Boston Flora

Tag: shiitake mushrooms

  • Friday, September 27 – Sunday, September 29 – South Coast Harvest Festival

    Best of South Coast award winner The Cat and the Raven will kick off opening festivities on September 27 with a sound bowl demonstration in the show gardens. Professional Pumpkin Carver Richard Kaiser, one of the original carvers from Roger Williams Jack o’ Lantern Spectacular, will be doing live carving. Emily Deutra of Butterfly Effect Farm will discuss the importance of natives (they are all pollinator support plants!) A shiitake mushroom inoculation workshop will be held by Groundwork Farm, dedicated to regenerative, low till farming and offers seasonal workshops and interesting facets to farming. Enjoy an intimate view of owls, these secretive birds of prey. Mark and Marcia Wilson will dazzle you with their live owl presentation. All this will happen at the Westport Fairgrounds. Visit https://southcoastharvestfestival.com/home

    Event Dates: September 27 – September 29

    Event Times: Friday 10am-8pm, Saturday 10am-8pm, Sunday 10am-6pm

  • Saturday, October 22, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Introduction to Shiitake Mushroom Growing

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden program, co-sponsored with Berkshire Grown, is a practical hands-on workshop on the natural, forest cultivation of shiitake mushrooms. This introductory workshop to be held Saturday, October 22 from 10 – 3, aims to teach participants about log-based sustainable shiitake mushroom cultivation, harvesting, and marketing. Through the hands-on workshop and pictorial “visits” to actual shiitake farms in the Northeast, participants will learn about tree species selection and sustainability, spawn types, inoculations, predictable fruiting, and enterprise management. The workshop is both for homeowners and aspiring mushroom farmers. Participants will practice inoculating and will take home logs to cultivate throughout the season.

    Allen Matthews has been the Farm Enterprise Program coordinator at the University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture since 2002. In this role he has worked with a wide range of diversified farms across Vermont in on-farm research projects, marketing value-added products and in farm business planning. Past SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) research projects have included developing sustainable indicators for dairy farms and developing forest-grown shiitakes as a farm and forest enterprise.  All materials will be provided, and participants are asked to dress for outdoors and to bring a bagged lunch.  $65 for BBG members, $75 for non-members.  Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.