GOSHEN – Orange Environment Inc. (OE), a nonprofit environmental preservation group in Orange County, will host two workshop sessions on “How to Grow Mushrooms in Your Own Backyard” on March 18th at the Warwick Valley Community Center, 11 Hamilton Ave.
OE has been hosting workshops on how to practice sustainable living in our own backyards for the past ten years. Topics covered have included permaculture techniques and design methods for growing mushrooms as a food source, making your own water catchment system or rain barrel, and growing food and herbs in your garden from seeds or food scraps from the kitchen.
The morning session from 9:30 a.m. to noon will be taught by Peter Lai, a certified permaculture design instructor. It will cover general information on mushrooms, their life cycle, medicinal applications, and methods for growing different kinds of mushrooms — like shiitake, stropharia, and lion’s mane, on tree logs, totems, and woodchip beds. Harvesting, growing them for food in your own backyard, and the economics of growing them on a small farm will also be discussed. The fee for this session is $35 or $30 for OE members.
The afternoon session from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. will be taught by Joseph Gregoire, an experienced mushroom grower in Warwick. Attendees will receive instruction on how to prepare logs for inoculation of shiitake spawn into holes in the logs. This is a hands-on instructional activity. Logs and materials will be provided for you to take home. A demo on cultivating stropharia will also be presented. The fee for this session is $45 or $40 for OE members.
If staying for both sessions, participants are asked to bring their own lunch. Nonmembers attending both sessions pay only $72. Sessions are limited to 20 participants, so register today here.
Registration and payment are due by March 9th. For additional information contact peterl@frontiernet.net
