TRAVERSE CITY -- It you're into healing ecosystems and enhancing biodiversity, growing mushrooms is a good place to start.
Dozens of "Bioneers" kicking off their eighth annual conference Friday at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City learned how to become mushroom cultivators at a workshop with Brian Rogers, an entrepreneurial mycologist in Interlochen. He demonstrated at-home growing techniques like hardwood log inoculation and simple mushroom patches.
"We're not talking about button mushrooms here. We're talking about gourmet medicinal mushrooms," Rogers said.
Fungi can help restore ecosystems and there are "low-tech" methods anyone can do, he said. Mushrooms can be grown in home gardens, often benefitting other plants and vegetables in the patch.
Elm oyster mushrooms, for example, are great to grow in gardens, he said.
"It's healthy to have in your garden because of its relationship with the plants, especially at the roots," Rogers said.
It's not complicated to grow mushrooms, whether the oyster varieties or shiitakes, he said.
Mushrooms can be grown with pure culture spawn that can be made or obtained. The spawn can be mixed with hardwood chips or sawdust, then covered with a straw layer. With abundant water, the mushroom patch will begin to fruit and can gain a foothold in a garden, even becoming a perennial patch, Rogers said.
Participants left with jars of mushroom spawn to take home and try their hands at cultivation.
"I have thought about this for 15 years," said Barbara Disborough, of Interlochen. "I probably will start this in my house this week and in my garden in the spring. Everybody loves mushrooms and they are very expensive. But now I can grow them in a bucket in my home."
The cultivation idea also intrigued Linda Kemper, of Omena.
"We have morel mushrooms on our property and one of my sons got me interested. I like the idea of it helping a garden," Kemper said.
Rogers and his business partner, David Schaffer, launched Mushroom Gardens LLC, a new business in Interlochen. They supply area restaurants with gourmet mushrooms and want to help others start home-growing operations, Schaffer said.
Rogers will talk about fungus' benefits again at a session this morning at the Bioneers conference, which continues through Sunday. Other workshops today include sessions on public access to water, nature journals, wellness-based health care, home weatherization and climate change. It's part of a national conference designed to highlight natural solutions to social and environmental problems.
Visit www.glbconference.org for more information.
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