The Simpson County Co-op is hosting a homesteading workshop series. So far, they’re planning to teach about beekeeping, sourdough baking, and mushroom cultivation. Last month, they began with the mushroom course. The Co-op brought in Dr. Ellen Crocker to demonstrate ways to grow different kinds of mushrooms.
Takeaways from the class
The event started with a slideshow to teach us about mushrooms. Turns out, not every fungus makes a mushroom! The ones that do though, the mushroom is its fruit. There are three kinds of fungus, the “recyclers” who break down dead plant material. The pathogens, that cause decay in living organisms. And the mutualists, who create a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. And to acquire mushrooms, you can either forage or cultivate. Then Dr. Crocker showed us how to grow our own mushrooms.
Cultivating Hands-on
In this course, we got to setup oyster and shiitake hosts. Dr. Crocker had multiple bags of soaked toilet paper sitting on a table. We each picked a bag and passed around a bag of rye seeds coated in mycelium. We took out a couple of scoops of seeds and dumped them onto our damp toilet paper. Then we tied up our bags and we should have oyster mushrooms in the next few weeks!
She gave us an example of what it will look like when it grows too! Can’t wait!
Shiitake Mushrooms
The most fun part of the evening though, was inoculating a log with shiitake spawn. Marcus and I used a modified angle grinder to drill holes into a log. Then we used an inoculating tool and bag of shiitake spawn to fill the holes. It’s a straw-like tool you punch into substrate. Then you push on a plunger at the top to send the punched piece into a log. It was pretty fun. Last, we sealed the holes with some hot wax. Now we wait for shiitake mushrooms!
Definitely check out your local co-ops to see what they have for you to learn and try out!
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