2022 Myceliates
Unseen World Presents Nova Scotia's First Mushroom Festival ! A place to connect with like minded humans who are exploring the world of fungi. A place to spread our excitement, share our passion, and help grow the living network of Fungi.
Full day of workshops & presentations from Cultivators, Herbalists, Therapists, Artists, Educators, Foragers, Chefs and more. We will be exploring mushroom as medicine, food, art, inspiration and a connector of us all!
October 16th 2022
9 am - 5 pm
Hosted at Annapolis Seeds: 8528 Hwy 201, Nictaux, NS
$150
(A few sliding scale tickets available)
Tickets are now Sold Out
email: megan@unseeworld.ca to get on the waitlist
& click here to learn more about how you can grow mushrooms in your own backyard with our mushroom logs!
Myceliates Schedule
9:00 - 9:40 Arrival - Sign in, Market & Activities
9:40 - 10:00 Opening Circle
10:00 - 10:30 Storytelling & Community Art Project Opening
10:45 - 12:00 First Round of Presentations
-there will be 2-3 presentations to choose from
12:15 - 1:15 Pot Luck Lunch
-time to shop the market, add to the collective art piece,
inoculate mini log and create patches
1:30 - 2:45 Second Round of Presentations
-there will be 2-3 presentations to choose from
3:00 - 4:15 Third Round of Presentations
-there will be 2-3 presentations to choose from
4:30 - 5:00 Closing Circle
Presentations (bios below)
"Fall Log Inoculation" Declan King of Our Celtic Hearth
A how to of growing mushrooms off logs, with a special focus on starting in the fall.
“Mushroom Dual Extraction for Deep Immune Support” Ember Peters of Wild Current Herbalism
Join clinical herbalist Ember Peters for a hands-on workshop to learn how to maximize the potency of your DIY medicinal mushroom extracts. Many medicinal mushrooms contain some medicinal constituents that are soluble in water and some that are soluble in alcohol. We will make a dual extract together with Reishi and talk about how these medicines can offer incredible support for conditions such as cancer, autoimmunity, diabetes, and more.
“Secrets and Science of Indoor Mushroom Cultivation” Jeff Brooks of East Coast Shroomery
A crash course on how to grow mushrooms inside. I'll be talking about equipment, agar, liquid culture, spawn, substrates, fruiting and harvesting.
“The Journey of Myco-Biome and Medicinal Mushrooms” Julie Anne Lee of Myco-Biome
Description to come
“Flavour Melodies of Mushrooms” Fiona Genieve Lewis of Molotov Cuisine
We’ll start this workshop out with a bite of Hen of the Woods & Ground Cherry Bruschetta to open our pallets and minds up to the possibilities of mushrooms in the kitchen. Learn about the umami of mushrooms as Chef Molotov takes you through the art of preserving mushrooms in multiple ways. From sun baking to pickling, we will capture the flavours of foraged mushrooms to be able to use even on the dreariest of winter days. Molotov will give a cooking demonstration, bringing you through the steps to make a Blueberry & Mushroom Pasta with a Red Wine Sauce. Scrumptious samples and bites of course will be passed out to all attendees. At the end of the workshop everyone will receive three recipe cards to take home with you, each recipe highlighting the surprising different flavour melodies you can pair with mushrooms; including a Porcini Mushroom & Chocolate Dessert recipe to truly showcase the versatility of our beloved mushrooms.
“Enchanted Mushroom Forest Guided Walk” Jessika Gauvin of Enchanted Mushroom Forest
A guided mushrooms foraging walk, learn how to safely and respectfully identify, harvest and use various fungi, edible/medicinal/toxic fungi are all covered. Please ensure you are wearing good footwear, and bring a basket, pocket knife and pen and paper
“The Safe, Intentional and Integratable use of Psilocybin: Micro & Macro Dosing” Nathan Torti of Wild Art Therapy Collective
In this workshop, we’ll engage a conversation about our small but might friends, the Psychedelic mushrooms. In particular, the spectrum of use, scaffolding for understanding the Transpersonal world, the neuroscience, research, risk management and psycho-spiritual alchemy of micro and macro dosing psilocybin. We’ll also be discussing the current environment of the legal and health systems around this potent medicine.
“The Science of Magic Mushrooms: Evidence from Current Clinical Trials and a Glimpse into the Future of Psilocybin as Medicine” Lisa Batten of Halucenex
The scientific world is undergoing a psychedelic renaissance. In recent years, psilocybin has been granted "breakthrough therapy" status, effectively accelerating the processes needed in order to approve a drug for therapy. As such, multiple clinical trials have been completed and many more are underway that are revealing, for the first time, the science behind how psilocybin heals on a physiological and psychological level. This talk aims to share some of this exciting new evidence, talk about ongoing trials, and discuss the future of how psilocybin will be regulated for use.
Other Activities
Mushroom Storytelling & Collective Art w Leah Gooyers of Beast Underneath & Annie Snanssian of Full Moon Farm
Make your own Patches
Make your own Mini Log Station
Mushroom Cultivation Draws
Mushroom Inspired Mini Market
Potluck
Presenters & Animators
Megan Giffen
Cultivating mushrooms for fun for 5 years. Owner of Unseen World a company based in the exploration of fungi and energy medicine. Passion for bringing mushroom cultivation to the people through play, curiosity and reverence for the natural world. Facilitator for Myceliates.
Declan King
Declan has an interest in the Fungi Kingdom and all things mushroom. A self taught mushroom grower with a small operation in Hortonville. Currently producing shiitakes on logs and experimenting with Maitake and Chicken of the Woods.
Ember Peters
(they/them or she/her) Ember is a clinical herbalist and educator based in Port Lorne, Nova Scotia, Unceded Mi'kmaq Territory. Ember has been in clinical practice since 2014, focusing on providing accessible sliding-scale herbal care to all people with complex chronic illness focusing on full spectrum transgender herbal care. They teach beginners through advanced programs, and are launching the Maritime School of Holistic Herbalism intermediate program in Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki starting in spring 2023 with fellow clinical herbalist Oren Hercz. Ember recognizes community based holistic health and anti-colonial land stewardship as a tangible step towards collective liberation and resilience. Ember is a Registered Herbal Practitioner with the Herbalist Association of Nova Scotia (HANS)
Jeff Brooks
Jeff Brooks is a mycology enthusiast and mushroom cultivator who hails from Scarborough, Ontario and relocated to Nova Scotia with his growing family in 2017. From a young age, Jeff has been fascinated with the world of mushrooms and experimented with mushroom cultivation for several years. After retiring from the military and transitioning to civilian life, Jeff found himself seeking a new passion in life. Eventually it became clear to him that mushrooms were the answer. When the pandemic hit, with the view of starting his own business, he began reading, researching, planning, and building.
In 2022, he founded East Coast Shroomery and is thrilled to be able to provide delicious culinary and medicinal mushrooms from his urban farm in the Annapolis Valley. Jeff loves to teach and share his passion for mushrooms to educate and excite others about this amazing fungal world.
Julie Anne Lee
Julie Anne Lee DCH, RCSHom, founded, practiced, and owned the first licensed holistic veterinary hospital in Canada. She moved to Nova Scotia 9 years ago from Vancouver. She has worked with medicinal mushrooms in the fields of cancer, autoimmune disorders, and proactive health care. She has been researching cancer at Dalhousie University within this realm for the last 4 years.
My mother taught me that everything we need is provided by nature, no matter how we look at it. It’s true. From hydro to oil to wood to drugs to supplements to food, nature provides us with everything. Myco-Biome, and in turn The Forest Path Project, is a compilation of my experience in the natural health field with animals and with people for the last 25 years. It’s the next step (or should I say the natural step) to take by spending the rest of my life trying to bring back and support nature’s inherent ability to create homeostasis.
My goal is to show the world that a forest has much more to give than trees as a commodity. It has the abundance of fungi intelligence, plant wisdom, and natural communication to create profound healing for people and animals. Trees are considered the Earth’s lungs, absorbing pollution and producing clean air for us to breathe. A forest has so much potential to heal.
Our Myco-Biome Forest Path Project has led us to acquire forests in Nova Scotia, Canada with the intention of replicating an old growth forest ecosystem. A large part of that is its microorganisms, and thus we grow and harvest medicinal mushrooms, herbs, and flora with the intention to save forests and their inhabitants from constant clear cutting and unethical wild crafting. Reproducing and teaching these concepts in as many other areas as possible is also important. At the moment, forests are seen only as a source for the wood industry, but if we can show the benefits a forest offers, I’m sure we can evoke change.
Being in the natural health supplement industry, it is time for myself and my companies to do whatever is necessary to give back to the one who is responsible for this entire industry - Mother Earth.
Annie Sanassian & Kelly Lucas
Annie and Kelly are the owners of Full Moon Farm & Apothecary in Aurthur, Ontario. On their 10 acres they organically grow culinary and medicinal herbs and they cultivate mushrooms outdoors. With backgrounds in outdoor education, teaching and nature connection, Annie and Kelly love to run workshops to teach folks in the community more about the natural world.
Fiona Genevieve Lewis
Owner of Molotov Cuisine. A professional trained chef, Fiona is very passionate about cooking with local ingredients and fascinated with fermentation. Growing up in Ukraine & China, her kitchen creations show case melding of flavours and cuisines. With her deep Nova Scotian roots, it brought her back to Nova Scotia. Working hand in hand with local farmers to bring explosive flavours to every dish and a focus on preserving local fresh & sustainable ingredients. By capturing summers bounty she’s able to bring warm notes of flavour to dishes even in the darkest of winter days.
Jessika Gauvin
I'm a lifelong forager, my mom taught me how to forage when I was very young, some of my first memories involve picking mushrooms in my backyard with my her. I'm also a herbalist, I love working with wild plants and making medicines with them. I have been studying fungi intensely for about four years now, I specialize in Coprinoid fungi, or "ink caps" as some folks call them. I sit on the board of the North American Mycological Society, and I help run the New Brunswick Mycological Society. My business is Enchanted Mushroom Forest where I spend my days teaching folks about what is safe and delicious in the forest.
Nathan M. Torti, MA, RCT
Since 2002, I have been professionally creating and facilitating evidence based, therapeutic Wilderness programs through mountaineering, hiking, rock and ice climbing, snowboarding, psychedelics and intentional ceremonies as well as animal-assisted psychotherapy with wolves and horses.
In 2012, I earned a master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology with a focus in Wilderness Therapy in Boulder, Colorado. Since then, I have been a licensed clinical therapist working with young adults and families effected by complex trauma and grief as well as substance abuse, anxiety and Internet and Technology addictions.
I co-founded the Wild Art Therapy Collective, which is based in Halifax and supports people connecting to themselves, each other and the Wild natural world. We provide equine therapy, Wilderness and Art therapy programs as well as education and supportive psychotherapy for the safe use of psychedelics as a healing path.
Leah Gooyers
Leah is a multi media artist and story teller. Through drawing and natural exploration, they find themselves living within the story and tapping into the tiny portals of connection. They enjoy sharing this inspiration with the community and creating space for folks to create, play and explore.
Lisa Batten, MA, PhD
Lisa Batten is a psychedelic scientist, trained therapist and clinical consultant with over a decade of experience working in pharmacological research investigating psychedelic compounds. In addition to assisting companies with clinical trial design and regulatory applications, she is currently the lead coordinator and project manager for one of the first clinical trials to investigate psilocybin for PTSD at Halucenex in Windsor, Nova Scotia.
She is passionate about bridging the gap between counterculture and science in order to combine knowledge and make these important medicines more readily available to the world. She is also an enthusiastic forager (more enthusiasm than knowledge at this point) and is very excited to talk mushroom science with you.
More info on presenters to come!
Curiosities ? Contact me at megan@unseenworld.ca