Just some small logs, some well placed spawn, and you'll have years of mushroom production! Join us as we explore the wonders of these mycelial beings and how we can utilize them to grow food and medicine.
We harvested some freshly cut maple and oak, got some inoculated wood dowels, and now all we need is you to start growing food. We'll be growing oyster mushrooms — a culinary mushroom prized for its resilient growth. We'll plug maple logs with this mushroom, then you'll get to take the log home. We'll also leave a few logs behind with Full Circle Community Wellness so they and their clients can enjoy the fruits of our — and the mycelium's — labor!
We will have everything needed to complete the workshop, but in limited quantities. We have plenty of logs, spawn, and wax, but if you have a power drill and/or rubber or wooden mallet, please bring it. We will be using a 5/16" drill bit, so if you have one of those, bring it as well. We will have more drill bits than drills, so no worries if you don't have one. Eye protection is also recommended.
We'll be plugging the logs together, but we'll also be discussing wood selection, mushroom selection, where to put your plugged logs, and just marveling at the power of our fungi friends.
- Eye protection
- Power drill (if you can)
- Rubber or wooden mallet (if you can)
- 5/16" drill bit (if you can)
- Water and a snack
- Clothes that can get sawdust and wax on them
- A way to get a roughly 2ft log home
- Curiosity
- Opening grounding practice
- Introduction to CC and the day's teacher
- Fungi ecology and the logic of log cultivation
- Wood selection — choosing your log
- Live inoculation demonstration
- Hands-on log drilling, plugging, and wax sealing
- Mid-session break and Q&A
- Placement, care, and fruiting trigger discussion
- Survey of wood and mushroom pairings beyond today's combo
- Closing circle
- Inoculated log
- New relationships with wood waste
- Understanding of fungi functions
Cultivated Commons is a Hendersonville-based land trust and permaculture school. Through our workshops and courses, students upcycle marginal lands into public-access, car-free corridors that connect neighbors, harvest stormwater, and grow free food. Each student group works on a real design challenge on a real piece of local land, returning to their own neighborhoods as ambassadors for the common spaces we all share in trust. Our half- and full-day workshops can also be steps toward an Applied Permaculture Design Certificate, with tuition counting toward the cost of certification.