Boston Flora

Tag: Fungi Ally

  • Saturday, April 15, 11:00 am – 1:30 pm – Cultivating Mushrooms Outside

    Start spring early with a dive into the fungal kingdom with Berkshire Botanical Garden. Learn how to inoculate logs, wood chips and stumps for mushroom cultivation in your backyard. We will cover the basic information everyone should know about fungi and get hands-on experience doing these easy to replicate growing methods. By the end of class you will be familiar with six different wild mushroom species, three cultivation techniques and have loads of new fungal lore to share with your friends. The class takes place at Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge on April 15 from 11 – 1:30.

    Willie Crosby is the owner of Fungi Ally. He has been growing mushrooms indoors and outdoors for over nine years and works to reveal the power of mushrooms by educating people how to incorporate mushrooms into their gardens and lives. Willie teaches online for Stockbridge School of Agriculture and Cornell as well as in person at his farm in Hadley, Mass., and for UMass-Amherst. $35 for BBG members, $45 for nonmembers.

    Courtesy Freshcap.com

  • Sunday, April 5, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Cultivating Mushrooms at Home: Winecaps, Oysters, and Shiitakes – Postponed

    Explore growing your own mushrooms in a class at Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge on Sunday, April 5 from 1 – 3, with Willy Crosby. Willie Crosby is the owner of Fungi Ally, a mushroom company located in Montague, MA, focusing on mushroom research, education, and spawn production. Willie has received 6 research and education grants over the last 5 years to study and educate the public on mushrooms. Willie aims to create a world of balance and connection through revealing the power of mushrooms.

    Learn the lifecycle of mushrooms and the important ecological role that fungi fill. Focus on several methods of cultivating mushrooms.  Participants will leave with the tools and knowledge to start cultivating mushrooms at home and will be given their own inoculated mushroom log.

    This program is currently accepting names for a wait list.  Call 413-298-3926.  Image from www.ruralaction.org.

  • Saturday, June 2, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Gardening with Mushrooms

    Join Alex Dorr of Fungi Ally at Berkshire Botanical Garden on June 2 from 10 – 1 for this hands-on workshop to turn your garden into an arena of decomposition and mushroom production! Gain the tools and knowledge to transform agricultural waste to grow your own food and medicine for your family and community. We will work with tree mushrooms in particular: wine caps, almond portobellos, and oysters. Participants will become familiar with techniques of cultivating these mushrooms for food, medicine, or mycoremediation purposes. This workshop will include building a wood- chip bed of wine cap mushrooms (Go home with myceliated chips to start your bed own mushroom bed), adding Almond Portobellos to your garden via compost, and growing oyster mushrooms in mulch. We will also discuss transferring and expanding these mushrooms without buying spawn, and using Wine Cap mushrooms in mycoremediation applications.

    Alex Dorr is the lab manager, spawn producer, and education coordinator for Fungi Ally. Fungi Ally’s goal is to connect people with the wonderful world of fungi. Author of the published book Mycoremediation Handbook: Grassroots Guide to Growing Mushrooms and Cleaning up Toxic Waste with Fungi. Working with various other projects including Corenewal, a 501c3 non profit organization in Ecuador cleaning up oil spills and a mycoremediation team based in the USA consulting big industries and doing research. Alex has certifications including Master Soils and Fungi certification, Clean room techniques, and commercial mushroom spawn certification. He has taught mushroom workshops all around the country for years! Dedicated to connecting people with the healing abundance that fungi provides!

    Advance registration is highly recommended, but walk-ins are always welcome, space permitting. BBG members $45, nonmembers $55. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/gardening-mushrooms

    Image result for mycoremediation handbook