Mushrooms can help us clean up the environment in many ways, by breaking down toxic hydrocarbon carbons into harmless byproducts, by stopping livestock-generated E. Coli from entering waterways, by blocking erosion into streambeds (more effectively than currently employed methods), by restoring topsoil to deforested land, by rapidly breaking down waste cellulose and using it to produce food. And further research is progressing into deploying certain mushrooms to destroy colonies of termites and carpenter ants in a completely non-toxic manner.

Mushrooms can also help growers with soil fertility. Mushrooms have

traditionally been intercropped with vegetables in Eastern Europe so that their extensive underground mycelial network serves as a second root system. Studies have demonstrated that the mycelia will actually transport nutrients from a spot far away and rich in that nutrient, bringing them to a plant in soil poor in that nutrient. Also, mushroom mycelia act a guardians to root crops because their tendrils will actually form tiny nooses that trap and kill root nematodes.

Tradd will also share slides of "hay bale gardening with elm oyster mushrooms", the oyster mycelia threading through the hay bales essentially makes a hydroponic growing medium that is particularly useful for growing crops in drought conditions.

We will also do a demonstration of using pink oyster mushrooms to recycle paper waste. We ask those folks interested to bring a cardboard egg carton for a take home a demo of how to use your waste paper to simultaneously grow food and recycle your cellulose waste.

Join us! Due to campus construction, please check