Can fungi save the world? Tradd Cotter, a microbiologist, professional mycologist, and organic gardener, thinks that they can play a critical role in meeting the challenges of pollution, pandemics, and population pressure.
Mushrooms can be incorporated into a farm or homestead at any scale, for many different purposes. They diversify the ecology of the landscape, supplement income (if produced at a market scale), improve human and soil health, and remediate chemically or biologically toxic environments, and make a meal all the more delicious. Even if you are one of those curious people who doesn’t love to devour mushrooms, there are plenty of great reasons to incorporate mushrooms into your working landscape.
To learn how, sign up for the workshop in Mushrooms, Molds, and Mycorrhizae: The Cultivation & Permaculture of Fungi offered as part of Sterling College’s School of the New American Farmstead. The workshop, which will take place on May 14th-15th, is open to anyone interested in learning more about the amazing world of fungi. In just two days, Tradd Cotter will cover a wide variety of topics: fungal life cycles, log and stump inoculation, intercropping mushrooms in garden design, medicinal mushrooms and tincture preparation, cultivating mushrooms on straw and dried garden waste. The second day of the workshop will focus, in large part, on mycoremediation, the process of capturing or breaking down toxins within a system. This promising technique may be a key component of reducing the negative impact of agricultural runoff and improving water quality. Mycoremediation represents an exciting addition to any farm system.
Workshop participants will get direct access to Cotter, the best-selling author of Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation for Everyone (Chelsea Green Publishing), a rich yet easy-to-read and implement guide to successfully growing mushrooms without the use of complex machines or costly investment. They will walk away from the program ready and inspired to cultivate fungi.
For more info and to register, click here.
Co-written with Nicole Civita.
