There are buds on the trees, wild leeks poking through leaf litter, and mycelium forming mushrooms! Time to get in the forest and find some fungi and foraged greens! Preparing for Foraged New York is one of our favorite times of the year! Supplying foraged goods to area restaurants and sampling them ourselves is such a wonderful spring treat! We’ve had magnolia blossoms, stinging nettles, ramps, garlic mustard, onion grass, dame’s rocket, violet blossoms, and dryad’s saddles! Discovering the bounty of edible plants available in the wild spaces of the city, as well as most back yards is truly a joy! Tune in to www.foragednewyork.org for our schedule of events and industry partners serving dishes or drinks using wild harvested goods.
Our Lion’s Mane mushrooms are really popping! We decided to create little fritter chunks and threw a quick batter together using equal parts flour and water then some spices (we used garlic powder, onion powder, salt,pepper, smoked paprika, and cajun seasoning). We tossed our fried fritters into tacos! They were so good!
We hosted 2 homeschool field trips for local learners to get some hands on mycological experience!
Our April Dinner on the Farm curated by Chef David Stein was inspired by French Cuisine and really blew our taste buds away!
Second Sunday Poetry and Prose Open Mic brings writers and readers from the region to share their pieces.
Growing more mushrooms means making more compost! Shanice from Queen cut flowers has been steadily taking batches to help her flowers grow as well as for the Boys and Girls Club of Troy Freight Farm Project. Check it out here:
https://www.bgccapitalarea.org/freightfarm
Check out her Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/queenzxcutxflowers/
John Michelotti from Catskill Fungi led us through a Myco-technologies workshop! He broke down the different types of growing mycelium and ways fungi are being used as art, building materials, restoration substrates, and more! Participants all took a mycelium based planter home with them! Check out Catskill Fungi and the other opportunities to engage with mycelium they offer here:
We were invited to attend the 10th anniversary of the Healthy Living Store in Wilton as one of their local providers!
The second session of Mushrooms, Mycelium, and More through the Hudson Valley Community College’s Community Education program is underway. 6 hours of mycelial adventures with learners of all ages and interests. We start with the basics of fungi, students get a farm tour, then we end with some nutritional and medicinal information. This course will be repeated in the fall if you missed it!
Packs of our fresh mushrooms can now be found at Fred the Butcher’s store in Clifton Park! We drop off on Fridays and they sell out fast!
Our April soup pop up by Chanterelle Chef Dave Chaiken was a tasty delight! These sell out quick! Preorders can come with a bread boule from Ovenbird Baking! Thursday, May 25th will be you next opportunity to sample some of Dave’s delicious creations!
Our test batch of Nameko came in. They didn’t flush quite as much as we’d hoped, but these guys are so tasty! They prefer colder temperatures so we may start them back up in the fall.
The Berkshire Mycological Society bought some sawdust spawn and dowel spawn for an inoculation workshop they did in in order to take their love of fungi from foraging to farming!
Our restaurant and market partners continue to turn our fresh mushrooms into incredible dishes or provide you with the opportunity to experiment with them yourself!
Avery was interviewed by CBS 6 News Channel reporter Tom Eschen about our advocacy work concerning psilocybin legislation.
Upcoming:
May is going to be a full Month. In addition to all our activities on the farm We will also be teaching a mushroom growing workshop in conjunction with the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society
Buy tickets through their website here: https://www.bps.community/events
Avery will also be presenting a program at the Arbor Hill / West Hill Albany Library on Home Mushroom Farming for Health and Wellness. You can register on their website here:
https://albanypubliclibrary.libcal.com/event/10568704
Visit the Foraged New York Website for all the restaurants, bars, and cafes that will be serving goods foraged by our team as well as foraging workshops.
https://www.foragednewyork.org/events
Tickets for our workshop at the farm, Preserving your Harvest, are available on eventbrite:
Here are all the ways you can enjoy some moments amongst the mushrooms at the farm:
Our May Dinner by Chef Matt Joyce will be on Sunday May 14th! We’ll be honoring moms and more! This menu sounds out of this world!
Our Chanterelle Kitchen Soup Popup will be a Hungarian Paprikash! (Vegan and Gluten Free) With sourdough bread boules available from Ovenbird Baking (vegan)
Maria from Bliss Arts is back with a bi-monthly Sunday morning Yoga Experience. Sliding scale donation ($5 – $20) gets you 60 minutes of energizing yoga amongst the mushrooms.
Further down the line:
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 14 – 17:
Avery will be giving a keynote talk about the changing perspectives surrounding psilocybin use during the 23rd annual Northeast Mycological Federation Mushroom Foray
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
Keep an eye on November as we will be serving up something delicious in Saratoga! More details to come.
Collar City Mushrooms 