Berlin Foraging with The Wild Path

Discover the forest's wild treasures as a local guide introduces you to mushroom foraging near Berlin.

KEY FACTS

• Distance & duration: 5 km walking, 4 hours from start to closing, break times along the way
• Language: Our community language is English, German mushroom names can also be provided upon request
• Difficulty: Easy – walking on marked paths / roads, flat terrain, relaxed pace.
• Price: Sliding scale 45€ / 35€ / 25€ or pay what you can!
• Group size: Limited to 15 people (Dandelion bookings not RSVP count)

WHY SHOULD YOU GO?
The summer rains have been doing their invisible underground work, and as the ground soaks up the moisture, so does the mycelium. Get out the foraging basket, because it's finally that time of year again – mushroom time!

Porcini, chanterelle, parasol, chicken of the woods, puffball, oyster… Wild mushrooms are famously prized for their delicate and complex flavors. In good years and especially from August to October, the woods of Germany explode with an extraordinary bounty of edible delights. Those in the know can find kilos of delicious fungi almost right outside their front doors. Yet, as is well-known, when it comes to mushrooms it takes knowledge and experience to distinguish the delectable from the deadly!

Join Simka (they/them) for an adventure into the forest of Tegel, where we will get acquainted with the most common and delicious edible mushrooms growing in this area – no experience necessary.

Together we'll explore the forest floor and learn the basics of how to find, identify, collect, and prepare the wild edible mushrooms that are currently in season. Here you will learn which mushrooms to stay away from – and how to get confident enough to bring your own harvest home.

Fungi play crucial, unseen roles in our ecosystem. Yet only when they fruit do we see them above the forest floor in the form of mushrooms, which come in an enormous diversity of shapes, colors, sizes, textures, smells, and flavors. With 6000 species of fungi in Europe alone, there is so much to discover!

Yet mushrooms can be elusive. Whether and where they appear and how long they last depends on many factors and can be hard to predict. A foraging trip with an empty basket can be disappointing – so that’s why we’ll also learn about some of the delicious local wild edible herbs, flowers, fruits and nuts of the early autumn forests. And with a bit of luck, we'll uncover some delicious fungal treasures to bring home – from sweet, foresty porcinis, to glowing, sunlight-colored chanterelles, to nutty parasols and beyond!

The tour will take us through beautiful forest scenery, where we will have plenty of time to relax, explore, and take in the serene surroundings.

Discover the forest's wild treasures as a local guide introduces you to mushroom foraging near Berlin.

KEY FACTS

• Distance & duration: 5 km walking, 4 hours from start to closing, break times along the way
• Language: Our community language is English, German mushroom names can also be provided upon request
• Difficulty: Easy – walking on marked paths / roads, flat terrain, relaxed pace.
• Price: Sliding scale 55€ / 42€ / 30€ or pay what you can (includes foraged snacks)
• Group size: Limited to 14 people (Dandelion bookings not RSVP count)

WHY SHOULD YOU GO?
What is more iconic of oncoming autumn than brightly-colored mushrooms poking out of the forest floor? Bring out the foraging basket, because it's that time of year again, when these crucial, mysterious members of our ecosystem pop up to fruit & spread their spores – and provide tasty meals to the critters around them, including us humans!

Porcini, chanterelle, parasol, chicken of the woods, puffball, oyster… Wild mushrooms are famously prized for their delicious, complex flavors. With a little searching, even us city-dwellers can find kilos of delicious fungi almost right outside our front doors, thanks to the amazing forests around Berlin. Yet, as is well-known, when it comes to mushrooms it takes knowledge and experience to distinguish the delectable from the deadly!

Join Simka (they/them) for an early autumn adventure into the forest around Hohen Neuendorf, where we will get acquainted with the most common & delicious edible mushrooms growing in this area – no experience necessary.

Together we'll explore the forest floor and learn the basics of how to find, identify, collect, and prepare the wild edible mushrooms that are currently in season. Here you will learn which mushrooms to stay away from – and how to get confident enough to bring your own harvest home.

Fungi play crucial, unseen roles in our ecosystem. Yet only when they fruit do we see them above the forest floor in the form of mushrooms, which come in an enormous diversity of shapes, colors, sizes, textures, smells, and flavors. With around 10,000 species of fungi in Europe alone, there is so much to discover!

Because fungi are such fickle fruits and their appearance is determined by many factors, including the weather, there's no guarantee the conditions will be right for an abundant harvest. But there's always something around to fill the foraging basket – so in case the mushrooms end up more sparse than we hoped for, we'll take a closer look at the delicious edible plants & herbs that line the path instead.

Our mushroom hike will take us through beautiful autumn forest scenery, including past a 500-year-old oak tree and alongside a picturesque lake, where we will pause for a picnic lunch including some foraged snacks to taste. There will be plenty of time to relax, explore, and take in the serene surroundings.

Dive into early autumn's wild delicacies in Hasenheide as a local guide introduces you to the delicious edible plants and flowers of the season.

KEY FACTS

• Distance & duration: 2 km walking, 3.5 hours from start to closing, break times along the way
• Language: Our community language is English, German plant names can also be provided upon request
• Difficulty: Easy – walking on marked paths / roads, flat terrain, relaxed pace.
• Price: Sliding scale 40€ / 30€ / 20€ or pay what you can!
• Group size: Limited to 15 people (Dandelion bookings not RSVP count)

WHY SHOULD YOU GO?
Come soak in the end of the season on this plant-focused foraging walk, where we will explore the edible abundance of the city. Once the weather starts to cool, the changing season brings us an incredible bounty of fruits, seeds, nuts and roots – all of which are available just around the corner from you. Once you know what to look for, there is wild food everywhere!

Join Simka (they/them), a local foraging guide and nature coach, who will show you how to safely identify and work with a range of common and easy-to-recognize delicious edible and potent healing plants.

In a friendly, informal setting, you'll gain loads of insight into the uses and folklore surrounding each plant – such as wood avens (whose aromatic roots provide an incredible clove flavor perfect for mulling and baking), hops (whose flowers can be used to brew beer and create incredible insomnia cures), hawthorn (whose sweet red fruit can be made into heart-healing syrups), and hazelnut (who doesn't know and love that deep nutty sweetness already?) – all weeds and common plants that grow all over Berlin!

As we meander through the park, we'll pause often to meet and sample these incredible wild pals as well as gather our own harvests in safe and abundant spots, so that you can bring home a collection of delightful wild autumn ingredients.

You'll come away with a completely new perspective on the city's weedy & wild abundance, as well as loads of inspiration for how to incorporate it in the kitchen – plus many tips and tricks for making ferments, syrups, tinctures, teas, salves and much more.