A three-day retreat-meets-masterclass on a Portuguese regenerative farm, for anyone ready for fresh fun(gi) thinking on ending things well.
27-29 November • Southern Portugal
what do we create next?
what needs to rot first?
Spend three days on a working regenerative farm in southern Portugal, learning to end things well.
What is this? Rot to Regenerate is an invitation to practise endings differently — not as failure, waste or collapse, but as the oldest method we have for returning value to ourselves, our work, and the living world we're part of.
Learn a new method: Design through Decomposition. You will learn to break down what needs to rot, and grow what’s next from the remains. This is not a lecture course or wellness programme. It is three days of purposeful, guided work.
We’ll learn from fungi, nature’s most badass decomposers, who have been running the most sophisticated ending-and-renewal system on Earth for 400 million years. They break down what's dying, release what was locked inside it, and return the nutrients to the living.
Over three days on 130 hectares of off-grid regenerative farmland between Lisbon and Lagos, you'll learn to do the same – with your projects, your strategies, your systems, your stories about who you are.
You’ll leave with the capacity to author endings rather than suffer them, and a composting method to use on Monday.
Who is this for? Anyone feeling the limits of business-as-usual. Designers, strategists, futurists, solarpunks, sustainability leads, creatives, educators, world-builders, recovering corporate wizards. You share an intuition that the dominant model of growth is doing harm. You've got something you know needs to end, and you're ready for some fresh fun(gi) thinking.
You’ll ease away with: Rot, reframed as transformation. The capacity to see what needs to die (in your organisation, your work, your life). A method to practise on Monday. One live thing decomposed, with the resources it was holding now free’d up. A booklet, stickers and carabiner. A connection to others doing this work. And a mycelial gift to compost in your home 🍄🟫
Come and get your mushroom eyes on.
Yours in spores.
Featured in
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![A woman sits cross-legged outdoors on a patterned blanket, holding a flower, and looking to the side with a focused expression.]()
photo by Aleks Jaroszek
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![Making scultures with mycelium building blocks.]()
photo by John V. Willshire
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![Women with tote bag 'what if the best thing you did this year was let something rot']()
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![Compostable mycelium blocks, on the compost heap.]()
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![Jess Jorgensen sits, smiling during a Field Trip in England's Epping Forest, on a fallen tree stump in the forest. It's a sunny day. She's holding a good stick.]()
photo by Manu Valcarce
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![Decomposing cheese.]()
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![A bowl grown with mycelium materials rests on a tree stump next to a tree. In the bowl is a bright purple potion and mixing stick.]()
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![A group of walkers gather around Adi Staempfli as he describes a forages mushroom.]()
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![meeting mycelium in a rotting stick]()
photo by John V. Willshire
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![mycelium on decomposing wood]()
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![jess jorgensen presenting in the woods.]()
photo by John V. Willshire
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![People sitting on the grass and listening to a speaker during an outdoor gathering and workshop - the Sporesight Decomposition Day - surrounded by trees and greenery.]()
photo by John V Willshire
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![Workshop arms play with mycelium building blocks.]()
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![Aerial view of workshop tabletop showing labelled mycelium building blocks.]()
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![Sporesight merch: a take-home carabiner with prompt cards, resting in the leaves.]()
photo by John V. Willshire
why now?
We’re obsessed with creating; terrible at ending. In 2025 we crossed seven out of nine planetary boundaries. In 2026 Earth Overshoot Day landed in July; the rest of this year we're borrowing from our futures. The same growth-at-all-costs logic is stripping our time: highly productive, always behind, time-starved for someone else’s gain.
We all know this. And yet we keep making more.
In nature, death isn't the end of life; it's part of a regenerative cycle. Transitions work the same way: the new can't grow until the old composts. So rather than asking what to create next, let's ask what needs to rot first.
Call it de-growth; call it getting your mushroom eyes on. Once you see, you can't unsee.
The vibe is retreat-style. It it not a retreat.
You'll relax. We’ll start each day slow, with optional yoga, walk or a swim. You'll eat very good food grown metres from where you eat it. You'll be on nature's clock rather than your calendar's. You'll sit around a campfire with people doing the work and wonder why every week isn't like this.
But you'll also leave with a rigorous method to use on Monday, a different way of seeing, and a shift from suffering endings to authoring them.
Think masterclass in letting go, eco-punk style. A composting of the immersive learning experience, and of growth-at-all-costs while we're at it. Expect embodied learning and all the feels: grief for a future that's collapsing, renewed possibility for the one we can still build.
There is nothing else like this on offer. It's worth travelling for.
Three days, three movements.
Day 1 / LET GO
Midday till the stars emergeArrive, settle, slow down to the land's clock. Take a beat and re-orient. Our first fungal learning session, and a tour of the farm with the people regenerating it.
We’ll learn from a mushroom best at letting go and imagine: what if we could celebrate the beauty of endings?
You’ll meet decay. You'll embody a decomposer mushroom in meditation. You'll let something go in a campfire rot ritual.
Day 2 / DECOMPOSE
Mid morning till it’s time to light the campfireLearn and practise Design Through Decomposition: break down what needs to end, and grow what’s next from the parts.
We’ll learn from a mushroom best at transformation and ask: what if we could decompose, to recompose?
You'll meet mycelium in the woods and play with homegrown mycelium materials. You’ll ask what remains, and what rots.
Day 3 / RECOMPOSE
A morning start, ending over shared lunchBring a real thing you're holding onto: an initiative, a project, a system, a habit, a mindset, a story about who you are.
As a collective we will break it down, returning the value locked inside to yourself.
You will ease into a shared lunch and closing integration session.
Book your spot here
Spore (£)
For students, early career practitioners, those in transition or anyone with limited financial means.
Everyone deserves to learn.Fruit (££)
For those with a steady income or access to funds which can support their needs and invest in their learning and development.
Help us cover costs.Regenerate (£££)
For those with financial abundance, professional development budget from their employer or institutional backing.
Actively support a spore!
Who are we
Jess Jorgensen - Sporesight Foundress, foresight strategist and regen educator. Ex-Global Insight Lead. Mycophile, 5+ years into a world fungi research tour.
Allyson Carroll - Sporesight Partner, cultural strategist, futures transition practitioner and facilitator with twenty years scaling retail brands.
All you need to know…
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Yes! If you're curious about regenerative futures and don't know where to start. If the extractive status quo is wearing you down and you want a practice, not another panel. If you've got something that needs to end.
No fungi knowledge required. Just an open mind, and something you're willing to let go of.
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A Quinta da Lage, Alentejo, southern Portugal. Visit their website.
We’ll be learning about regenerative cycles in a place actively practicing this. A working regenerative farm and a place where people live, work and come together to stay, learn, facilitate workshops, volunteer or simply spend some time in nature (or in the sauna!).
They grow their own food, look after the land and animals, build with natural materials and try to find better ways of living with the land. It's a farm, a home and a place where things are always happening.
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The farm sits between Lisbon and Lagos, near São Luís, roughly 2.5 hrs hours from Lisbon.
We'll help to coordinate travel and arrivals in the group chat.
By car: click here for Google Maps link to find A Quinta da Lage. Approaching from either Odemira or São Luís along the N120, watch for the intersection at Castelão, take the road toward Troviscais, and after about 2km, before you reach the big eucalyptus trees, turn right onto the dirt road marked by a stone sign. Follow it for 1km to the heart of the farm. There's parking on site.
By bus from Lisbon: Rede Expressos from Sete Rios (next to Jardim Zoológico metro) toward Lagos, departing 17:30 and stopping at São Luís at 20:10. Alternatively, take a bus to Vila Nova de Milfontes or Odemira and a cab from there. Around €20–25.
From Faro: Train to Lagos, then the morning Rede Expressos bus from Lagos at 8:30, which stops at São Luís at 10:15.
From São Luís: Hitchhike, or call a local taxi on +351 933 352 545 or +351 967 732 250.
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A shared dorm bed is included in your ticket.
Private or shared rooms: first come first served; let us know when you book.
Bringing a campervan or tent? Talk to us, there's space.
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All meals, tea, coffee, water included: three nourishing vegetarian meals a day, cooked on site, grown on site where the season allows.
We’re sooo excited for Alentejo produce, farm kitchen, eating together. Please let us know of any allergies and dietary needs when you book.
On Friday, there's A Quinta's Pizza Night from the wood-burning oven, a community gathering with unlimited pizza, and one of the (many) great joys of the place.
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The location is a natural landscape and requires walking.
Please let us know if you are joining and have any accessibility needs. We will be doing group work, with the option for solo and to find your own space at any time.
Email hello@sporesight.co
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Sure, we can issue a refund if cancelled at least 72 hours in advance.
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This is a gorgeous, peaceful, working regenerative farm, not a wellness resort.
It's off-grid and solar-powered, so electricity is limited. We’ll ask you to leave high-drain devices at home; charging a phone is fine. Expect compost toilets, warm showers, shared spaces and kitchens. There is wifi but we’ll suggest switching off ;)
You will get your hands in soil. You'll forage for mushrooms. You'll sit around a campfire.
Bring layers, sturdy shoes, a rain jacket, a head torch, a notebook, and a willingness to be slightly muddy.
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The Alentejo coast is spectacular and you've come a long way. Take a day either side; it's worth the leave!
A Quinta has private rooms, cottages and bell tents for extra nights; Vila Nova de Milfontes, the Rota Vicentina trails and some of Europe's least-ruined coastline are all within reach.
We’d recommend staying a day either side on the farm or nearby.
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Bring a friend or a colleague for a 10% discount on both your tickets!
We know sharing the trip can feel less scary than solo travel.
But you don't need to. The moment you book you're invited into the WhatsApp group to meet everyone else coming. Who knows… you may know some of them!
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Bring layers, sturdy shoes, a rain jacket, a head torch, a notebook, sunscreen, swim wear, and something to let rot.
No laptops unless needed for translations. No controlled substances.
Why spend your leave on this?
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Instead of a holiday?
A holiday gives you a week of not thinking about it, then hands you back the same thing you left. Here you leave something behind to rot. You'll rest, and return lighter.
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Instead of inner work?
Day 1 is inner work, aligned with the Inner Development Goals. Days 2 and 3 turn that capacity into a method you apply to something tangible.
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Instead of a another workshop?
Everyone else teaches you how to create. This teaches you how to end, grounded in 400+ million years of fungal R&D, and nobody else is offering it.
recent
experiences
⊹₊˚‧
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Get in Touch
For speaking engagements, to find out how you can acquire Sporesight, or just to talk mushrooms.