Farm & Garden: Fun with fungi and virtual workshops

MUSHROOM INOCULATION: Learn the basics of growing mushrooms on logs with Trout Lily Deli and Market in Fairview. Photo of log being inoculated with shiitake sawdust spawn courtesy of Flickr (flic.kr/p/6UjfdL)

Upcoming mushroom log-inoculation workshops

A mushroom log-inoculation workshop this month will offer participants the opportunity to learn how to grow mushrooms using proven methods. The outdoor workshop at Trout Lily Deli and Market in Fairview will also cover how to select prime growing locations, preferred equipment for mushroom growing and the best strains of mushrooms. At the end of the session, participants can take home their own shiitake mushroom log and an informational packet.

The inoculation workshop will be offered four times: Monday, March 21; Wednesday, March 23; Monday, March 28; and Thursday, March 31. The cost is $30 per person. For more information or to register, call Trout Lily Deli and Market at 628-0402.

Living Web Farms hosts workshops and provides virtual education

During March, the Mills River-based nonprofit Living Web Farms will host five workshops – ranging from a “grazier’s intensive” taught by a regenerative ranching expert, to cooking and cheesemaking classes, to classes on how to integrate the use of bats and birds on farms. The offerings don’t stop there: From now until the end of 2016, there are 23 workshops scheduled.

“The workshops, generally speaking, seek to cover cutting-edge education on all levels of sustainable living,” says Outreach Coordinator Meredith Leigh. “The future of sustainable farming, gardening, homesteading, cooking and alternative energy are the basic topic areas. We do set up an annual schedule and we try to release the next year’s schedule each November. We have classes slated for at least 12 months all at one time.”

The classes are open to the public, with a suggested donation of $10-15 per workshop; however, no one is turned away for lack of funds, according to Leigh. “The idea is for the education to be truly accessible,” she says.

The organization extends the accessibility of the classes by making them available on its website. Leigh adds, “We video all of our workshops, and then we provide them for free online afterwards. We have a pretty large global community of people that we are educating virtually.”

For more information about Living Web Farms, to see a full schedule of upcoming workshops or to watch videos of past workshops, visit livingwebfarms.org.

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