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:      

• Kent’s Wild Food Landscape   
• The Decision to Start Educating Others in the Wild    
• Life in the Wilds Takes Work!   
• Reclaiming Power through Rewilding   
• Foraging as a State of Mind   
• Diverging from Modernity    
• How do Foraging and Wildcraft Practices Change Social Cohesion?    
• Educating Children about Nature   
• Culinary Inspiration from Foraged Fare   
• Medicinal Properties of Plants & Fungi    
• Wild Beer, Wine and Spirits   
• Hunting and Working with Game    
• Starting the Path to Self-Sufficiency    
• Dangers of Our Experimental, Digital World   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Rural Courses Website: https://www.ruralcourses.co.uk/    
• Michael White IG: https://www.instagram.com/rural_courses/   
• Macrolepiota procera (AKA Parasol Mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrolepiota_procera    
• First-Nature (Plant and Fungi ID): https://www.first-nature.com/    
• Family Phallacaea (AKA Stinkhorns): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallaceae