Online Mycology Course
The live version of this course is finished, but you can now purchase the recordings and associated materials to learn at your convenience!
The Full MycoCreation Course
($150)
The MycoCreation Course is an immersive, deep-dive into the vast world of fungi, which ranges a multitude of topics.
Each purchase will come with the recording of the class or classes, the associated presentation slides, resources to further your learning, access to the course padlet and more!
If you have particular fields of interest, you can sign up for classes individually (see each class and description below).
Whats in this course?
Week 1 - Foundations of Mycology ($25)
What is “Relational Mycology”?
Fungal biology & ecology
the KINdom of fungi, from micro to macro
taxonomy & phylogeny
nutritional modes & anatomy
asexual & sexual life cycles
Evolutionary biology through the fungal lens
Mycorrhizal fungi & mycoheterotrophy
Nutrient cycling & ecosystem dynamics
Fungal interactions: plants, animals, bacteria & beyond
Week 2 - Seeking Mushrooms: From the Forest to the Field ($25)
A review of basic fungal biology & ecology aimed at deepening our relationships while in the field
How to seek fungi ecologically & successfully
Anatomy, morphology, & identification
Common names & binomials (“scientific”)
Edibles, medicinals, poisonous/deadly & “look-alikes”
Honorable & regenerative foraging practices
the importance of field cleaning
Tools & safety
Week 3 - Tending Mycelia & Mushrooms ($25)
Cultivation: past to present
An overview of fungal biology and the fungal life cycle for cultivation purposes
Techniques & ideologies
Indoor/Outdoor
laboratory skills & design
substrates, media, preparations & fruiting
log cultivation, buckets, patches & gardens
Synergizing practices: Mushroom seeking meets cultivation
Cultivation as applied mycology: mycoremediation, mycofabrication, entomopathogenic fungi (biocides)
Week 4 & 5 - Medicinal Mushrooms & Medicine Making (2 part class $50)
Part One:
Review of mushroom biology & ecology through the medicinal lens
Medicinal Ethnomycology
Fungal constituents: how the medicine fungi make for themselves is also medicine for us
Grounding sensational claims in actual research: discussing in vitro, in vivo, human clinical trials
Navigating the flood of medicinal mushroom products
Medicine making techniques:
teas & broths
triple extraction tinctures
powdered extracts
syrups
face creams & salves
Part Two:
Honorable harvesting practices for medicinal fungi
Some common medicinal fungi (with a focus on mushrooms in the CA bay area bioregion)
identification & look-alikes
traditional/Indigenous uses
constituents
past & present research with a focus on human clinical trials
species-specific harvesting practices
Week 6 - Fungi in the Kitchen & Beyond ($25)
Mycophagy / Fungivory
Food as medicine & nutritional benefits
Cooking tips & tricks
Selecting & cleaning mushrooms
Preservation & storage
Fun(ky) ways to use mushrooms
ferments, gummies, jerky, cocktails, ice cream!
Classic & new recipes/resources
Fungal artistry:
mushroom-derived inks/paints
making polypore paper
mycopigments & fabrics (dyeing, not dying!)
spore print art
mushroom jewelry
Week 7 - Mycoregeneration: Healing for the Inner & Outer Landscapes ($25)
Bioremediation
the different approaches to bioremediation
importance/limitations
The connections between remediation, regeneration & our internal-external landscapes
Mycoremediation in water and land:
how does it work?
the connections between lignin, petrochemicals & fungal enzymes
organic & non-organic pollutants
facilitated adaptation (not “training”)
in situ, DIY, low-tech & low cost remediation
remediation in fire ecologies
Case studies: Bay Area Applied Mycology (BAAM) & CoRenewal (formerly Amazon Mycorenewal Project)
Other noteworthy projects & grassroots efforts
Week 8 - Demystifying & Uplifting Entheogenic Fungi ($25)
Psilocybe
history, Indigenous uses & the “renaissance”
ecology, distribution & identification
biochemistry & medicinal uses
other psychoactive fungi you may not know exist
Amanita muscaria
history, Indigenous uses & folklore
ecology, distribution & identification
biochemistry & medicinal uses
Processing, storage, medicine making techniques
Meet the teachers:
Taye Bright is a mycologist, naturalist and all-around biophile passionate about fungal ecology, plant-fungal symbioses, bioremediation, ethnomycology, community science and conservation.
Taye is a post-fire bioremediation researcher for the Fire Ecology Network in X-Site Study (FENiXS), a climate adaptation study investigating the effects of microbial and fungal inocula on community resilience and ecosystem recovery. She is also a field mycologist for the CA Fungal Diversity Survey project and co-coordinator for the West Coast Rare Fungi challenge. She leads classes, courses, workshops and walks around California and beyond focusing on increasing accessibility of mycological and ecological education outside of conventional academia. Taye is the Education and Outreach coordinator for CoRenewal, on the Conservation and Stewardship committee for the North American Mycological Association, and sits on the board for the Sonoma County Mycological Association and Bay Area Applied Mycology.
With a reverence for all things weird & wild, Taye is a devotee to the Kindom Fungi and the holistic regeneration of our living Earth. She strives to illuminate the importance of inter-species kinship and to help deepen peoples' sense of place and purpose as an integral part of Earth's unfolding story.
Ryath Fujita Beauchene is a mushroom seeker & cultivator, horticulturalist & ecologist who works as a mycological educator, outdoor mushroom farmer & estate manager in Sonoma County, CA.
Ryath studied ecology and environmental education at Sonoma State University where he received an interdisciplinary BA engaging the cross-sections of outdoor leadership and ecological translation.
Ryath is curious and enchanted by the world and its myriad expressions, hooked on life through the lenses of nutrition, ecology, fungi, plants, soil, endosymbiosis, herbalism, photography, cooking, and the maintenance of human-made thingamajigs.
Ryath’s has great hope that someday we will realize that separateness and isolation are human-constructed illusions, the interconnected reality of every process we call a thing is literally immeasurable, and that love will live forever in the infinite universe. (And then we will all sing with Beautiful Chorus.)
Scholarship Inquiries
We want to share our passion with the world and incite curiosity for everyone. We have thus attempted to price our courses at a relatively accessible level and are pouring all of our fungal and planetary love into our work. We hope to make our sharing way more than worth the “ticket” value.
Yet, we acknowledge: what is modest to one is outrageous to another. If our courses feel financially inaccessible to you and you feel you would benefit greatly from attending, please reach out below to let us know. We will consider partial or full scholarships for those in need.
Testimonials from students
“This course was amazing. It is a deep dive into the delightful and diverse world of fungi. From cultivation to folklore, I couldn't even choose which part was my favorite; the multi-faceted approach truly does fungi justice (although...Amanita! You deserve all the attention you get, you beautiful creature!). Taye and Ryath's knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject infuses their teaching, making the time fly by and leaving your mind buzzing and hungry for more.”
- L
“I came across this course a couple days before it began back in 2022 and I am so glad I enrolled. It was such an enjoyable experience! Very comprehensive, yet easy to understand as a beginner and opened the door to many new mycological interests that I have gone on to continue studying and working with. Taylor & Ryath are intelligent & passionate teachers, I highly recommend this course.”
- Sabrina
“This course is richly packed with information conveyed with creative enthusiasm by experts with direct hands-on knowledge of their domain. Detailed, generous, engaging and interactive, endlessly fascinating. This course is an extraordinary resource and incredible value with so many wonderful takeaways across a sweeping survey of all things mycological. I’m so very grateful to Taye and Ryath for sharing their knowledge, experience, and so much heart put into crafting and curating this course. Thank you so very much!”
- Mark S.
“Learning alongside Taye and Ryath in this course was incredibly delightful. Their knowledge is grounded in love and shares a rhizome with their deeply rooted values of reciprocity, curiosity, right relationship, and justice. There was more inspiration packed into each week than I could possibly digest--I will be revisiting this course for the rest of my life!”
- Anna