Learn Mushroom Cultivation & Tincture Making

Learn Mushroom Cultivation & Tincture Making for Great Health A Hands-On Workshop

Learn about mushrooms’ amazing range of medicinal, nutritional, and pollution remediation benefits with mycologist John Michelotti. We will begin with the basics of mushroom identification, including how to distinguish poisonous types, edible ones, and where different mushrooms grow. The use of medicinal fungi will be covered—to boost your immune system, improve brain function, as an antioxidant or an anti-inflammatory, and to lower blood pressure/cholesterol. We’ll also explore methods of mushroom cultivation on different media, such as coffee grounds, mulch, wood chips, etc., and easy ways to incorporate mushrooms into your garden, rooftop, kitchen, backyard, or landscapes, and how fungi can clear toxins. Discover the amazing benefits of mushrooms!

Fungi are also used to remove toxins from the environment, a process called mycoremediation, which will be discussed. Toxins such as harsh chemicals/heavy metals can be found in areas such as the woods, oil spills at a gas station, soils in gardens, etc. And mushrooms have been used to replace toxic materials such as Styrofoam.

We will also learn how to grow oyster mushrooms in our own kitchen, prepare them in a meal, and even develop growing mushrooms into business. Oyster mushrooms are delicious, grow very large, and contain a great deal of protein, a variety of vitamins, and nutrients. Each participant will also make a tincture and tea from the chaga mushroom and learn about its properties: immune booster, antioxidant, digestive support and more. We’ll see demonstrations of methods of mushroom cultivation called the spore slurry method and the wine cap burrito growing method.

Topics covered will include:

• Introduction to Fungi
• Basic Mushroom Identification & Life cycle of fungi: resources and tools for identifying fungi
• The Uses of Fungi in History and Present Day
• Mushroom Growing & Mycoremediation: Different methods of mushroom growing and easy ways to incorporate them into your garden or landscape as well as how to clean toxins from the environment using fungi
• Workshop to Grow Oyster Mushrooms on Coffee Grounds: Each participant will make and take home their own jar for growing oyster mushroom indoors
• Medicinal Mushroom Presentation: Health properties of mushrooms for people and the planet
• Workshop for Making Extracts: Each participant will make and take home their own chaga tincture

Note:
A $10 material fee is payable to the instructor for mushrooms, a jar and supplies for making tincture.