Hudson Locale Fungi Workshop
And thanks again to to crew from Hudson Locale for making this event possible. I look forward to many more good things growing and evolving out of the Hudson Locale Farm &Living Design Project.
The session commenced after a potluck and socialization hour. Jeremiah,Dan,and Melissa Introduce Hudson Locale and their mission –which is something I really support. After setting the scene for this as one of the many soci-educational events to come it was my turn to kick off the fungi portion of the day. I tried to tailor the talk to our location at Pleroma Farm and include fungi within the context of permaculture and biodynamics as practiced on the farm.
We began with a general discussion on the importance of fungi and the crucial roles they play in our ecosystems. We focused on fungi that lives as mycelium to the exclusion of yeasts,molds,mildews. Most notably fungi are decomposers who can recycle debris into valuable soil. Many opportunities exist at the farm for utilizing mycelium’s deconstructive powers to aid in the transition from debris into soil with plant-accessible nutrients. These opportunities include woody debris,stumps,manure,spent straw,vegetation,cardboard,paper,and even coffee grounds.
Fungi Workshop
In addition to building soil,certain fungi have the ability to decompose toxins such as PAH (the main chemical bond in petroleum products),PCB,PCP,among others. Mycelium can also hyper-accumulate heavy metals such as mercury and lead. Pleroma Farm is not in need of remediation from these toxins,however the Farm can still benefit from myco-remediation. We identified a small creek that is contaminated by the effluent from the Farm’s dairy cows. We discussed using Paul Stamets‘s “bunker spawn” method to build a living filter to eat the rich effluent and remove dangerous bacteria.
While naturally participating in this decomposition process,mycelium offers us various other benefits. These benefits include the the creation of enzyme that repel pests and diseases such as nematodes and blight fungi. The combination of these properties makes certain fungi great companions for specific vegetable. And lets not forget the most evident benefits – the mycelium’s fruit:mushrooms!
Mushrooms are very nutritious,and we touched very briefly on our chosen species nutritional profiles. We went into a little more depth on the medicinal properties of mushrooms. These properties exist because mycelium lives within an environment that is very rich in microbial life. As a sort of external immune system mycelium has evolved the ability to excrete various enzymes,polysaccharides,and other compounds to ward off bacteria,viruses,and other fungi. These compounds have direct benefits to humans when consumed as medicine.
Stropharia rugoso-annulata inoculation station
The classroom session’s purpose was to explain why we were integrating mushroom cultivation into the landscape. Most of the workshop consisted of the physical implementation. We started at the ‘spiral garden’where we broadcast Stropharia rugoso-annulata sawdust spawn on two garden beds. Also know as Wine Caps or Garden Giants,this mushroom was recently reclassified as Psilocybe rugosa-annulata (Psilocybe meaning bald headed – this mushroom is not hallucinogenic). In a bit of an experiment we layered this spawn in between layers of spent straw gathered from one of the barns. This was on top of a sheet mulch that had been laid sometime beforehand. Ideally we will supplement this patch with additional woodchips. The plants for these bed will be chosen a companions for the Wine Caps. I suggested some large and leafy green such as dinokale or large cabbages to provide shade and retain moisture on the soil. Corn is supposed to be a great compliment,so a three-sisters theme might work well here too.
The next workstation was set back in the camp established in the forest on the property. Here we inoculated oak and maple logs using plug spawn. We used a large oak log and maitake (Grifola frondosa) plug spawn as the first demonstration. After the maitake log we focused on the abundant shiitake (Lentinula edodes) plug spawn we had on hand. We would have inoculated oak logs with reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)plug spawn in the same way,but decided to forgo the reishi due to time constraints.
Lentinula edodes plug spawn workshop
The plug spawn inoculation process involves drilling holes approximately four inches apart in an offset or diamond pattern around the log. Then the plugs – wooden dowels that have themselves been inoculated – are gently hammered into the holes. We finish the process by covering the newly inserted plug with a layer of non-paraffin beeswax or cheesewax.
Pleurotus ostreatus inoculation station
Our last station was where we mixed oyster mushroom sawdust spawn with poplar sawdust and packed this mix into burlap bags. We had two varieties of oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). We offered our guests to take their own oyster patch home with them for the price of a donation.
Check back in the coming months and years to see the fruits of our mushroom experiments.
I look forward to more skillshare opportunities hosted by Hudson Locale. Just guessing by the interest of those who I talked to I am envisioning workshops on biodynamic preparations,stonework &masonry,permaculture,nutrition &raw food,wilderness survival &tracking,and awareness training.
