February may be the shortest month of the year, but we certainly packed a lot in! Many new visitors and fungi friends stopped in to see what we’re growing! Our sold out February Dinner was a taste bud delight and we did a lot of planning for events coming down the pike! We also officially celebrated being open for 2 years! What a wild ride it has been! Onward and upward!
We joined the New York State Farm Bureau and were visited by the Rensselaer County President and his wife from Swartz Farm in Schodak. We’ll be joining the discussion by advocating for definitions of indoor urban controlled environment agriculture.
We finished a new page for our website that compiles all of the media that has featured the growth of Collar City Mushrooms, check it out here:
Here are the two most recently published articles:
The Kate Ray “Secret Ingredient” interview came out, and you can read it here:
The Nation article by Isaac Lorenzo:
A group from the Colonie Senior Center visited for a field trip and introduction to Mycology! We had so much fun showing them the farm and expanding the mycelium!
The Foraged New York team is back in action!
We’ve gotten the band back together! The team who brought you Foraged New York is shaping another wild tour through Troy and beyond! Nadine Medina, Sean Rowe, and Avery and Amy are lining up some tantalizingly tasty trips through the preserves and parks of Troy! This year Foraged will run from Wednesday May 17 – Sunday May 21 and include even more foraging walks and wild harvesting activities!
Check out Sean’s “Can I Eat This” page here:
Last year’s Foraged Schedule:
https://www.foragednewyork.org/
We continue to grow our team! Dave joined us this month! He’s working the production end of things moving mycelium into substrate bags and putting bags to grow!
Our February Soup Pop up was the creamy chestnut soup that Chef Dave made during our February dinner. It made such an impact that guests demanded it be available again! We sold out as soon as they were delivered and several people came in hoping to find it in stock. For our March Soup pop-up make sure you pre-order to guarantee you get a batch for yourself!
When Twin Peaks day and our Mushroom Book Club lines up things get a little strange. Cherry Pie, Book Club Patches, Fire King Mugs, and Mushrooms all twisted together perfectly… The Tea is free…
We visited the Emma Willard School for a mushroom cooking demonstration and discussion on growing mushrooms for culinary purposes.
We started carrying Catskill Fungi extracts. They are available in our store for $28 + tax for a month long supply.
We are also now carrying City Boy Doyle’s custom carved canes, walking sticks, and cutting boards! All cutting boards are naturally treated with Food Grade Safe Sealers.
Big thanks to the team at North Spore for providing clean cultures for us to play with! We have some Nameko started and will be experimenting with this new strain! We are excited to get this tasty little mushroom into our miso soup and udon noodle dishes!
We received a brand new filter for our upright flow hood and got it installed and purifying our air again! This critical piece of infrastructure ensures that all our culture work is clean!
There were two poetry events in February: The 2nd Sunday Poetry and Prose Open Mic and the Poetry Power Hour featuring Avery the Poet. Read a review of the Second Sunday reading on Dan Wilcox’s blog:
Watch Avery Perform “Strummed in Dust” at Collar City Mushrooms:
Fiden’s Brewing Company used some of our gorgeous Blue Oysters to market their Triple Vegan Ale.
The Rustic Barn Pub made an incredible vegan Chowder featuring our white oysters:
Psilocybin Reform
Etienne and Avery joined a delegation from New Yorker’s for Mental Health Alternatives on a day-long whirlwind jaunt through the New York State Capital and Legislative Office Building. We met with a myriad of legislators in our effort to convince them to co-sponsor the various psilocybin related bills proposed by Assemblymember Burke, Assemblymember Rosenthal and Senator Fernandez.
The easiest way to get involved and advocate for change is to contact your local representatives. Send them a message through the NYS websites below:
https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search/
https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator
You can copy paste this right into the message box:
I urge you to co-sponsor A03581 and S03520 during this year’s legislative session. Psilocybin for mental and physical health has been shown to be effective in treating a myriad of ailments. Please support our state’s first responders and veterans by voting to pass these bills.
UPCOMING:
3/7 New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives meeting at the farm 7pm – 8:30pm
Zoom Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81328401094?pwd=TkFhem5kRkFNc09jN3M5UUlJc1BGUT09
3/11 Cornell Cooperative Extension Rensselaer County Spring Garden Day “Growing Mushrooms at Home” Program 12:50 – 1:50pm
https://rensselaer.cce.cornell.edu/events/2023/03/11/spring-garden-day-2023
3/12 Second Sunday Poetry and Prose Open Mic
3/16 March Soup Pop up: 4 – 6pm Pre-orders Strongly Suggested to guarantee a quart! (order by email, direct message through Instagram or Facebook, or come right into the farm).
3/16 Game night at the Farm: Bring your favorite board game, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic, or Pokemon Cards, or come to play a game in our collection 7pm – 10pm
3/23 March Dinner on the Farm curated by Chef Chris $60/seat. Buy tickets on event brite, or come into the farm and avoid the fees. This will be a rustic Italian feast so come hungry! 100% Vegan.
3/26 March poetry: In Translation featuring the works of Ukrainian-American Poet Natalya Sukhonos plus other invited guests. A brief open mic will precede Natalya. Check out her website here:
https://natalyasukhonos.com/?fbclid=IwAR3ermHT8pfccV4mB3BCKAVdZD5aIpvYLi62aUkYXHixTaW9dRzBnFyHD_s
Natalya Sukhonos in her feature presentation at Sacred Grounds on September 14th, 2022.
3/20 – 3/23 New Yorker’s for Mental Health Alternatives “Spotlight on Mental Health Alternatives” lobby week 3/20 – 3/23: We are looking for volunteers to occupy the Collar City Mushrooms table for selected times, if interested please email Avery: collarcitymushrooms@gmail.com
3/30 March Book Club: The Mushroom at the End of the World
Email Avery: collarcitymushrooms@gmail.com to join
4/1 April 1st 1pm – 3pm Mycorestoration workshop with John Micolotti $50 tickets available through Catskill Fungi: Limited to 20 participants.
A few words from John about the workshop:
“We can grow mycelia (the ‘roots’ of fungi) to replace styrofoam, leathers, and even bacon. Rather than petroleum-based, ecologically harmful products we can have sustainable solutions with our building materials that can be grown from recycled materials or invasive plants. People are growing a healthier world by learning from ancient and dynamic methods of mycelial growth. Let’s explore what technologies are being utilized throughout the world before doing a hands-on workshop with Collar City Mushrooms oyster blocks and learning how to grow our own myco-lamp shades and planters.”
A long way off:
May 17-20th: Foraged NY returns to Troy with multiple days of wild food fun! Stay tuned to www.foragednewyork.org for details.
June 17: Rosendale Theater Fungi Film Festival: a day long celebration of fungi on film with walks, talks, and poetry readings! It’s not yet listed on their website, but details will be distributed as we get them.
July 15: Indian Ladder Farms Farming Man festival. We’ll be vending at Farming man again! It’s a great way to get some music and have some fun on the beautiful grounds of Indian Ladder Farms.
September 24th: 6th Annual Broome County Vegan Festival
https://www.broomeanimalsanctuary.com/
September 29th – October 1st: For the Love of Fungi at the Ashokan Center
Collar City Mushrooms 