Course Description: Learn to grow your own mushrooms with Finney and the Fungi! Mushrooms are equally delicious, nutritious, and fascinating. Although Mushrooms are not plants or animals, they certainly are Fun-gi. In this class you’ll learn how to grow your mushrooms on straw “logs,” how to grow “wine cap” (Stropharia rugosoa) mushrooms in your garden and head home with an inoculated grow kit of oyster mushrooms. We will learn basic methods of cultivation that can be done with simple supplies you already have around the house (like 5-gallon buckets, straw, and boiling water) and discuss how you can grow mushrooms outside in a bucket, or year-round in your house. This course will cover the following:
- Mushroom Life cycle basics
- Inoculating, fruiting and harvesting Oyster Mushrooms on straw
- Inoculating, Fruiting and harvesting lion’s mane mushrooms on “Masters Mix”
- Indoor vs. outdoor cultivation
- Building a “shotgun fruiting chamber” for indoor, year-round cultivation
- Making a wine cap mushroom bed in your garden
- Recycling, composting, and vermicomposting with mushrooms
- Resources for learning more!
Students will leave with an inoculated bag of oyster mushrooms and have the option to buy an additional Lions mane ready to fruit grow kit and fresh mushrooms.
All are welcome – WEI classes are open to everyone.
What to Bring: Notebook and pen, utility knife, and outdoor wear. Please bring a lunch, preferred drink, and snacks if you need them.
Instructor Bio: Andrew Finsness and his Fungi live in Lindstrom, where he started a small mushroom farm in his garage in 2020. He is passionate about introducing people to the benefits that a relationship with Fungi and plants can have in their lives. Our motto is “Fostering Friendships between Fungi and You.” Before starting Finney and the Fungi, Finney interned at the Detroit Mushroom Company for 2 years and in his previous life he was a beer rep and hobbyist brewer.
If you would be interested in staying overnight at WEI before and/or after this class, please reserve accommodations through our FarmStay.
WEI has an annual scholarship fund to support cost-accessible programming. Please see scholarship application instructions in the registration form below.