Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Mushroom Cultivation

Continuing from last week’s blog on a ‘miracle of mycelium’, I want to share a another urban farming opportunity that requires no permits, no application fees, and has promise for being lucrative, delicious, and beneficial to our health.  The space requirement is minimal as well, so if you have a small shady space for a couple of oak logs around your house, you’re in business!

Years ago, when I attended a Shiitake Mushroom Cultivation Class at The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee, most of the attendees were previously family farmers.  Through sharing our backgrounds during the one day workshop, we learned how many of these farmers had surrendered multi-generational family farms back to the bank or had been bought out by large corporations who had deliberately plotted their demise in order to acquire their land.  

Still numbly grappling with how to recover, what to do next, yet still holding a passion for growing something profitable - without any large scale investment or loans for equipment and petrochemicals - these farmers turned to learning about gourmet mushroom cultivation.   The demand for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms is possibly spawning one of the next farming frontiers, while simultaneously bringing healing to people and nature.  Like organic farmer, the demand is growing more popular each year.

Last week, I wrote about an unsung Mushroom Hero, Paul Stamets, hailing from the Pacific Northwest, co-owner of the amazing Fungi Perfecti.  He researches, educates, and provides supplies for mushroom farmers all over the country, plus designs an amazing array of medicinal fungi combinations under the name Host Defense.  There are many mushroom suppliers nowadays, but Stamets is recognized as the leading authority on the many beneficial uses of fungi, including toxic contamination cleanup!  

One of his latest amazing lines of research is in non-toxic pest control, creating a ‘de-sporified’ mycelium that bugs would normally avoid in the natural state.  When de-sporified, this mycelium becomes uncontrollably attractive to both colonizing and non-colonizing insects, quickly paralyzing and killing them.  Imagine being able to easily, non-invasively, non-toxically and permanently protect your house from termites or your garden from mosquitos!  (We are on the waiting list for this product as soon as it gains EPA approval.)

Meantime, growing your own gourmet or medicinal mushrooms - such as Reishi, Shiitake, Maitake, Oyster, and Morel is a very easy process.  Actually starting from previous mushroom spores might be too technical for a beginner, but you can certainly ‘cooperatively buy’ various mycelium substrates in packages that are large enough to share.  Dividing it up with friends significantly lowers the cost of investment.

Next, check in with a local arborist to see if you can get a couple of freshly cut oak logs (not Live Oak) about six inches in diameter and about four feet long.  This is a great mushroom growing medium.  There are many online videos to demonstrate the process of ‘inoculation’ with the mycelium.  Some mycelium even comes shaped in small plugs, and you simply drill the log, pound them in, and coat with melted wax.  The Reishi medium I used came in sawdust, so I drilled the log in 4-6 inch intervals, used a funnel and a chopstick to load each hole, then coated each area with melted wax to prevent the mycelium from falling out.

Depending on the type of mushroom, directions for inoculation and ‘log care’ during the incubation period will vary.  The Reishi grows best if the log is half vertically buried in the ground under a shady spot, and kept damp.  Shiitakes also need shade, but the logs can be leaned against a fence or saw horse, and should be cyclically soaked until they start fruiting.  Most mushroom companies send thorough directions with the packages of mycelium.

Mushroom cultivation is a new horizon with more potential than we can think or imagine.  And Florida is a fantastic environment to grow them!  Not that we are adventurous enough to risk eating wild mushrooms, (which take years of experience to accurately identify), but all varieties of amazing fungi pops up in our garden all the time.  They are absolutely magical to behold - and they are an indicator of a great environment for this very sustainable local form of farming!