Roots CIC

30/05/2026

A beautiful, happy family day in the woods with the wonderful yesterday learning how to grow mushrooms on logs from our coppice.

Thank you to everybody who came along to this lovely workshop.

27/05/2026

There’s still time to bring the family to the woods this coming Friday, May 29 for our family woodland mushroom growing workshop!

We’ll be joined by award-winning Steyning based gourmet mushroom growers the Caley Brothers, fresh from scooping yet another gold at RHS Chelsea, to learn how to grow delicious native mushrooms on logs from our coppice.

This is a lovely, hands-on day suitable for the whole family (adult only tickets also available) in a beautiful woodland managed for biodiversity.

There’ll be plenty of food and drinks and an opportunity to stay and play in the woods afterwards.

Family tickets from £45 - £115 including all the equipment you need, drinks, snacks and lunch in the woods!

To book email [email protected]

14/05/2026

14/05/2026

Get the whole family to the woods with us and Caley Brothers this half term for a family woodland mushroom growing workshop!

Put down the screens and swap ‘I’m bored’ for a very special workshop in Ashington on Friday May 29, in which you and your little ones will get hands-on growing edible native mushrooms on logs harvested straight from a stunning private woodland managed for biodiversity.

It’s a great opportunity to learn something new as a family and introduce the kids to a bit of tool work ⚒️ in a fun, accessible and supportive environment.

All tools and equipment, drinks, snacks and lunch round the fire provided!

Jodie from Steyning-based gourmet mushroom growers Caley Brothers is a wealth of knowledge, experience and passion about all things mushrooms and will share all her secrets - secrets that have led to awards from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and seen her and sister Lorraine create installations for Kew Gardens, using logs from this very woodland!

After lunch, you can take your logs home to watch the mushrooms grow in your own garden. Or, you can stay and enjoy the woodlands and learn more about how they are managed for biodiversity by Roots West Sussex CIC.

Sliding scale prices:

Family ticket (2 adults 2 children):
Low income: £75
Standard: £95
Pay it forwards: £115

Single family ticket (1 adult 1 child)
Low income: £40
Standard: £55
Pay it forwards: £75

To book, email [email protected]

07/05/2026

The floor has been levelled (ish) and the fire has been lit so we’re all ready to welcome our community to our beautiful barn on the Wiston Estate this coming SATURDAY MAY 9th!

As usual, we’ll meet at 10am but instead of heading to the woods in Ashington we’re going to spend the day up at the barn making it feel like home and, more importantly, doing some last-minute making and carving as we have not one but two fetes coming up so we need plenty of stock to sell.

If you’d like to join us drop us a line [email protected] and we’ll send you the location and parking info.

As always, we’ll provide tools, food, drinks and heaps of hospitality. You may wish to bring a stool or camping chair as we have limited seating.

A reminder that we are hosting a FAMILY WOODLAND MUSHROOM WORKSHOP on Friday May 29 at Ashington with our friends from Steyning-based gourmet mushroom-growers the Caley Brothers

The brilliant Jodie from Caley Brothers will be guiding us through the process of growing edible native mushrooms on logs from our very own coppice - logs so good they’re on display at Kew Gardens in the carbon garden!

Those who attended our session with Jodie back in March will know what a fun, immersive and nourishing day this workshop is. All tools, materials, food and drink will be provided (of course) and we really hope to welcome some families to the woods - Friday May 29 is the last day of half term, so it’s a great way to spend some quality time in the woods together as a family, learning something new, getting hands-on and of course, keeping the kids off their screens for the day.

We’ve set sliding-scale prices as we want this offer to be as accessible as possible. We are currently unfunded for our work at Gratwicke’s Wood so events like this will help keep Roots going and ultimately contribute towards our aim of becoming a sustainable organisation in every way.

To book email [email protected] and please, tell your friends! Invite your friends! Make a day of it!

Read all our news at our latest Substack https://rootswestsussex.substack.com/

06/05/2026

White storks on thermals with a cuckoo in the background and some beaver coppicing - it can only be Knepp Wilding!

We were made up to be invited to spend a lovely day at Knepp with the Knepp Wildland Foundation and Weald to Waves along with other supporters and MVPs of nature recovery in Sussex and beyond.

As Knepp Wildland Foundation director Libby Drew so passionately outlined, Sussex is an extraordinary county for nature recovery efforts and awareness. We are so happy and proud to be a small part of that.

It was also pretty special to check out some coppicing by another keystone species, the mighty beaver! 🦫

We’ve talked a lot with the Roots CIC community about how our work imitates the megafauna that would once have managed Sussex woodlands, and how in their absence it’s down to us with our humble billhooks and bowsaws to keep creating the disturbance that prompts the regeneration to create dynamic, evolving habitats and ecosystems for biodiversity.

Beavers might not be mega, size-wise (although tbf they’re big old rodents) but their impact certainly is. It was such a rare treat to see an example of truly natural and wild coppicing. The bar has been set for our happy gang 🤣

Finally it was a bit of a buzz to see our Cathy and her trusty, oft-blunted chainsaw hard at it on the nature corridor we’re creating thanks to support from Weald to Waves, the landowners within the project area and funding from Southern Water, as part of the presentation.