Can I eat it - Cook on the Wild Side
Hear Marlow Renton of Wild Food UK describe and introduce wild edible fungi and answer your burning mushroom questions!
Cook On The Wild Side!He will then demonstrate some amazing mushroom recipes from the Wild Food UK Forager’s Cookbook.
Free entry at The Globe at Hay
What Britain's oldest oaks owe to rot
Most of Britain’s mature oak trees carry heart-rot, a slow hollowing of the trunk caused by fungi. Far from being a disease to fear, heart-rot is one of the reasons the trees survive as long as they do, and provide one of the richest of woodland habitats.
Rich Wright has over 20 years of mycological experience, having held posts at Kew, Cardiff University and Plantlife. His research has taken him deep into the hollows of Britain's oldest oak trees, characterising the community of fungi that live there, and understanding how we can better protect them in the future.
In this talk, Rich rethinks decay, not as an ending, but as part of how ancient oaks, and the woodland around them, keep going.
Tickets £12 from Hay Castle website
Kew Confidential: Behind the scenes at the world’s largest fungi collection
Somewhere in Kew Gardens sits a room holding 1.25 million dried fungi, roughly 60% of every fungal species known to science. It is the largest and most scientifically important collection of its kind in the world, and Lee Davies has spent his career running it.
From expeditions in Madagascar to teaching fieldwork techniques to visiting scientists, Lee has built a fascinating working life around fungi in all their weird and surprising diversity.
Join Fungi Town's Dave Prescott for a conversation with Lee about the specimens, the expeditions, and the fungi he's come to know best.
Tickets £12 from Hay Castle website
A Cultural History of the Magic Mushrooms of Britain
Professor Andy Letcher of Exeter University discusses with Nina Lyon the cultural history of the magic mushroom. There is renewed interest in the potential of psychedelics to address a number of stubborn mental illnesses, as well as a burgeoning psychedelic underground, driven especially by people travelling to the Amazon to consume ayahuasca in healing ceremonies. In this talk Andy will challenge many of the myths that have arisen around magic mushrooms, answering questions such as: were the builders of Stonehenge tripping and was Santa Claus originally a mushroom munching shaman?
SOLD OUT
Flora, fauna… and FUNGA! - putting fungi on the map
Fungi have long been the forgotten kingdom of conservation. Too hidden, too strange, too easy to miss. They weren’t even identified as their own kingdom of life - neither plant nor animal - until 1969!
Cardiff University's Dr Sarah Christofides is on a mission to change how we think about fungi and their importance to the natural world. She once built a scale model of Britain entirely out of soil, using blocks of fungus-colonised wood, sized to match, to stand in for its cities. “The fungi grew out from the ‘cities’ and made the motorway network” she said. “You could see the M5, M4, M1, M6.”
In this talk, discover the fungal species driving a major new conservation effort, learn why this matters and how you can get involved.
Tickets £12 from Hay Castle website
Medicinal Mushrooms 101
Lion's Mane, Reishi, Cordyceps, Turkey Tail: medicinal mushrooms are everywhere and promising miraculous results, but what does the evidence actually say? This beginner-friendly talk unpicks the evidence from the hype, explores the modern and traditional uses of medicinal fungi, and looks at how to identify good products.
A fascinating discussion between Kit Ondaatje Rolls, Hania Opienski and Oli Genn-Bash.
Tickets £12 from Hay Castle website
Keynote: The Amazing Hidden Kingdom with Professor Lynne Boddy
There are more species of fungi than plants and vertebrates combined, and almost all of them work unseen. Without fungi, life on land could not survive.
Professor Lynne Boddy MBE has spent her career studying this hidden kingdom. She has been a driving force behind UK Fungus Day and is one of the UK's leading fungal ecologists and most engaging communicators of fungal science.
In this masterclass, she introduces the kingdom that quietly runs the world above and below our feet.
SOLD OUT
Friend or Foe? A gardener’s guide to fungi
In 2017, Dr Jassy Drakulic asked UK gardeners to report their sightings of honey fungus. Hundreds responded. It was the start of research that has reshaped how the RHS thinks about fungi in our gardens, not as pests to be eradicated, but as an ecosystem already quietly at work beneath our feet.
Jassy is a Senior Plant Pathologist at the RHS and author of the new book RHS Fungi for Gardeners. In this talk, she asks whether typical gardening habits are suppressing fungal life that is already helping your plants, and explains what recent research reveals about what is really going on underground.
You will come away with practical, low-effort changes: what to leave alone, what to avoid, and how to garden alongside fungi rather than against them.
Tickets £12 through Hay Castle website
Rotters & Stinkers: a guide to Stinkhorns and other fungal peculiars
After last year’s sell-out talk, we’re delighted to welcome Ali Mac — AKA The FUNgi Guy — back to Fungi Town for another fungi-filled adventure, delivered in his own wonderfully inimitable style. Expect games, puppets, questionable props and plenty of audience participation. In Ali’s world, learning about fungi is anything but a chore.
Tickets £12/£6 through Hay Castle website
True Mycological Tales from Wales and the Marches
Ever wondered where our knowledge of fungi came from? Dr Nathan Smith, FLS, senior mycologist for the National Museum of Wales, explores the histories of fungi and the people that study them. Expect stories of drinking, betrayal, and a fair bit of mushroom-eating. There may even be a song or two!
Tickets £12 through Hay Castle website
How can mushrooms help clean up the River Wye?
This talk will provide the very latest insights into the use of mycoremediation - the use of mushrooms to clean and filter water - in a rapidly growing project being undertaken by Flete Field Lab CIC. Alice Sophia Pefanis and Honor Wolf are jointly offering this talk. They bring together expertise in mycology, fungal ecology, ecosystem restoration, and community engagement to support research, education, and practical environmental action.
Tickets £5 from Hay Castle Website
Cook on the Wild Side
Marlow Renton demonstrates some amazing mushroom recipes from the new Wild Food UK Forager’s Cookbook.
Can I Eat It?
Hear Marlow Renton of Wild Food UK describe and introduce wild edible fungi and answer your questions.
Mushrooms and Mental Health
A fascinating discussion between clinical psychiatrist and leading expert Dr Ben Sessa and local author Nina Lyon about the science of mushrooms, and their use in treating issues such as addiction, depression and PTSD.
SOLD OUT
Fungus Among Us
From fungi leather to packaging, discover how scientists and designers are working with nature’s secret engineers to tackle real world problems, with Dr. Peter Wellham (Really Clever Co.) and Adam Davies (Ty Syml)
Discover the Magic of Mushrooms
Join Ali McKernan - the FUNgi Guy - for a family introduction to the extraordinary world of mushrooms and toadstools
Spores and Stories
How did you get into this?
An informal discussion with emerging mycologists, artists and fungi folk, tracing the unusual and often winding paths people take into the world of fungi. Presented by The Culturing Dish.
