Feral Fungi grew out of years spent foraging, studying, experimenting in the lab, and working alongside the people who grow and harvest our mushrooms and herbs. It still runs that way.
I've been studying fungi for sixteen years, since my first Radical Mycology Convergence, and foraging has been part of it from the start. Time in the woods is how I learned these species, and it's still one of my favorite ways to spend a day. Along the way I got to know the growers and harvesters who became our suppliers, many of them years before Feral Fungi existed.
I started Feral Fungi in 2016 in Estacada, Oregon. We work only with mushroom fruiting bodies, all domestically sourced, some wild harvested and some cultivated. Every batch is made by hand in our cGMP certified facility, using a spagyric method that comes from traditional laboratory alchemy. We're still a small family business, and we know the people behind the mushrooms we use.
Most of what we do in the lab traces back to the teachers I've studied with over the last fifteen years. These are a few of the most influential.
Ethnobotany
My path into ethnobotany started with a two week class on the Big Island of Hawaii with ethnobotanist Kathleen Harrison. Her work taught me to look closely at the world around me, at the cultures that carry stories, and at the plants and fungi that touch every part of our lives. Ethnobotany came before herbalism for me, and it shaped how I see the world.
Laboratory Alchemy
I began studying traditional laboratory alchemy and spagyrics with Robert Bartlett in 2012, and I've been entwined in its philosophy and practice ever since. Rounds of Prima, Secunda, and Tertia, and a lot of late nights in the lab, shaped my cosmology and practice. My curiosity about where fungi fit into this work became the core of what I do.
Herbalism
Alchemy made me want to learn more about the plants and how to work with them. I studied foundational and clinical herbalism with Sajah Popham at the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, which shaped how I look at each mushroom as a whole rather than a single compound. I recently began the two year clinical herbalism program at David Winston's Center for Herbal Studies.
Ayurveda
I studied Ayurveda with Todd Caldecott through his Inside Ayurveda program, then continued my studies in Nepal under Vaidya Madhu Bajracharya, an eighth generation practitioner. There we shadowed him in clinic and learned to make traditional preparations in the Rasa Shastra lineage.
We bring the cosmology and philosophy of alchemy together with modern equipment to make something truly unique from some of our most potent allies.
Education has always been part of this work for me. I've written about mushrooms and alchemy, including a contribution to Peter McCoy's Radical Mycology and an essay in Verdant Gnosis, and I've joined a number of podcasts to talk through what we do and why. I also co-organized the Radical Mycology Convergence and the first three years of the Fungi Film Fest.
These days a lot of that energy goes into the industry itself. I serve on the Board of Trustees of the American Herbal Products Association and chair its Small Business Committee, and I work with testing labs to develop standards and methods for proper mushroom identification and quality markers. The goal is to make it easier for everyone to know what's in a mushroom product, and to advocate for traditional preparations in a modern framework. The more the modern stage changes, the more I feel the need to speak up for the herbs, the mushrooms, and the traditions behind them.
Every batch is made by hand by our small team in Estacada, Oregon.
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Conversations about alchemy, spagyrics, and mushrooms, gathered in one place.
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Articles on mushrooms, extraction, and the traditions behind what we make.
