twist (feat. Fern Freud)
Ep. 4: Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research - The Promise of Psilocybin Therapy (feat. Ian Geithner)
Ep. 3: Community Mycology & Entheogen Decriminalization in San Francisco (feat. James McConchie)
Ep. 2: FreshCap - Activating Minds & Bodies via Education & Medicinal Mushrooms (feat. Tony Shields)
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