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