[TheUWfarm] UW Farm Fungi Committee

Interested in what is beneath the soil? What about edible and medicinal mushrooms? How about being involved in projects revolving around soil ecology? If these things interest you, then you might be interested in being part of the UW Farm Fungi Committee!

We had a meeting last night and held a great discussion about fungi and our goals of this freshly revived committee...

We want to consider the microflora! There is a profound world beneath the soil that is unknown to our bare eyes. To put things into scale slightly... in a single scoop of soil, there are more species of fungi, bacteria, and protozoa than there are plants and vertebrates across all of North America. In a single thimbleful of soil, several miles of fungal filaments may be present. Of all organisms on this planet, fungi are the grand recyclers, they do us all a great service by disassembling large organic molecules, including toxins, into simpler, more readily usable forms.

Some benefits of fungi that we currently are aware of include...

• Unlocking nutrients that may be out of reach or locked up within complicated structures.
• Building soils. Fungi are ever-thickening the soils that we are dependent on.
• Mushrooms! We use mushrooms as food and medicine, and we are not the only organism to use them either.
• Protection of plants. From excretion of antifreeze glycoproteins to antibiotics that attack pathogens, fungi are well invested in the plants they live alongside.
• Mycorrhizal relationships. Most plants have mycorrhizal partners that bring in distant nutrients and moisture, increasing the absorption capability greatly, it is currently thought to have a 10x to 100x difference.

We have many goals that we would like to see progress towards, some of these include...

• Know how to work with fungi
• Learn about pairing fungal and plant species together
• Learn about resources for fungi related materials
• Obtain organic mediums for growing fungi (including logs, sawdust, woodchips, straw...)
• Foraging field trips
• Being involved and connected with the Puget Sound Mycological Society (PSMS)

Many of our goals can be obtained through various fungi projects and experiments, we discussed some of these at the meeting...

• Amassing mycelium!
• Soil testing and removal of toxins! It is a long process but we can still create a plan of action.
• Burlap sack ecosystems with veggies and mushrooms growing together!
• Inoculating logs and stumps with edible and medicinal fungi! Now is the perfect time!
• Make a mushroom bed!
• Interplant with garden veggies!
• Determine where we already have fungi or could use more!
• Germinate seeds with mycorrhizal fungi!
• Make kombucha and pass on the knowledge and cultures!
• Turn rocks into soil with lichen gardens and graffiti art!
  

Contact Nico at therollingearth@gmail.com to be put onto the Fungi Listserv where we will further discuss these topics!