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Mushrooms

Micro-Mushrooms Farm

 

Bio- Mimicry, Ancient Techniques 

 

Our mushroom farm was born from listening and observation. I wanted to set up a farm that mimicked nature, biomimicry, or wild tending, and at the time had no idea where it would lead. 

 

The intention was and still is,  for it to eventually be commercial-  with a highly experimental approach, it was unclear at the time. And it still sits somewhere between a passion project and a business. 

 

I observed what was happening on the land for a year and collected specimens of wild fungi to study. 

 

Notice The Wild 

 

I noticed and found many things and started creating a catalog of specimens that were of interest to me. These included Hedgehog fungi, Artist Bracket or White Reishi, Turkey Tale, Birch Polypore, Stump puffball, Chanterelle, Chicken of the woods, Hoof Fungi, and in a locally wood I found Beefsteak Fungi. 

 

Anyone who has visited the farm knows that this platter of edible and medicinal delights became my pathway of production, i chose a log-growing technique that originated thousands of years ago in Asia with just a tiny handful of farms producing this way in the UK. 

 

 The value of the farm emerged over time as people continually asked to come and volunteer and i began to help others start their own outdoor cultivation setups. We now work collectively with others to support native strain cultivation and sharing as well as generate understanding of how to maintain the logs, start the fruiting cycles, and manage the risks. 

 

Not just a farm- We are a home to these amazing specimens and bring them into the farm for safe housing. As many people know there are endangered mushrooms species within the UK and so we create opportunities for natural pro-creation of these precious strains, by bringing these mushroom strains into the outdoor log growing method brought through specialist mycologists. 

 

By doing so not only does the mushroom become an active member of our eco-system providing food and medicine for other insects, creatures as well as ourselves, but also the presence of these specimens provides opportunities to discuss the importance of wild cultivation methods and native strain protection and understanding. 

 

 Given that most of our medicinal mushrooms flooding the market are from abroad and produced in artificial setups at great cost to the environment it feels important to be a voice in the mushrooms world that asks us to question our agro-industrial methods and seek to explore alternatives to this, pioneering ways forward that push the boundaries and perspectives of what we think of as “mushroom farming” in the modern age. 


 

Shiitake

Rather than focus on native strains only, I worked closely with Shiitake, carefully studying the texts and resources I found online, testing, and immersing myself in the work. I did this because I firmly believe we always seek to build on the knowledge of others and since I couldn't do that with native strains since it is uncharted territory, instead I explored shiitake, the knowledge of which is vast from Asia and America. 

 

I planned that the Shiitake would help bring in the funds longer term to support the cultivation of still more and more native strains. And act as a bread-and-butter project to support the larger whole of research. 

 

Commerciality, 

Producing around 200 kilos, This year the Shiitake alone has started to be sold in the market and to restaurants and despite needing to charge £35/£45 a kilo depending on our customers recognize the environmental value of this work and are happy to pay, proving that we can earn an income from the farm. We also sold meals at our festival cafe where we received immense support for our delicious Shiitake. Look out for us, Tiny Wild Cafe! 

 

There aren't statistics on native strain cultivation using log-growing methodology in the UK. We are the first to pioneer this work, with success. Every strain we have cultivated has grown and now we go on a journey to pull down the more exact data to build our longer term understanding of how these mushrooms behave, their likes and dislikes, and have begun the manufacture of our product range to supply our communities. 

 

Click on each picture of a strain to find out more about the individual strain and its unique benefits: 

 

Future Research 


 

Tasha- look at your course notes for properties of mushrooms! 

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