Events

Cultivating Connection Through Mushrooms

At Elysian Roots, I share my passion for the magic and wonder of mushrooms through hands-on workshops and talks. My goal is to empower others to contribute to urban agriculture while deepening their understanding of how cultivating mushrooms can benefit environmental health and community food security.

In my workshops, participants get to try their hand at growing oyster, shiitake and lion’s mane mushrooms using recycled materials like coffee grounds and wood chips. We discuss fungi’s role as nature’s recyclers through their amazing ability to break down organic matter. I provide tips and tricks for setting up a small-scale mushroom farm at home using low-cost techniques.

My talks dive deeper into the incredible health and environmental benefits of mushrooms. Few people realize mushrooms can clean up oil spills, absorb heavy metals, enrich soil, support bee populations and much more. We explore cutting-edge mushroom applications in sustainable textiles, packaging, building materials and other fields. I share fascinating research on medicinal mushrooms and their immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory and cancer-fighting powers.

Whether getting your hands dirty in a workshop or engaging in an informative talk, my goal is to shift how people see fungi. I hope to convey mushrooms as allies with limitless potential. If we treat them as teachers and partners, they can guide us toward more regenerative ways of living. I aim to build an inspired community of urban mushroom cultivators and stewards.

Join me to learn, create, discuss, and most of all, have fun with mushrooms! See the wondrous interconnected web that flourishes when we tend to fungi with respect, care and gratitude. Together, we can seed positive change in our communities and environment.

Medicinal Mushroom Blends

I collaborated closely with Martin Powell, an esteemed biochemist, Chinese herbalist, author and lecturer to thoughtfully formulate premium medicinal mushroom blends. He has been developing exceptional supplements tailored to his patients’ needs.

Driven by a shared passion for holistic wellness solutions, we set out to create targeted supplements that combine the unparalleled potency of medicinal mushrooms with the gut-balancing power of spore-based probiotics.

Medicinal mushrooms like Reishi, Chaga, Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane and Snow Fungus have long been revered in Eastern medicine for their ability to support specific areas of health. Recent studies have validated their multiple benefits – from immune modulation and inflammation reduction to brain optimization and more. We harness the concentrated power of these mushrooms into convenient powders.

Spore-based probiotics, an essential component of a thriving ecosystem within the body , offer a complementary approach to wellness by populating the gut with beneficial Bacillus strains. As the root of overall health lies in the gut microbiome, probiotics help create the optimal terrain for whole-body balance. Our shelf-stable probiotic spores germinate in the small intestine without refrigeration & show efficacy across various dietary preferences.

By combining holistic mushroom wisdom with cutting-edge probiotic science, our supplements provide full-spectrum support for various functions and systems. Whether you are looking to relieve everyday stress, increase mental clarity and focus, boost immunity and resilience or improve digestive issues, we offer targeted solutions made with integrity.

Crafted with meticulous quality standards and potency testing at every stage, our proprietary medicinal mushroom blends represent my life’s work and passion. It brings me immense joy to share their benefits and aid others on their wellness journeys.

Mushroom Culinary Journeys

Through my educational talks and hands-on workshops, I often find people are unfamiliar with the vast diversity of textures and flavours that mushrooms have to offer. While I highlight the many health benefits of medicinal mushrooms in supplements, there is no replacement for experiencing their magic firsthand. This led me to create special mushroom-themed dinners to further my community education work through the excitement of tasting and cooking with fungi.

Join us on a magical evening celebrating mushrooms in all their glory. Each mushroom-themed dinners take the guests on an immersive culinary journey that reveals  the versatility of mushrooms in appetising new ways, their rich history, versatility, and health benefits of fungi.

Each  menu features mushrooms as the star—from appetisers to main dishes to decadent desserts. I carefully craft recipes that highlight diverse mushroom varieties, textures, and flavours.

My aim is to showcase their incredible range of tastes, textures, and culinary potential.

Beyond delicious food, the dinners provide illuminating discussion on mushroom history, symbolism, ecology and health compounds. As we explore reishi’s anti-inflammatory effects or cordyceps’ energy boosting properties, it deepens the appreciation for each dish and whole experience.

With delectable menus, engaging education, and warm community, my dinners expand one’s understanding of fungi as allies for wellbeing. They bring my mission of cultivating mushroom awareness full circle through the joy of cooking and eating together. Email me to inquire about these unforgettable mycophagy nights!

Grow Urban Festival

 The Grow Urban Festival is an annual event that brings together individuals, projects, and organisations across London who are committed to urban agriculture, food security, and sustainability.

Launched in 2021 and organised by passionate advocates, the festival provides a platform for showcasing the diverse local efforts taking place across the city’s boroughs. Through workshops, presentations, site visits, and more, attendees can exchange knowledge, find inspiration, and build connections within the urban growing community.

The festival was born from my personal experience as an individual grower and educator wanting to connect with others and invite the public to discover the great local work happening and how they could get involved or simply learn.

The festival aims to highlight often overlooked projects creating change locally. Participants represent initiatives working to provide community access to fresh food, empower marginalised groups through gardening, promote public health through urban greening, and drive wider adoption of sustainable agriculture practices.

By creating space for collaboration and capacity building, the festival supports these changemakers in increasing the impact of their work.

The festival creates space for attendees to engage with others in their field, exchange expertise, find inspiration, and potentially open elements to the public. The goal is to shine a light on local changemakers who are often overlooked, despite their critical work to increase community access to fresh food, empower marginalized groups, and drive sustainability.

With a grassroots start, the festival has grown into a movement uniting activists, educators, innovators, and stewards across London., the event furthers a shared vision for a greener, more food secure city.

The Grow Urban Festival represents the best of community: people from varied backgrounds and boroughs coming together out of care for a common cause. It celebrates the abundance that flourishes when we cultivate gardens and growth mindsets in urban spaces.

Two festivals have been run successfully so far without outside funding, but additional support would allow the event to reach a broader audience and maximize impact. The Grow Urban Festival provides a unique opportunity to showcase London’s diversity of urban growing efforts while facilitating collaboration and capacity building.

Our Esteemed Supporters:

The Grow Urban Festival is a collaborative effort being developed and run by the Centre for Innovation and Voluntary Action, the National Trust, National Park City, Great Big Green Week – Climate Coalition, The Conduit Club, Elysian Roots, Charles Dowding, The Natural History Museum along with some 30 or so event partners.