A Comprehensive Guide to the Cultivation and Traditional Uses of Medicinal Mushrooms
Christopher and Katherine Parker, Authors
A new book by educators and eco-mycologists Christopher and Katherine Parker combines knowledge about the medicinal properties of mushrooms with practical advice about cultivation. “We look at how mushrooms are an integral part of all life on earth, have been used by a wide variety of people for thousands of years and are essential to the regeneration of our forests,” says Katherine. To the project, she brings a Western science perspective, while Chris, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, contributes Indigenous wisdom and more than 35 years of experience in growing mushrooms.
In January, the couple, owners of the land-based school The Forest Farmacy, will open the doors of their new School of Applied Eco-Mycology, offering two online courses: a 3-month class in Beginning Mushroom Growing and a year-long certification course in Regenerative Mushroom Farming. “We promise to take new growers to their first harvest and beyond into a profitable mushroom business,” Katherine says.
The Mycelial Healer is the couple’s first book. “Since terrestrial life has begun on this planet, fungi have survived and thrived through every extinction event and will continue to be here,” says Katherine. “We hope readers will come away with a new respect for these living beings, a deeper understanding of the long relationship we humans have had with fungi and a sense of how to partner with them to provide food and medicine.”
The Mycelial Healer: A Comprehensive Guide to the Cultivation and Traditional Uses of Medicinal Mushrooms, October, 2025, nonfiction, paperback and ebook, $34.95, by Christopher and Katherine Parker, and published by Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT. Learn more at TheForestFarmacy.com.
