August is always a fast and furious month. The summer is in full swing and mushrooms in the forest are starting to really pop! Our educational and entertainment programs are really thriving! Read on to see all of our engagements in August, and how you can join us in the coming months!
The Adirondack Experience Museum Mushroom Mania weekend is a great way to get into the mountains and close to the fungi. For the second year in a row our team has put together an immersive mushroom experience dinner on the Friday before the festival day. Chef Matt Olley curated a tasty evening and the CCM team arranged our mushroom art around the grounds. What a beautiful setting to play in!
Avery taught a week of barn school at Indian Ladder Farms. The long running educational program offered during the summers at Indian Ladder Farms give young learners the opportunity to experience various activities on the farm. Now that Collar City Mushrooms is part of the team, the mysterious world of Mushrooms is part of the curriculum. From growing mushrooms at home, to identifying mushrooms in the wild. This first class of learners really enjoyed getting their hands into the mycelium.
Our team constantly churns out grow supplies for all your at home needs. From Ready to Fruit oyster and lions mane blocks to options for fruiting dung loving fungi!
You can find our fresh mushrooms and more at the Troy Riverfront Farmers market every Saturday 9am – 2pm! If we have wild foraged we usually sell out fast! Get there early! (stay tuned to our social media for updates).
Our Forest Plot got some care and watering. We should start to see some outdoor grown shrooms next Spring!
The Colonie Senior Center organized a field trip of curious budding mycologists to learn about various ways we grow fresh fungi. A visit to our farm always ends with a visit to the Corner Spore where you can get a variety of our fresh mushrooms and other products as well as the entire selection of Indian Ladder Farms products like fresh cider donuts and just pressed cider!
Farming specialty mushrooms is still a newer industry in the United States. The Collar City Mushrooms team is working with the New York Farm Bureau to help put policy in place that will help New York’s Mushroom Farmers produce and sell their mushrooms.
Several Sundays in July and August Indian Ladder Farms hosted a music series: The Climb curated by hellyeahliterature. While we were in Lansinburgh we hosted so many musical acts. It was so great to see some performances amongst the mushrooms for a few weekends.
Once a month you can join Amy and Avery at the Corner Spore from 1 – 3pm for a social mushroom hang! Check out our calendar for dates.
Dave and Corinne served up some oyster mushroom bites and chocolate chaga brownies during Picklepalooza! We completely sold out of everything!
We don’t get into the woods nearly as much as we’d like, but a weekend getaway in the Adirondacks allowed us to do just that for 3 days! We found over 30 different fungi, including a death cap and a destroying angel!
We got several very small crops of Almond Agaricus (Agaricus subrufescens). These delicious and meaty shrooms are a dung loving mushroom, but we grew them using pasteurized coco coir.
Yoga Instructor Alyssa Ladzinski lead a class in the Pines area of Indian Ladder Farms followed by a mushroom forward lunch curated by Defazios at ILF.
And now, a recipe for you:
Maitake and Apple Spatzle Alfredo over Crispy Kale
Ingredients:
8 oz Maitake (Hen-of-the-woods)
1 Tydeman (or similar) apple
1 Red Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 Jar Alfredo Sauce (or get fancier and make your own cream sauce)
1 Package Fresh Spatzle (we used VT Spatzle Company found at the Troy Farmers Market)
16 oz + / – of fresh Kale
Prepare:
Dice Red Onion, Mince Garlic cloves, tear Maitake into bite sized chunks, slice the apple, remove thyme leaves from springs, cut firm stem bits from the Kale.
Cook:
Toss Kale with olive oil, salt and pepper and lay out on a cookie sheet. Roast at 350 for 15 minutes (or until nice and crispy, but not burnt)
Sautee apples in a pan with butter (vegan butter if you want to eliminate dairy)
Remove apple from pan and set aside
Sautee Maitake with a bit of the red onion (we always start in a dry hot pan and add a dash of salt and a splash of water, cooking for 5 minutes or so, then add oil and onions and sauteeing until onions are transparent.
Remove maitake and onion from the pan and set aside. (can combine with the cooked apple)
In the pan used to cook the apple, sautee the spatzle until it is nicely browned.
In the pan used to cook the maitake, sautee the onion, adding garlic and thyme after the onion has turned translucent. Cook for another 3 minutes. Add the jar of alfredo (or your own homemade sauce (non dairy if preferred). Bring to a slight simmer and remove from heat. Stir in the cooked mushroom, apple, and spaetzle. Serve over the roasted crispy kale.
PSILOCYBIN CORNER
The Collar City Mushrooms team vended at the Adirondack Experience Museum and talked to dozens of guests about the importance of legal access to psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
The second Tuesday of every month at Indian Ladder Farms Farm Store continues to be our meeting time. This month we’ll be joined by advocate Corinne Carey as she shares some of her experiences in getting bills turned into law. Later in September our team and a collected group of researchers, doctors, nurses, and therapists will present findings and experiences in working with psilocybin-containing mushrooms to the New York State Assembly Health Committee.
The Microdosing Collective has joined our efforts in New York and will be putting together a fundraising dinner in New York City to gather interested parties and educate them on the work we are doing! Check them out here:
https://www.microdosingcollective.org/
Visit our advocacy website for more details: https://www.nymha.com/
COMING SOON
The Ritz Carlton’s Game Show, Friday, September 5th, 7pm – 10pm. $10 to get in. We’re sponsoring this game with some prizes! Amy and Avery will be in the house enjoying the show!
New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives Monthly Meeting, Tuesday, September 09th 7pm – 8:30pm. During this monthly meeting we’ll hear from professional lobbyist Corinne Carey, as she talks about how to get a bill passed in New York. In person at Indian Ladder Farms in the Yellow Rock Cafe or online via zoom from anywhere.
Join remotely via zoom here:
Dinner on the Farm: A Mushroom Experience featuring Chef Daivd Stein, Saturday, Sept 20 6:30 – 8:30p $75. This plant and fungi based dinner will be served at Indian Ladder Farms. Buy your tickets Now!
Check out Chef Stein’s site here: https://wecheffeasts.com/
Meet the Mycologists, Saturday, September 27. 1 – 3pm. Join Amy and Avery in the Corner Spore to talk about all things fungi. September’s theme will be identifying mushrooms in the wild. We’ll have our reference library of books to explore. No appointment necessary. This is not a sculpted talk, more just a casual discussion time.
Dinner on the Farm: A Mushroom Experience featuring Ruchi, Friday, Oct 24 6:30 – 8:30p $75. This plant and fungi based dinner will be served at Indian Ladder Farms. Full menu coming soon but may include: Mushroom laghing, Mushroom Ghee roast sandwich, and warm Mohanthal! SAVE THE DATE! Tickets available soon.
Collar City Mushrooms 