Building a Resilient Food System with Mushrooms: A Cultivation Workshop

Develop your understanding of the connected role that mushrooms can play in building more resilient food systems. Includes a vegan lunch.
About this Event

Come visit our farm tucked away by the sea in North-West Edinburgh for a day of mushroom cultivation training. This full day workshop will take you through the basics of both indoor and outdoor mushroom cultivation, combining discussion, demonstration, and plenty of practical elements to cement learning.

The aim of the session is to help you develop an understanding of what role fungiculture can play in building more resilient food systems, and empower you to start doing that at home or in your communities.

Part of the day will be delivered in a sat-down class room context, but we will also move around as we explore our various growing spaces, including our mushroom garden and worm composting facility.Teas and coffees will be provided throughout the day and we will also serve lunch made with veg and mushrooms from the farm.

Learning outcomes of the workshop:

• Build a foundation in mycology: what are fungi, what conditions do they thrive in, and what does that tell us about how to cultivate them?
• Explore different techniques for intensive indoor mushroom cultivation and develop an understanding of how processes can be scaled up and how key sustainability challenges can be navigated in creative ways.
• Learn how to grow Oyster mushrooms on pasteurised waste materials.
• Learn to grow wood decomposing fungi like Shiitake mushrooms outdoors on logs
• Learn to intercrop fungi such as wine caps or blewits with plants in veg beds.
• DIY methods for cloning wild fungi and starting your own cultures.
• Discover how worm composting can be used to turn old mushroom substrate into a precious soil amendment.

All participants will go home with:

• An oyster mushroom grow kit you will produce
• A choice of Oyster mushroom grain spawn, Shiitake Dowels or Wine cap spawn to further your cultivation journey at home.
• An A3 poster of the Oyster mushroom lifecycle
• 250 grams of worm castings.
• PDF resources including a recipe booklet and cultivation guides.

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Getting Here:
Lauriston Farm is a big 100 acre site and we are at the North-West corner of it.
CAR: If you arrive at the ‘top’ of the farm by the Toby Carvery restaurant then you’ll need to walk North-West diagonally across the big field towards the polytunnels.

Whe you reach the deer fence, follow the fence line until you reach a gate by the big shed and shipping containers.
We are in the horse shoe of dark grey containers :)

Cycling: The Roseburn Cycle Path will get you most of the way to the farm from the centre of town (Haymarket) in 25 minutes. Aim for ‘Lauriston Community Farm’ behind the Toby Carvery Restaurant then walk or cycle across the big field towards the polytunnels as above.

Bus: Lothian Buses 16, 27, 29, 37 & 47 all stop within 5 minutes of the farm. If you’re catching the 47 you can get off at Barnton Gardens and walk down the hill to the gate.

Whe you reach the deer fence, follow the fence line until you reach a gate by the big shed and shipping containers.
We are in the horse shoe of dark grey containers :)
Accessibility Info: Surfaces around the farm are mostly flat, with some slight hills. There is one compost toilet on site that is accessible. Our contaires and farm have steps up to them, but all of the days activities will be outside or in polytunnels. If you need to drive and can't walk very far please let us know and we can give you parking access.

Please do let us know about any dietary restrictions and/or accessibility needs :)