Tag: herbal medicine

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Reflections and Gratitude after the RMC October 2022 Portland, Oregon USA

Just landing back home to Ireland after a whirlwind trip to Mulino, Oregon for the Radical Mycology Convergence hosted by Peter McCoy @radmycology and Jason Scott @feralfungi and born of much dreams and hard work of many!

It was a joy beyond words to have attended and a great honor to have been invited as a speaker!

Courtney Tyler with a reishi fruiting body

I offered two talks at the Convergence: Medicinal Mushroom preparations and all the ways I use them in my life as food and medicine- and a second talk on Mushroom ā€˜Coffeeā€™ Alternatives using trees, roots and fungi. And on the Sunday morning on a Medicinal Mushroom panel with Christopher Hobbs, Robert Rogers, Jason Scott and Shane Norte.

Iā€™ve shared the notes on my website for anyone who is interested!

It was so amazing to connect with so many myco folk such as: @radmycology @amanitadreaming @feralfungi @christopherhobbs1 Robert Rogers, @fly_agaric_press Kevin Feeney, William Rubel, and so many other cool folk with such interesting and diverse interests with fungi! So many new friends made I canā€™t tag you all. Please stay in touch!

Medicinal Mushroom panel with Christopher Hobbs, Robert Rogers and Courtney Tyler October 2022

Extra big thanks to @feralfungi and Kelsey and @ashley.bonn for putting me up while in Portland and to @indra.c.h.a for feeding me incredible concoctions and @swiminair for looking after me so well and felted fly agaric art @spore.dust for letting me try on the Turkey tail headpiece @erintheforest for incredible fungi ceramics @jonicampile best camping neighbour and of course to @brownbottlefarm for the kindnesses and amazing venue and tent loan and fresh ginger root and friendships! @ckylum for tea sharing @twoowlsproductions for giving me a lift and the chats and hopefully staying in touch about video footage šŸ¤žšŸ¼!! @brandon_feinberg for the photos shared hereā™„ļøā™„ļø

Courtney Tyler with Turkey Tail crown made by Jade

So many more to thank: @myco.nutri for Mushroom powders to share and use during my workshops, @mushroom.marauder for very cool sticker art to share!

Thank you everyone! My heart is so full!

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Very honoured to participate this this years RADICAL MYCOLOGY CONVERGENCE in Portland, Oregon, USA October 2023

Radical Mycology Convergence Oct 2023 Courtney Tyler – view my bio here: https://radicalmycologyconvergence.com/pages/teacher-bios

I am excited to announce I will be presenting this October at the Radical Mycology Convergence (@radmycology).

I will be offering 2 workshops: Medicinal Mushroom Extracts and Mushroom Coffee.

Iā€™m also extremely honoured to be on the Medicinal Mushroom Panel and at this event with teachers I so respect and have learned so much from such as @radmycology Peter McCoy, @christopherhobbs1 , Robert Rogers, Kevin Feeney, William Rubel, @amanitadreaming and so many others!

You can learn more about this special event at radicalmycologyconvergence.com. #radicalmycology#rmc2022

#fungi#wildmushrooms#medicinalmushrooms#mushroomcoffee#herbalmedicine#foraging#wildfood#wildfungi#mushrooms

You can view the full schedule of workshops here: https://radicalmycologyconvergence.com/pages/workshops

Thank you Peter for this opportunity of a lifetime. I couldn’t dream up a better mushroom festival offering than this! I am very honoured to take part! And excitedly checking the schedule for all of the workshops that I also hope to attend!

https://vimeo.com/700538467
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St Johns Wort How to capture the sunshine in a bottle

St Johnā€™s Wort

Capturing the essence of sunshine and peak summer for the winter months when itā€™s needed.

Just enjoyed capturing the oil maceration as I left the blooms out to wilt slightly, to decrease a portion of the moisture before adding extra virgin olive oil to cover.

Iā€™ll wrap this glass jar in a brown paper bag then leave in the warm sunshine to infuse into the oil over the next week or two. These yellow flowers exude a surprising deep red oil, I liken to ā€˜dragonā€™s bloodā€™ Iā€™ll share a photo of the finished product in a later post.

I also made an alcoholic tincture by covering the fresh blooms in vodka to sit for a month, which I will shake regularly until ready to strain off to use in the winter months, to help combat seasonal affective disorder and the winter blues.

Photos show a St John’s Wort tincture and a St John’s Wort infused oil to use medicinally.

**Please note that this herb should not be taken alongside pharmaceuticals without professional guidance.

St John’s Wort tincture will let this sit for about 4 weeks shaking regularly.
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Radical Mycology Convergence October 2022 Oregon

Have been asked if I would like to apply to offer any workshops at the Radical Mycology Convergence in Oregon from 6-9 October 2022.

I am filling out my proposal now as we speak. Very honoured to be invited and eeeek, feeling thrilled at the prospect of attending such an event!

Radical Mycology @radmycology and the work of Peter McCoy is one of the most inspiring and comprehensive books I have come across.

More information at the event website here: https://radicalmycologyconvergence.com

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Courtney’s Mushroom Talk at Beyond the Pale Music Festival June 2022

Was delighted to be invited to the Wicklow music festival Beyond The Pale and to talk on stage with Ali Dunworth about, what else, mushrooms (!) and all of the ways that they are magical. And why they should be on your plate!

Courtney Tyler of Hips and Haws Wildcrafts and Ali Dunworth

It was so enjoyable and what an incredible festival. The music line up was incredible.

Courtney showing tasters to share, pickled mushrooms and mushroom chocolates

I brought some interesting mushroom tasters to share. Some balsamic pickled shiitake mushrooms, dandelion buds and wild garlic. Also made some Lion’s Mane and peanut butter dark chocolates.

Dei, Dearbhla, Courtney and Grainne

Best of all I got to bring Sadhbh the bus and my dearest girlfriends!

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Books, books, books! Recommendations

There are soo very many books that inspire me and that I learn from. Here is a small selection of books and authors whom I admire and respect. Among many others! Iā€™ll do more posts with other books to share with you another time as well.

This is one book post of many: as I am a huge book-aholic! It’s an addiction that I am happy to feed. There are more book posts here in my blog and on Instagram.


I get asked so often to recommend books and resources that I like to learn from.Ā The following are some excellent places to start!Ā 

Hedgerow Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal.Ā The book focuses more on medicinal plants, how to identify, harvest, process, recipes.Ā A great place to start from and a beautiful book, full of recipes and methods to use these local wild plants as medicine. (Plus, having met them a couple of times- they are beautiful people!)

River Cottage Mushrooms by John Wright. A great beginners guide to edible fungi and their dangerous lookalikes. I also enjoy listening to his other Foraging books on Audibles.Ā 

Edible Mushrooms by Geoff Dann highly recommended.

Trees in Britain by Roger Phillips (also any or all of his Foraging books, heā€™s a legend, who sadly just passed recently). If you’re interested in mushrooms, you’ll soon learn that you need to know the trees!

The Forager Handbook byĀ @miles_irving_wild_foodĀ High end and Chefy recipes and an excellent resource of edible wild foods found in the UK and Ireland. A fellow Association of Foragers member. Not a beginners book I would say but it’s a great compilation of wild plants and elaborate recipes.

Eat Weeds Cookbook byĀ @eatweedsukĀ Robin Harford. Another Foraging wild food legend and fellow AoF member. His website is comprehensive and Iā€™d recommend signing up to his mailing list.

Extreme Greens Understanding Seaweeds by Sally McKenna a great book with seaweed ID and delicious easy to use recipes to incorporate seaweeds into your every day diet.

New Wildcrafted Cuisine byĀ @pascalbaudarĀ I love all of his books, a pioneer in new wild food processes including Fermentation. Follow him on Instagram and you can also sign up for his online classes.


@alysfĀ Alys Fowler The Thrifty Forager. Beautiful simple to follow book, she has another one about preserving also. Great for urban foraging.


Botany in a DayĀ @thomasjelpelĀ Iā€™m excited to be learning more about identifying plant families with this book. He also sells a card game to help learn these skills.


#foragingĀ #wildfoodĀ #fungiĀ #wildmushroomsĀ #fermentationĀ #preservationĀ #selfsufficiencyĀ #booksĀ #workshops

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Apprenticeship with Judith Hoad 2013

I feel very fortunate to have crossed paths with and spent time with the formidable Judith Hoad. I first met this woman in 2003 when I was studying Naturopathy at CNM in Dublin.

She made a strong impression and years later I tracked her down once again and this time committed myself to a long drive up to the wilds of Donegal for a long weekend every month for six months.

Myself and four others were amongst the last to attend Judithā€™s ā€œNatural Medicine for Householdersā€ course around her kitchen table, next to a warm wood burning range at her off grid cottage way up there in the wild lands of rural Donegal.

It was a transformative experience for me, and one that I can say with certainly changed the course of my life. The exposure to her intentional off grid and simple living was eye opening and sparked my passion in living in alternative ways.

We spent many afternoons around Judithā€™s kitchen table, learning from her hard won wisdom of experience. Judith was nearing 80 years old and had learned all she knew the hard way, experience, intuition, books but limited access and certainly no internet.

She generously passed on her knowledge to us, as we sat in rapt attention. She is a tough taskmaster and you have to have thick skin at times if she gets cross! And at the same time, we learned about the food that grew in her garden, both cultivated and wild. We learned how to make salves, creams, lotions, tinctures and decoctions.

We were served delicious healthy soul food full of love and care and received her cookbook of favourite recipes at the end of the course.

Ill always be grateful for having had this opportunity.

I have very few photos of that time but here are a few:

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Jelly Ear Mushrooms- a local and abundant medicinal mushroom

Hmmmm? Whatā€™s that you say? Canā€™t hear you from my Jelly Ear!

(Even if itā€™s the biggest Jelly Ear Iā€™ve ever spotted!)

These abundant, edible and medicinal fungi were a bit challenging to me before, I must admit.

The gelatinous texture isnā€™t one that I was accustomed to eating but itā€™s grown on me! The distinctly ear lobe shape didnā€™t help either. šŸ˜‚

This mushroom can be found commonly growing on dead or dying Elder trees. Sometimes you can hit the jackpot and find branches heaving with them.

Another name for this fungus is Auricularia aurĆ­cula-judae, Wood Ear, Black fungus, Cloud Ear, Judas Ear or more controversially Jews Ear/ although this name is no longer recommended.

These can be harvested throughout the year, and can even be found shrivelled up on the tree after a dry spell. They dry down very small and rehydrate readily when needed. Love finding them plump and fat and juicy but you can collect the dried ones too, saving you the job of drying them out!

I harvest, clean, slice and dry these to preserve them for use throughout the year. Then rehydrate when needed.

If cooked fresh in a frying pan they can be quite explosive!

I enjoy them most sliced into a Chinese dumpling with other wild greens and aromatics.

Another favourite amongst the Foraging world was dreamt up by @fergustheforager many years ago and takes the intact dried jelly ears and rehydrates them into a liqueur then covers them in chocolate.

This mushroom has been used medicinally since the Tang Dynasty 618 BCE in China, often added to dishes to help improve breathing, sore throats, to reduce colds and fevers, to enhance well being and to boost circulation.

One to look out for on your wild food or herbal medicine journey.

#jellyearfungus #medicinalmushroom #foodasmedicine #fungi #fungus #forager #wildfood

Jelly Ear Mushroom
Jelly Ear Mushroom
Jelly ear mushroom looking like an ear
Courtney and the jelly ear