Growing Mushrooms

First, having a central goal of being a farm that uses sustainable practices I fully believe in the three r's: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Connecting with other members in the local community through social media and wanting to reuse other peoples waste are two additional goals that are increasingly important to me. I was on Facebook a few weeks ago and happened upon a post from Ansel Ringler that mentioned having an abundant amount of dust from his business Estatoe Woodworks.

Immediately, I contacted him inquiring if he had any (saw) dust from hardwood trees for the mushrooms my father started while I was studying abroad in China. When growing different varieties of mushrooms only certain tree species are used. Ansel replied in a timely manner stating that he currently been working with soft woods in his woodworking shop although, within a few weeks he would have a few trash bags full of hard wood dust.

On Tuesday evening my father and I checked on the boxes of mushroom spawn on cardboard and realized we need to start the next step of process as the mycelium successfully spread through our substrate. We had talked about what substrate we were going to use next and saw dust was one of the first mediums that we mentioned. Below is the progress of our Elm Oyster spawn on coardboard from June 5th until July 11th, 2017.

Yesterday, I was contacted by Ansel notifying me that he had hard wood dust available, when I would be available to pick up the bags, and help with collecting dust from around his shop. Feeling giddy as if my prayers had been answered I responded promptly that I could stop by the next day if his schedule permitted. I am grateful for the connections in the local community that have been made and keeping in contact with those individuals on social media platforms. The connection with Estatoe Woodworks helps Ansel clean up his shop while providing a substrate for the mushrooms to grow at Crawford Family Farms. I am going to be researching and contacting other businesses around the local community for other possible means of substrate and compost for the farm. I hope to decrease the amount of materials sent to landfills while providing food to the local area. Reduce, reuse & recycle.