The days are getting longer and warmer! Spring is approaching! We are getting ready to hit the forests for some fungi forays! In the meantime, we continue to grow and expand! March was a month full of furious activity! From growing record amounts of mushrooms to advocating at the Capitol for Psilocybin access, read on to see what we’ve been up to and what we’re planning next!
Our dinner on the farm this month was curated by Chef Chris. It featured a rustic tuscan menu including oyster mushroom caponata, mushroom and eggplant rollatini, a mushroom-lemonade sorbet, and stuffed crust pizzas.
Our next Dinner is on Saturday, April 15th! Details below in the “COMING UP” section.
A crew of Indian Ladder Farm folks visited to get a tour of our farm and discuss further collaborations… including a Maitake Infused Cider!
We’ve increased our offerings of Primo Chocolate in the store! Oliver has been working on several non-psychedelic mushroom treats and we’ve got all of them in stock!
We visited the new home of our friends Tivoli Mushrooms in Hillsdale, NY! Once they are fully up and running they expect to harvest between 12 and 15 thousand pounds of specialty mushrooms per week!
The Scarlet Knife continues to craft incredible dishes including our mushrooms!
Avery and Amy presented a workshop on how to grow mushrooms at home to the Rensselaer County Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardeners at Tamarac High School.
Rensselaer County Tourism continues to support us with regular media shout outs!
Saratoga Healthy Living has increased their order of fresh mushrooms and now supplies their customers with our Lions, Chestnuts, Shiitake, and Oysters weekly.
Chanterelle Chef Dave crafted an incredibly rich King Trumpet Cauliflower Leek Soup for our pop-up and Corinne created gluten free vegan mini soda bread bites to pair with it! Bread Boules by Ovenbird Baking are also available for our popup preorders!
The Second Sunday poetry open mic continues to draw participants from far and wide.
Read Host Dan Wilcox’s Blog Post about the reading here:
We had a second poetry reading in March featuring Ukrainian poet Natalya Sukhonos “in Translation.” Several invited guests also performed.
We are now carrying MyForest Mycelium based MyBacon! This unique crispable strip of mycelium is an out of the package delight!
We added a few books to our reference library, including Peter McCoy’sRadical Mycology! Next time you stop in, grab this off the shelf and paw through it! It is quite the tome of myco-knowledge!
Our book club met to discuss the first half of The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing. Our next meeting will be Thursday, May 4th on the remainder of the book.
We gathered at the farm on a Thursday night to play games and build mushroom puzzles! This fun and free evening of fungi entertainment may be repeated in the coming months, so stay tuned!
We welcomed several homeschool families for fungi field trips!
Nighthawk’s of Troy includes our mushrooms in several dishes every weekend during their farm to table dinner hours.
Meadowlark Catering will be offering our mushrooms every Monday night as part of their ‘Meatless Mondays’ series
Spotlight on Mental Health Alternatives
March was a huge month for our advocacy work. New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives worked with groups from around the state to craft a Change.org petition and we spent 4 days at the Capitol advocating for legal access to Psilocybin containing mushrooms.
Signing this petition expresses support for Psilocybin accessibility,but what will really help create change is if you contact your local NY legislator and tell them this is an important issue.
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.
Co-President’s of NYMHA Avery and Pammy were interviewed on WOOC 105.3 following the advocacy week. Listen in here:
The link to the Psychedelic Sisterhood Magic Mushroom Day chat is finally live on their youtube channel. You can watch the whole thing here:
9/20 Magic Mushroom Day Chat | The Psychedelic Sisterhood
COMING UP:
Thursday 4/13: Soup Pop Up by Chanterelle Chef Dave! (pre-orders due by Tuesday 4/11)
Saturday 4/15: Dinner on the Farm curated by Chef David Stein. Springtime in France. $60/seat
Sunday, April 16th 2pm – 4pm: Second Sunday Poetry and Prose (Moved to the third Sunday because we will be CLOSED Sunday 4/9)
Mondays 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8: HVCC Class (Already sold out with a waiting list)
Tuesday, April 18 7pm – 8:30pm: New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives Meeting
Sunday, April 23rd 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.”
Thursday, May 4th: Mushroom Book Club (Final Half of The Mushroom at the End of the World)
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.
May 30th: Albany Public Library, Arbor Hill/West Hill Branch: Home Mushroom Farming for Health and Wellness 5:30 – 7:30pm. Registration through the Albany Public Library System begins May 2nd:
https://albanypubliclibrary.libcal.com/event/10568704
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.
https://www.rosendaletheatre.org/
Submissions to participate in the festival are due by April 15th!
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 