August is always such an exciting time of year. The Forests are popping with fungi, outdoor activities are plentiful, and interest in mushrooms always grows! We taught a couple library programs, had many meetings about future events, and executed an incredible mushroom experience dinner with chef David Stein at the Blue Mountain Lake Adirondack Experience Mushroom Mania weekend. While the use of our lobby space to host events may be winding down, we are certainly not slowing our outreach at all, and our mushroom production volume is climbing! Read on to check out all our August successes, and find out how you can join us amongst the mushrooms in the coming months! Stay tuned to our newsletter for mushroom experiences returning to Indian Ladder Farms and SUNY Schenectady!
Friday, August 23rd we rolled up into the Adirondacks to put together an immersive mushroom experience. It was absolutely perfect weather and we were able to hold the entire event outside on the Adirondack Experience Museum’s Cafe’s Balcony overlooking Blue Mountain Lake. Chef David Stein curated a tasty multi course mushroom meal and we set the scene with fungi photos and unique mushroom art.
August is an abundant month for fungi in the forest! We found Chicken of the Woods, Black Trumpets, Hedgehogs, a variety of boletes, and a few chanterelles, and shared our discoveries with our friends and partners!
We joined the Rensselaer County Farm Bureau policy picnic where we brought forward issues specific to mushroom farmers, urban farmers, and psilocybin-containing mushrooms. They were all approved by the board as items to bring to the State board. (Allowing Cottage Industry laws for beginning mushroom farmers, not counting farms according to acreage, but by volume of products produced at the federal level, and looking forward to psilocybin-containing mushrooms becoming an agricultural crop.) We also brought a variety of mushrooms to grill up and share with our fellow Rensselaer County Farmers.
The produce team from Healthy Living Market visited in order to write up their September blog focusing on mushrooms! We had a great time showing them how the cultivation process unfolds. The “What’s on My Plate” feature will be coming out shortly! You can find their blog here:
We taught two library programs, one on identifying mushrooms in the wild at the Clifton Park-Halmoon Library and one on Growing Mushrooms at home at the Delmar Public LIbrary. We have a growing mushrooms at home program coming up on Thursday, 9/26 at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon LIbrary. See below for details.
The Mental Health Empowerment Program’s Monday afternoon free-write sessions lead by Wayne Cochran have started to draw a small but dedicated crowd. This creative activity happens every Monday at 1pm amongst the mushrooms at our farm.
We have started to expand our growing capacity by reintroducing a few small tents to our lobby space. Over the next month we will be expanding further in order to meet the growing demand for our fresh farm grown mushrooms.
Find us every Wednesday from 5pm – 6:30pm at the Helderberg Mountain Brewing Company in East Berne.
We celebrated 4 years of hanging out at the brewery weekly!
We had another Metal in the Moshroom event featuring 4 bands and delicious food by Pataconia. It was a beautiful Saturday for live music, incredible Carribean dishes, and lots of mushrooms! Schenectavoids, Life Abuse, Chem-trails, and Horsegrave played to a full back lot!
The Second Sunday Poetry and Prose happens every month amongst the mushrooms.
Mushrooms are delicious, and inspiring! We created a new mandala piece for the Adirondack Experience Museum called “The 4 Winds.” It is now on display at our farm!
Avery will have two articles published in the fall issue of the Northeast Organic Farmer Association quarterly newspaper. Both of them looking at psilocybin-containing mushrooms and advocacy. (A subscription is required to get the newspaper directly, but we’ll post the articles on our website when they are published.)
We are super excited to announce that we have been asked to participate in this year’s FarmAid festival. Avery and Amy will be teaching a “growing mushrooms at home” workshop in their skills tent during the day. Check out their blog post about our farm!
We love seeing our friend’s delicious dinner pictures!
The Medical Mushroom Database rollout for the Medicinal Mushroom Committee is coming along. This project will provide self reported anecdotal records from people consuming various mushroom products for a myriad of conditions. Stay tuned for more information.
Avery will be giving two talks on mushrooms to private groups in September, one at the Knolls Atomic Power Lab, the other at the Eddy Living Center. He will also be returning to HVCC this fall for another round of “Mushrooms, Mycelium, and More.” See their website to register:
Psilocybin Corner
Our next meeting is Tuesday, September 10th at 7pm. In person at the farm, or through zoom at the link below.
Assemblymember Amy Paulin will be our guest speaker. She will talk about the new bill she has proposed and why legal access to psilocybin-containing mushrooms is important and necessary. We’ll also discuss creating a coalition of psychedelic adjacent groups called New Yorkers for Wellness Options and how we are bringing New York’s mushroom farmers up to speed.
Indian Ladder Farms will be hosting a NYMHA fundraiser in early November. If you’d like to help plan and or execute this event, let us know! We are forming a committee to get all the details hammered out. The evening will include live music, food, and an auction.
We are planning a Western New York Screening and Panel discussion with the folks from Reconsider and Assemblymember Pat Burke’s Legislative team. It will be Tuesday, October 22nd or Wednesday October 23rd. Stay tuned for details.
Avery will have an article on psilocybin use amongst Cluster Headache patients published in the Spring issue of the North American Mycological Association’s Mycophile quarterly magazine.
Coming Soon
Dinner on the Farm Featuring Chef Kate Ray, Saturday, September 7th, 5:30 – 8:30pm. More details coming soon. This will be the final Dinner on the Farm until we expand into the 2nd floor of 333. Buy tickets directly from our farm store or through eventbrite with a fee (sales start 8/8 on eventbrite). Only a few tickets left!
Second Sunday Poetry and Prose, Sunday, September 8th 2pm – 3pm. All open mic for spoken word hosted by Nancy Klepsch and Dan Wilcox.
New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives Monthly Meeting, Tuesday, September 10th 7pm – 8:30pm. Guest speaker Assemblymember Amy Paulin will be joining us to talk about why creating legal access is important and necessary for New Yorkers. Join remotely via zoom here:
Music and Creativity Collaboration featuring Artist Rebecca Santosuosso and Psytrance DJ Songsten Saturday, September 14th. 5:30 – 8:30+ Food provided by Pretty Pig Provisions.
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 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…”
Farm Aid Skills Tent Demonstration, Saturday, September 21st, 12pm – 5pm. We’ll be teaching a growing mushrooms at home workshop during Farm Aid at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. For tickets to the festival go here:
Growing Mushrooms at Home at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library, Thursday, September 26th 6:30 – 8pm. To register for the course go here:
https://events.cphlibrary.org/event/11387827
Collar City Mushrooms 