Episode description

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by mycological ally, cultivator and community creator Olga Tzogas of Smugtown Mushrooms. Her journey with Fungi and plants started over 15 years ago. She began working with these allies when foraging in both urban & more wild settings as she learned to identify species for food and medicine. Olga, alongside her community, established Smugtown Mushrooms to satiate their need for mushrooms & growing supplies, workshops, events & community-based science where they are based on traditional Haudenosaunee land, in the so-called city of Rochester NY. While learning more & embracing the never-ending, unlocked potential mushrooms & fungi have to help heal both people, planet & soul. Olga teaches workshops throughout the continent about wild mushroom identification, medicinal mushrooms, biology, and mushroom cultivation. She was a core organizer for the 2016 Radical Mycology Convergence and the MycoSymbiotics Festival from 2015-17. In 2018, Olga help co-create the New Moon Mycology Summit, a justice-focused, mycology centered event, linking many disciplines extending throughout the living world.  Olga is a member of the Rochester Area Mycological Association, CPAMC, WPAMC & the West Virginia Mushroom club. Annually, Olga guides small groups immersing in land based and traditional knowledge of Northern Greece, highlighting the fungi and plants there.  I’m excited to learn from a legend in mycology who seems to bring the teachings of fungi into every aspect of her life.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Lifelong Love of Mushrooms   
• Forests and Mushrooms in Greece   
• Hosting Forage Trips in Greece   
• Mycology Reaching Across Disciplines & Cultural Barriers   
• Story of Smugtown   
• Grappling with Oligarchy   
• Are We Allowed to Just Exist?   
• Are Currencies, Corporations and Governments the Answer?   
• Starving for Natural Connection    
• Mushrooms Remediating Social Ecologies      
• Evolution of Mycological Community   
• Solutions Inspired by Mushrooms   
• Smugtown Shifting Focus to Community Building   
• Building Networks of Solidarity and Support    

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Smugtown Mushrooms Website: https://www.smugtownmushrooms.com/   
• Smugtown Mushrooms IG: https://www.instagram.com/smugtownmushrooms/   
• Smugtown Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smugtownmushrooms/   
• New Moon Mycology Summit: https://www.facebook.com/newmoonmycologysummit   
• 2021 Indigenous Peoples Day Event in DC: https://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/12/native-american-protesters-hit-by-sonic-weapons-in-dc/