Morel Foraging Team

Find morels this season - guaranteed!

About your Coach:

Josh Wayne helps steward 716 mountain acres in Northwest Georgia at Just Love Forest, and multiple city parks in Atlanta, Georgia. He began his foraging journey 14 years ago, hoping to find edible, medicinal, and sacred mushrooms. Josh learned how to forage with the help of many knowledgeable mentors in the Atlanta (Pine Lake Eco Arts) and Athens (Wild Intelligence) area as he worked to deepen his connection with the plants and animals that inhabit the Georgia Piedmont. He is inspired by Samuel Thayer, Black Forager, Feral Foraging, and so many more amazing teachers online. As an Atlanta native, he has foraged, prepared, and consumed over 100 species of mushrooms and 150 species of plants from the Southeast. He continues to learn about new plants and mushrooms daily and forages every single day of the year.

Throughout his journey, Josh focused on sustainable foraging practices, supporting native wildlife, and restoring degraded habitats through invasive plant removal and native plantings. Join Josh to connect more deeply with Georgia’s natural beauty and to explore his prized Morel spots.

Josh founded Atlanta Mushrooming and Atlanta Foraging on Facebook. He is recognized as a foraging expert in Georgia Foraging and gives free ID recommendations on these online forums.

Tuition Includes

Four Mountain Foraging Trips

Join us on 716 acres of private property just 90 minutes Northwest of Atlanta, GA. Explore unique habitat and the mushrooms and plants that call this calcareous forest home. In addition to morels, come enjoy the beautiful show of state listed wildflowers. (Read more)

Four Atlanta Educational Tours

We will explore the creeks and rivers of Atlanta and travel to habitats that Josh has personally found and identified various morel species. We will follow the local park foraging rules and using this as an educational experience. In some parks where we are working to remove invasive plants you will be able to forage wild mustard, onion, chickweed, mint and fruits from trees and shrubs we planted in 2022. (Read More)

One month of Private Access to Josh Wayne and our Team

Learn about morels with Josh on Telegram. In addition to the photos and information Josh will share with you directly, you can post pictures and questions and get 24-hour responses from Josh and other team members.

Join us to kickstart your foraging journey!

Whole Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit synaGaia, is dedicated to helping our neighbors learn to connect more deeply with local fungi, flora, and fauna in Georgia. We are excited to launch the Morel Foraging Team to help you connect more deeply with the forests!

Morel Foraging Team Perks: (All perks are included in your tuition)

  • 4 Private Foraging Tours on 700+ acres of private property (near Rome, GA) March 18th, March 25th, April 1st, April 8th

  • 4 Private Educational Tours at local parks in Atlanta (ITP North) March 16th, March 22nd, March 29th, April 6th

  • One month Access to Private Telegram Chat for ID requests

  • Forage four different species of Morel mushrooms (NW Georgia and Atlanta)

  • See Chicken of the Woods habitat and get updates when they fruit (Atlanta)

  • Learn how to make wild Root beer.

  • Identify and sample over 20 Species of Edible and Medicinal herbs and flowers (Atlanta and NW Georgia)  

  • Save years of trial and error and get the advice pre-digested by an Atlanta native with 14 years of foraging experience

  • Learn how to use invasive plants for food, medicine, and weaving

  • Learn how to find food almost anywhere in the world

  • 1 Month access to synaGaia services

Total Value: $1,075

Tuition cost: $500 cash or check. Online payments include $15 processing fees.

Fill out the form below to save your spot!

Monthly supporters of Whole Inc. save 10% on tuition. Email us if you want to schedule a private hike. Spaces for single hikes are limited and reserved by completing the form below.

If you have questions that are not answered by the FAQ below the application, give us a call at (678)-800-1315.

Morel Mountain - Poetry, GA

March 18th, March 25th, April 1st, April 8th

Join Josh Wayne in the Northwest Georgia Mountains for a 3-hour foraging tour. The team will meet weekly on Tuesdays from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm. Due to the secluded nature of the forest, we will wait until all members are present before entering the forest. Please bring a lunch for yourself. This location is home to three different species of Morel mushrooms and a diversity of plant and animal life. We hope to help steward the land by caring for the dying Ash trees (Ash Borer beetle) so we can have morels for many years. We will forage wild mustard greens, chickweeds, sassafras, anise root, and more. We will also explore the mountain to see beautiful and rare wildflowers.  Because we are on private property, we can legally forage for mushrooms and plants (including roots) during this class. Foraging in this forest is only available through an in-person class with Josh.

Fill out the form below to register for the team or for a single hike.

Single Morel Hike Ticket (Mountains): $150/Person. We will email you one week before the hike if space is available, before you send payment for your ticket.

Atlanta Walking Tours

March 16th, March 22nd, March 29th, April 6th

Join Josh in four different Atlanta parks for a 3-hour foraging tour from 10:30 am - 1:30 pm. In Atlanta, foraging tours will focus on understanding the Morel's habitat and the ephemeral plants and herbs that grow near our creeks and rivers. Due to park rules and pollution levels, these hikes are primarily educational rather than an attempt to forage a bountiful meal. We have advocated for laws to change in local parks (Chattahoochee National Park), and we encourage you to start a dialogue with local parks so that we can legalize foraging one park at a time. However, we wish to abide by the parks' rules so that we may continue educating Georgians about the food and medicine that grows in this beautiful and diverse state. Some parks will bring a bounty of edible and medicinal invasive plants that can provide incredible tastes and opportunities for sustainable food sources in the city.

The foraging locations will be within 30 minutes of Midtown Atlanta (ITP North). Josh will pick the best park for foraging one week before the event.

Single Morel Hike Ticket: $100/Person (Atlanta). We will email you one week before the hike if space is available, before you send payment for your ticket.

FAQ

Can I attend just one hike? Preference for the hikes will be given to those who pay full tuition and want to attend all or more of our hikes. If they cannot attend, they can gift their spot to a friend or family member. If a hike has open spots, we will open them up to those on the waitlist. Please fill out the form and email us your desired date to be placed on the waitlist for a particular hike.

  1. Can I gift a hike to a friend? For those who join the team, we encourage you to be as active as possible. We also understand that your schedule might not allow you to attend all events and that a loved one or friend might love to go on that day. You are welcome to transfer your ticket to another person, and we will ask that the person who receives a ticket pay a small admin fee of $15 for their first class. Friends will not be added to the private chat nor will they receive the other perks of joining the team.

  2. Will I be able to see morels in person? While mushrooms are elusive and droughts are possible, we will do everything we can to ensure you have access to verified morel habitat to study and/or forage. Those who travel to the mountains can sample cooked morel mushrooms when they appear in the forest on our hikes.

  3. Will we learn about anything other than morels? Yes, March to April is an excellent time to learn how to identify trees by bark and plants by flower. Ephemeral greens will be completing their life cycle by flowering and fruiting (mustards, violets, red bud flowers, edible tree leaves and more), and we will learn how to steward land so that it can continue to produce for generations to come.

  4. Can I go and forage morels at the private property whenever I want? No. We currently want to ensure sustainable harvesting and care practices are followed. There will be opportunities to forage on this land with more freedom by receiving training and certification, hopefully sometime in late 2025.

  5. If I need financial support, how can I let you know? We want to ensure that those with financial concerns can access this information. We also need to bring in financial support to pay for our organizational needs with limited resources. Email us directly if you feel called to attend and need financial support.

  6. Can I donate a scholarship ticket so that someone with financial need can attend? Yes, your tax-deductible donation can be used to provide scholarships for one or two people so that we can ensure access to this vital information.