April was certainly a time to bloom. We expanded into 2 additional markets, delivered to a few new restaurants, and taught several educational experiences to budding mycologists in multiple venues!
Our Dinner on the Farm featuring Chef Agata Dean and the Flowering Sun Ecology Team was a mouthwatering exploration of Polish flavor profiles and textures.
Foraged New York’s third year kicks off May 4th! We have been wild harvesting and delivering ingredients to restaurants, bars, and cafes around the Capital Region! Check out www.foragednewyork.org for full details. Our dinner on the farm kicks off the festivities Saturday evening! Menu and details below.
Here are some new places to find our mushrooms:
New Lebanon Farmers Market
https://newlebanonfarmersmarket.com
Franklin Square Market
Dove + Deer (ordering intermittently for specials)
The Mountain Eagle published an article about our visit to the Schoharie Boces program:
Instead of discussing a book in our Mushroom Book Club we got out in the John B. Staalesen Vanderheyden Preserve for an early wild plant identification walk.
With the return of longer days we can resume production of sundried shiitake. When left out in the sun between 6 and 12 hours (over two days) they collect the vitamin D from the sun’s rays in their cell walls creating an all natural booster that is perfect for combating seasonal affective disorder during the long winter nights.
We participated in the Troy City School District School 18 science fair program. We had a display of various mushrooms and talked about the growth pr
The Shroomwagon has come out of storage and will be making local deliveries again soon:
Eden’s Rose foundation in Albany bought 100 copies of our Mushroom Coloring Collection Vol 3 to give away as part of their Earth Day celebration.
Check out their mission and what they do here: https://edensrose.org/
Bowterra farm in Fort Plain is buying our grain spawn to create their substrate blocks. They stopped in to sample some of our products too!
Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/p/Bowterra-Farm-100080365693584/
Little Village Mushrooms in Lowville, New York is getting our ready-to-fruit blocks to expand their production. Check them out here:
Soulfire farm in Petersburg New York grabbed a full truck load of our mushroom compost to spread across their fields. Check out their mission and activities here: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/
On event days and most weekends we serve up “Today’s Tea” a blend of wild harvested and farm grown mushrooms. We love sharing it with our guests (and drinking it ourselves of course). It gives us an opportunity to learn a bit more about some of the mushrooms we interact with. We recently made a Pioppino and Dryad’s Saddle tea. Cerioporus squamosus (Dryad Saddle / Pheasant Back) are powerhouses of nutrition. High in protein, carbohydrates, and vitamin E, Several B Vitamins, C and D and several good fats. Among other medicinal qualities, they are antimicrobial warriors that have been shown to combat Enterobacter cloacae, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The Second Sunday poetry and prose open mic happens every month gathering writers from near and far to share a few words, laughs, and tea amongst the mushrooms.
The Troy Public Library Mushrooms for Health and Wellness program introduced many new people to the healing powers of mushrooms and how to best incorporate them into a regular wellcare routine.
We talked about sustainable food production and mycoremediation on the Sage College campuses during their Earth Day celebrations.
We wrapped up our HVCC Mushroom Mycelium and More class with a field trip to the farm in order to get inside the mushroom growing process.
We will be a weekly gathering space for a group from the Mental Health Empowerment Project, Inc. (MHEP). We’ll be serving hot mushroom tea for participants.
Long time funga friend, Amber, filled in for us on a Saturday so we could escape to the Adirondacks for some forest time!
We will be featured in Joel J Plue’s upcoming book on mushroom farms in the US called Mushroom Magic: Harvesting Health from Nature’s Wealth.
Check out his other book:
Here’s a short excerpt from our chapter:
“Changing how people view mushrooms is one of our primary missions. The mainstream perception that Agaricus as an addition to pizza or mixed into gravy is the only fungi option is very pervasive. And that perception, coupled with raw buttons in salad, has given so many people food trauma to the point where they are afraid to try any other variety of mushroom for fear of the bland taste and squishy textures. Introducing younger eaters to the breadth of the mushroom palette is critical for our mission in overcoming the mycophobia inherent in the American diet. When I asked the gathered group of students if they had eaten a mushroom, only about half of the class said yes, and of those, only 1 had eaten something more exotic, like a shiitake mushroom!
When I began pulling King Trumpets, Golden Enoki, Comb Tooth, and Oysters out of my bag and telling about ways that I’ve cooked them, almost all of the students leaned forward with interest. When I asked that they divide into teams to begin preparing them, they excitedly leapt to the task! Every member of the class was engaged and curious about working with the variety I had brought. We roasted, battered and deep fried, pan seared, and sauteed them! They had a blast creating with fungi, and only a couple of the students cautiously took a no-thank-you bite of the tasty morsels that were produced, everyone else dug in enthusiastically. The Chef Instructor, Chris Snye, was overjoyed with the fact that his students got out of their usual culinary boxes and experimented with a unique ingredient list and even sampled everything!
One of our goals is to operate a teaching kitchen in our farm space so we can do regular cooking workshops. We have partnered with a local cooking school, Capital Cooks, to present classes so far, and we are very fortunate that they have opened their space to us. We have the opportunity to offer a cooking with mushrooms class through a local SUNY School, Hudson Valley Community College and we hope to get that off the ground soon as well! We have also done push in culinary sessions at Emma Willard High School in Troy that are greatly appreciated by the students and their teacher as well! One of our most exciting culinary education sessions was working with the Hospitality School at SUNY Schenectady County Community College. We created a “Mushroom Experience” with decor and multimedia slideshows while the students curated the 3 course meal under the tutelage of their chef instructors. It was a memorable evening for the guests who devoured the meals and for the students who crafted the food!”
A Recipe for You
We did a lot of wild harvesting in April and our resident culinary creative, Amy, came up with a decadently delicious and easy soup:
Creamy Sweet Potato Magnolia Soup with Mixed Mushrooms and Wild Greens.
2# of Sweet Potato (peeled and cut into ½” pieces)
1 Onion, Chopped.
5 Whole Magnolia Blossoms (approximately 1oz) Thinly slice 1 blossom
1# of Mixed Mushrooms Thinly sliced into bite sized pieces
(we used Chestnuts, Shiitake, and Oysters)
½# of Thinly Chopped Mixed Greens (we used Stinging Nettles, Garlic Mustard, and Ramps)
Approximately 8 cups of homemade Mushroom Broth
Onion Grass with bulbs for Garnish
Olive Oil
SOUP BASE:
Saute the ¾ of the onion in olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper until softened, but not brown. Add the chopped sweet potatoes, 4 Whole Magnolia BLossoms, and 6 cups of broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 10 – 15 minutes until potato chunks are soft and falling apart. Remove from heat. Puree using an immersion blender or a regular blender.
MUSHROOMS AND GREENS
While Potatoes cook: Pre-heat a dry pan, add mushrooms, salt and pepper, and a dash of water. Add water in splashes if the pan dries entirely. Don’t stir the mushrooms too much, let them cook and get a nice browning on each side. Once mushrooms start to cook and brown, add a tablespoon of oil, remaining onion, and another dash of salt and pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes, stir and turn everything over and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the greens. Cook for another 2 minutes, or until wilted, stirring once or twice. Stir in the thinly sliced magnolia blossom and remove from heat.
COMBINE:
Add the Mushrooms and Greens to the blended Soup Base. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped onion grass.
** Feel free to substitute any of the mushrooms for other mushrooms, any of the greens with other greens, chives for onion grass, or ginger (Approx 2 Tsp) for the Magnolia Blossoms **
Psilocybin Corner
The next New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives meeting is Tuesday, May 14th at 7pm featuring Scottie Oceano Ingallinella.
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81854729934?pwd=ZE4xSlJKdm1hbWN0Z3o4UnFBOHJuZz0
Scottie Oceano Ingallinella Full bio:
Scottie is a former pro athlete of 13 years, lifelong entrepreneur, and currently serves as a spiritual mentor and lead facilitator at Sol Temple Consciousness Center, a 508c1a non-profit faith spiritual based organization.
His experience and exploration of non-ordinary states of consciousness began at age 7, marked by profound spiritual encounters like out-of-body experiences and supernatural events. Encouraged and guided by his father to explore and develop these experiences further at that young age, Scottie’s journey now spans over 45 years. Committed to a sober lifestyle for his spiritual and athletic pursuits, a potent traumatic brain injury left Scottie grappling with depression and extremely disruptive physical symptoms leading him to reconsider his options. Unwilling to accept the prognosis of lifelong symptoms by a team of neurologists, he discovered the healing potential of psilocybin. Through calculated, holistic approaches, combined with intentional psilocybin journeys, Scottie not only defied the diagnosed life sentence of disruptive brain injury symptoms but emerged completely healed.
His decades of experience with self-induced non-ordinary states of consciousness and spiritual practices was the foundation to lead Scottie to navigate his own path of healing with the powerful medicinal properties of psilocybin. This fostered a natural progression to collaborate with and support others from all walks of life struggling with diverse challenges hindering their own healing and growth, ultimately guiding him to conceive Sol Temple Consciousness Center on the Big Island of Hawaii, where he guides others through their difficulties with compassion on a path to lasting transformational healing.
https://www.mushroomretreat.org/team
The New York Times published an article about Psilocybin containing mushroom legalization in New York that included our efforts.
Senator Fernandez’s team brought us in with the folks from Reconsider to do a screening and panel specifically for legislators at the Capitol.
Our legislative efforts included meeting with law makers on the agricultural committees in the NYS Senate and Assembly. Here’s Joe, Aung, and Avery discussing what psilocybin accessibility would mean for people in New York with Senator Michelle Hinchey’s legislative director (Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee).
We talked psilocybin accessibility during the Sage Colleges Earth Day celebrations at both their Albany and Troy campuses.
Coming Soon
Foraged Dinner on the Farm featuring chefs Corinne Carey and Dave Chaiken. Saturday, May 4. A wild harvested unique dining experience! $75/seat. Tickets available at our Farm store or through eventbrite with a fee.
This dinner is presented in collaboration with Foraged New York www.foragednewyork.org
Foraged New York. A Tri-city celebration of wild harvested invasives and creative culinary delights. See www.foragednewyork.org for full details.
Enjoying and Preserving your Harvest. Tuesday, May 7th. 6pm – 7:30pm. Tickets available at our farm store or through eventbrite with a fee.
2nd Sunday Poetry and Prose, Sunday, May 12th. 2pm – 3:30pm
Growing Mushrooms Workshop at Pitney Gardens, Tuesday, May 14th 5 – 6p. Hands on Workshop where you will learn 3 different ways to grow mushrooms outdoors. Register for the class and choose your mushroom strain here:
May NYMHA Meeting. Tuesday, May 14th. 7pm – 8:30pm. Featuring guest speaker Scottie Oceano from Mushroom Retreat.org and The Sol Temple. At the farm or through zoom:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81854729934?pwd=ZE4xSlJKdm1hbWN0Z3o4UnFBOHJuZz09
Mushroom Bookclub. Friday, May 17th. 7pm – 8:30pm. Message us about joining our group.
Arbor Hill Library: Home Mushroom Farming for Health and Wellness Program, Monday, May 20th 5:30p – 6:30p. An introduction to various home cultivation techniques and mushroom health and wellness information.
https://albany.librarycalendar.com/event/home-mushroom-farming-health-wellness-15339
RIP St Rose Poetry Reading Saturday, May 25th 5pm – 7pm. A poetry reading that will feature writers from the now defunct St Rose College.
Music and Creativity Celebration featuring Photographer Randall Collura and Musician Manuel Perez III, Saturday, June 1st 5pm – 8pm
Randall Collura has been an active amateur photographer for almost 50 years. In the old days he spent a lot of time in the darkroom developing film and printing B&W photos but the digital age has changed all that. What hasn’t changed is the challenge and thrill of creating an image. Over the years he expanded the range of subjects he photographs but he still walks through the woods snapping photos just as happily now as he did as a teenager. He also has a PhD in Biological Anthropology as well as a MS in Molecular Biology and has taught anthropology and biology at the college and high school level. He currently works for the NY State DOH doing data analysis and research.
Manuel J. Perez III (any pronouns) is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, performer, improviser, and researcher based in the northeastern USA. Treating all media, processes, and actions as generative vehicles of expression, their artwork integrates disciplines such as performance art, free improvisation, experimental composition, collage, architecture, poetry, artificial intelligence, and more. Their works often foreground the lived histories of everyday people as a means to investigate how ways of becoming and knowing are enabled through performativity, sociality, self-expression, and spontaneous action. They believe deeply in the power of togetherness, and prioritize the creation of art that encourages the development of community, empathy, and understanding of oneself and others. Their artistic work has been shared within many universities, communities, and festivals around the world.
Dale Hajdasz will be slinging some delicious vegan noms during the event.
Working with Medicinal Mushrooms Workshop with John Michelotti Sunday, June 2nd. Registration will be through the Catskill Fungi Events Calendar once the event is posted.
Dinner on the Farm featuring the Chef Jisung Jeon, Saturday, June 8th 5:30 – 8:30pm. Tickets and more information coming soon.
Metal Amongst the Mushrooms, Sunday, June 9th 3:30 – 6:30. All ages show featuring Local Doom Metal Band Carnwennan, 2 piece grindcore band No End, Compress out of Holyoke, and Radiation Blackbody, a two piece instrumental prog-violence band out of Brooklyn. Wizardburger will be on site slinging vegan noms. $10 suggested donation.
Allied Brewing Music Festival, Saturday, June 22 We’ll be vending at this festival. More details to come.
https://alliedbrewingcompany.com
For the Love of Fungi 3 Saturday, July 27. Our friends at Mycohilic are putting together the third year of the For the Love of Fungi Festival in Ashokan at the Ashokan Center! Be sure to check it out!
https://www.mycophilic.net/for-the-love-of-fungi
Music and Creativity Collaboration featuring Artist Rebecca Santosuosso and Psytrance DJ Songsten Saturday, August 10th. 5:30 – 8:30+
Rebecca Giel Santosuosso is an abstract artist working out of Troy, NY with a BFA from the College of Saint Rose, a BA in Psychology from SUNY Albany as well as a pending Master’s in the same subject. She works in mental health, feeding concepts from her clinical work back into her art through themes of identity, divinity, and social justice. You can find more of her work at http://www.rebeccagiel.com
DJ Songsten: Old World Old School Old Style. “I like to travel like Doctor Who with all these worlds in my hard drive…”
Adirondack Mushroom Mania 2024 Saturday August 24th 2024. As part of the mania, we will be curating a mushroom dining experience in collaboration with Chef David Stein on Friday, August 23rd, ! Stay tuned for details.
Dinner on the Farm Featuring Chef Kate Ray, Saturday, September 7th, 5:30 – 8:30pm. More details coming soon.
Collar City Mushrooms 