Mushroom Cultivation Workshop for Ward 5 Residents

300 Evarts Street Northeast,Washington DC 20002

17 March, 2022

Description

Free hands-on workshop for DC residents to learn how to grow mushrooms and how they can start their own low-tech urban mushroom farm! The College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is offering a free workshop in Mushroom Cultivation. This 4-hour course will be held 8 times, one in each ward. The experience will consist of interactive lectures, videos, discussions, and hands-on training to cultivate mushrooms. The course is offered by Dr. Mamatha Hanumappa, CAUSES project specialist in specialty and ethnic crops. The main speaker, Mark Jones, Sharondale CEO (Collaborating Ecological Organism) was introduced to fresh, home-grown produce as many of us were – in the garden with his grandmother. He became fascinated with fungi during a college mycology class. Following a M.S. degree in Plant Health, Mark learned and practiced the craft of carpentry and grew a construction business. His hobbies building gardens, working with kids and disabled adults in horticultural therapy, and practicing permaculture led him back to agriculture and growing mushrooms. After designing and building outdoor living spaces and encouraging people to grow food in Portland, Oregon, Mark moved to his family’s homestead Sharondale in 2004 to continue developing perennial polycultures that integrate fungi and mushrooms with plants. Mark’s current work includes practicing and teaching about low-input mushroom growing for small farm diversification and resilience and to support natural resource management plans; intercropping with mushrooms food production, medicine, and improving soil fertility; and collecting local strains of mushrooms that have potential as food, medicine, and earth healers. Mark is an experienced farmer and proprietor of Sharondale Mushroom Farms in Keswick, VA. Event Details: The course is free and is open to all. There is no prerequisite as this is a beginner-intermediate level course. Presentations and videos demonstrating techniques associated with the subject matter will be conveyed by Mark Jones. The workshop will be offered in each ward, so register for the announcement pertaining to your ward of residence Follow this link to sign up: Sign Up Sheet Topics include: The 4-hour workshop covers the cultivation practices for the following mushrooms: shiitake (Lentinus edodes), oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus and other species), lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus), Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), Wine Cap Stropharia (Stropharia rugoso-annulata), and Almond Portobello (Agaricus subrufescens). The introduction will detail how to grow mushrooms using low-tech, low-cost methods in gardens or woodlots. After the presentations there will be a hands-on activity inoculating logs and building a garden mushroom bed out of hardwood chips. Additionally, Mark Jones will demonstrate how to sterilize straw bales to use as substrate for growing mushrooms. . Credentials Earned: This is a non-credit, free workshop. Date: March 17th 10am-2pm Location In person and outdoors. Please dress for the weather. Registration Information Registration will be capped at 25 participants per course. PAYMENT This event is FREE and open to the public. CONTACT Dr. Mamatha Hanumappa (PI) Shanna White (Graduate Research Assistant) [email protected] Photo: Mark Jones, Sharondale Farm