FUNGI FARMING
Skills for Low Tech Mushroom
Cultivation Weekend Course
November 22 – 24
Course Description
In collaboration with Danielle Stevenson of D.I.Y. Fungi, this course will introduce the art and science of mushroom cultivation by offering low-tech, home-scale methods for growing mushrooms for food, medicine and earth renewal. We will focus on less-sterile approaches to creating your own mushroom cultures (“spawn”), fruiting mushrooms for food and medicine, and working with fungi to build soil, boost your garden, and address soil and water contamination.
Throughout this mushroom cultivation course, you will learn about setting up cultivation space at home, gathering materials and equipment, and gain experiential hands-on skills to make liquid cultures, petri cultures, grain spawn, sawdust kits, and more. You will learn simple ways to grow and make mushroom medicine, grow mushrooms in your garden, digest household waste with fungi, and work with fungi for remediation. The course will involve a mix of lecture-style learning and a lot of hands-on indoor and outdoor skill building.
Saturday will focus on growing cultures from spores and starting spawn. Sunday will focus on mushroom fruiting and outdoor installations.
Each participant will take away their own mushroom cultures (1 liquid culture, 1 Oyster or King Stropharia mushroom grow kit + 1 grain spawn jar) and a Mushroom Cultivation Manual to refer back to. Valued at $75-100.
Instructors
Danielle Stevenson
Kate Morgan
Registration Information
- Sliding Scale Cost: $350 –$500 — What is Sliding Scale?
- Course fee includes: Instruction, materials, farm fresh meals, camping & facilities
- Limited to 40 students
Discounts:
- Early Bird: $50 discount if paid in full by October 1st (Discount Code: FIRSTFRUIT)
- Financial Aid: Work trade positions are full for this course. Please click here to contact us.
Cancellation Policy:
- Before October 20: Full refund available excluding $50 cancellation fee
- Between Oct 20 – Nov 8: Partial refund (with non-refundable $100 deposit)
- After November 8: No refund available
Permaculture Courses
Permaculture Design Course
Sustainable Vocations
Farm Immersion
Our Farm & Community Immersion Program offers a 6-month residency (with possibility of extension) at Quail Springs grounded in community living and applying permaculture techniques to support our farm and holistic food systems. This experience provides extensive practical opportunities to apply everything learned in a Permaculture Design Course (although a PDC is not required) through the day-to-day operations of a full-time functioning Permaculture farmstead, community, and education center.
Farm Tours
On your half-day visit to Quail Springs Permaculture Farm, you will learn about: growing food in the high desert; tending a variety of healthy food-giving animals; sustainable shelter; living regeneratively; and stewarding agricultural lands, watersheds, & wilderness.
Fungi Farming
This course will introduce the art and science of mushroom cultivation by offering low-tech, home-scale methods for growing mushrooms for food, medicine and earth renewal. You will learn about setting up cultivation space at home, gathering materials and equipment, and gain experiential hands-on skills to make liquid cultures, petri cultures, grain spawn, sawdust kits, and more.
