Mushroom Cultivation Workshop

Last posting on mushrooms for a while, I promise.

Last weekend, I took a trip to Everdale Farms to attend a Mushroom Cultivation Workshop, taught by Bruno and Paula from Fun Guy Farm. It was a full day of learning about mushrooms: different types, how they grow, and how to cultivate your own on a small or large scale.

Some basic info we learned:

• Fungi are decomposers
  
• Mushrooms are the reproduction system of the fungi organism
  
• There are many types of fungi, including molds
  
• Different fungi / mushroom varieties have very different needs - e.g. growing medium, light, humidity
• Maintaining a sterile environment is very important, to prevent other fungi from colonizing the medium
  
• Cultivating mushrooms is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than growing plants!
  

In the end, we each took home a log which we "injected" with shiitake sawdust mycocelium. This log needs to be kept moist through the summer (so that the shiitake mycocelium can grow and inhabit the entire log), and undergo a period of dormancy during the winter. Hopefully if all goes well, next spring the log will be sprouting shiitakes.













Photo (L): Sawdust mycocelium, still in plastic cell sheets.
Photo (R): A log waiting to be drilled with holes.













Photo (L): Logs plugged with mycocelium and a thin layer of styrofoam (to prevent drying), and stacked.
Photo (R): A shiitake mushroom poking out of a one-year old log.

Soil Mix-A-Lot

With the weather in Toronto staying unseasonably warm, I decided to start planting a little early this year.

Last year, I bought a pre-made potting mix, and added coir and mushroom compost. Throwing away the old soil this year seemed unnecessarily wasteful, so I amended about 2/3 old soil with:

• a bit of coir
• a sprinkle of kelp meal
• a good layer of worm castings
• a good layer of "sea soil"
• a good layer of 1/2 perlite, 1/2 vermiculite
• a very thick blanket of mushroom compost

The peas and the arugula were planted first, since they should be relatively cold hardy. One week later, the arugula sprouts were visible. The garlic I planted last fall still hasn't shown any signs of life. In the coming days/weeks, I'll start planting beets, lettuce, kale, chard, green onions and mustard greens. (yay!)

Wishing you all a great growing season!

Mushroom, At Last

You know how people say that when you're not looking for a relationship, that's when you find one? Well, apparently the same can be said for oyster mushrooms.

I had just got back from a Mushroom Cultivation Workshop on Sunday (more details on that later), where I learned that oyster mushrooms are very aggressive and can outcompete other fungi due to its quick-growing character and because it is native to Ontario. Yeeeeah right... not more aggressive than the alien tree mushroom that invaded my grow-kit.

The next day, I went out to the balcony and pulled out the bag of straw I kept from the discarded grow-kit. I figured at least I could use the straw for mulch, if I dried it out and got rid of the mycelium (mushroomy pre-growth). It had been pulled apart and drying in the sun for a few weeks now.

Then... lo and behold, I discovered oyster mushrooms growing inside the bag. Thick, juicy oyster mushrooms, quietly living in secret. Apparently, ripping apart the straw and placing it in an unfriendly environment gave the sleeping oyster mushrooms enough of a reason to start blooming and spreading spores.

I felt quite happy and satisfied at this unexpected discovery, but it was probably not quite the same satisfaction I would have felt if I grew the mushrooms from scratch. But I'm not complaining... same end result. I love mushrooms again.

Guerilla Gardening

Interested in gardening but don't have a space to call your own? Feel like your community has wasted land/green space that could be improved with plants? Guerilla gardening might be your answer.

Guerilla Gardening occurs when people take over a piece of abandoned land to grow plants. It could range from throwing "seed bombs" into vacant spaces and parking lots, to regularly tending and harvesting crops through a season. It questions land ownership and sparks community solidarity by empowering citizens to create their own space and grow their own food.

I decided that my community was in need of some flower power, and determined that guerilla gardening was the way to go. I live right beside the West Don Lands development, which is slated for a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-income neighborhood. At least that's what the city has promised. But right now, and for the past couple of years, it has been a large, boarded-up waste of land.

I acquired some flower seeds: alyssum, greenheaded coneflower, zigzag goldenrod and cup plant. With sunny skies and trowels in-hand, my partner and I ventured out in search of small green spaces to plant our seeds of action.

Plot #1: East Don Rdwy and Queen East (SW corner). This strip of land is right beside our building, and filthy with garbage. The soil is sandy and has lots of small pebbles. Along with the seeds, we also threw down some of the potting soil from my balcony that is from last year and has no use.

Plot #2: King East, just east of St. Lawrence St (E side). The ground was dug up, large stones and bricks moved, and seeds scattered on a 3' x 1' area. A passerby even gave us some planting tips.

Plot #3: King East and Sumach St (NW corner). Sandy, shallow soil. Grass was pulled out, and seeds planted along the fence.

Plot #4: St. Lawrence St, just south of King East (N side). By this time we were pretty tired. The best way I can describe what we did here: seed dump.

In all honesty, I think the chances of any of these seeds turning into a full plant is next to none. But I could be wrong... the power of plants shouldn't be underestimated. I've seen flowers grow from narrow sidewalk cracks, and tree roots break up roadways. Maybe these seeds will come up in unexpected ways and welcomed places.

Apple Lifesavers

Eating locally in Toronto means a helluva lot of root cellar fruits and vegetables in the winter. I order at least one Good Food Box every week, and each week since late last year, I receive a bag of apples in my box. Now don't get me wrong... I love me my Good Food Box, and I have nothing against apples. But an apple a day, sometimes even 2 apples a day, make me go crazy. Especially those soft, crumbly apples. Gross.

I've been trying to think of ways to eat apples in everything. Apples in salad, apples in soup, apples in breakfast porridge. But still, the apples kept-a-comin', and I just couldn't eat them as fast as I was getting them. But then...

I took a trip to the Plan B farm in Hamilton, and it seemed they had the same "problem". But they thought of one idea that I hadn't: dried apple rings.

I cut up a dozen apples into crosswise, even slices, and removed the cores and bruised parts. The slices were laid out on baking sheets, and were placed in the oven on 150-200F for several hours. The drying process lasted about 3 days, since I didn't want to have the oven on when I wasn't at home, but it could easily be done in one continuous drying session. The slices were checked every now and again to get the right dryness.

After I had my apple rings, eating 2 or 3 apples a day was a walk in the park. Hey apples, is that all you got?