Tag Archives: learning

Free online course: An Introduction to the U.S. Food System

Posted on by
2

Yesterday I began a free online course from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health through their OpenCourseWare program. It’s a 6-week, at your pace course called An Introduction to the U.S. Food System. Each week’s module contains video lectures, related readings, and a quiz. I’m halfway through the first module’s lectures, and I am very pleased with the course format and the information delivered thus far. It feels like a serious course, not something quickly thrown together and dumbed down for the masses. Here is the list of weekly modules:

  • Week 1: Introduction to Food Systems, Equity and the Environment
  • Week 2: Food Systems, Food Security and Public Health
  • Week 3: Public Health and Environmental Implications of Industrial Models of Food Production
  • Week 4: Food and Farm Policy
  • Week 5: Alternative Approaches to Food Production
  • Week 6: Diet, Food Environments, and Food Access

I’ll post interesting tidbits here, but it’s not too late if you want to sign up yourself! Click here to go to the Coursera site.

Cheenius and the Mushrooms, Part I

Posted on by
2

Today we have a guest post from our resident survivalist, Cheenius, who attended a mushroom-growing workshop and was kind enough to share her experiences with us! Take it away, Cheenius!

*************************************************************************
Cheenius signed up for a “Mushroom Workshop” and was excited about the opportunity to share her experience with HP readers.  Offered by Mark Jones of Sharondale Farm in Keswick, the 3 hour course covered the biology, ecology and cultivation of mushrooms.

Eleven intrepid souls showed up in the rainy 38 degree weather to sip on the yummy herbal tea (free with registration of $60) and learn about fungus.   Mark proved to be quite knowledgeable, and provided interesting mushroom facts and insight.  For example, did you know that the largest living organism on the whole planet is a fungus?  It measures six square miles!

After some fungi basics, Mark walked us through his collection of poplar and oak logs in different stages of growing a number of mushroom varietals.  We then moved on to the hands-on part of the workshop, where he showed us how to drill holes in the logs, insert the spawn and cover it with cheese wax (Cheenius was happy to see that cheese wax has multiple uses!).

He had us each try our hand at the different parts of the process, and sent us home with our own starter spawn for oyster mushrooms.

Cheenius also purchased some shitake mushroom spawn as well as a nifty “innoculator” tool to make the insertion process easier.  As soon as she fells some trees she’ll be in business . . . in 8-12 months!

Cheenius recommends:

*************************************************************************

Good luck, Cheenius! Keep us posted on your progress!