Events & IN- person courses
The best way to find out about upcoming events is by following our Eventbrite page.
We also regularly share upcoming workshops and events that we are participating in but that are hoisted by other organisations via our newsletter.
Winter Course Series:
In-depth day-Long workshops for people looking to develop techniques for small scale commercial cultivation. We were motivated to develop these course after the announcement of the new Small Producer Practical Training Fund - aimed at people who live or work on a farm no larger than 30 hectares.
We are running two courses, outlined below. The first course will take place on Saturday 30th of January and will focus on oyster musrhoom cultivation techniques that can be used to grow mushrooms year-round in sheltered spaces like barns, sheds and polytunnels. The second course will take place on Saturday the 6th of March and will focus on outdoor cultivation techniques, with a focus on cultivating shiitake mushrooms on logs.
Both courses are priced on a sliding scale at £200/£250/£300.
To register for a course please fill in this form. We will then invoice you and confirm your place upon receipt of payment.
Indoor Oyster Mushroom Cultivation for Small Producers
Saturday 30th January 10:00 - 17:00
Learn to cultivate Oyster Mushrooms intensively in covered spaces. Oyster mushrooms are a high value crop that can thrive year-round in the Scottish climate. This course will focus on simple, ‘low-tech’ methods for mushroom cultivation that require very limited specialist equipment. These techniques only work very well for oyster mushrooms but they reduce entry costs and make mushroom cultivation a viable diversification strategy for existing growers.
Who is this course suited for?
Folk who want to try grow mushrooms commercially, either as part of an existing food enterprise or starting a new one. Crofters, community growers, market gardeners or hobbyists who have sheds, barns or poly tunnels they can use to grow mushrooms in the shoulder season or throughout the year.
This one-day course will cover:
An overview of fungal ecology and the basic principles of fungi cultivation.
An exploration of different potential substrates (growing media) for oyster mushrooms, and how to source them
Different techniques for preparing substrates, including steam sterilisation and lime pasteurisation.
An exploration of different types of fruiting containers and shelving set ups.
How to prepare or source spawn (inoculant)
How to carry out inoculations and how to set up incubation and fruiting spaces
Advice on troubleshooting common problems, pest management, mushroom storage and routes to market
All participants will go home with:
A 3.5 kg bag of Oyster Mushroom spawn (RRP £35)
An Oyster Mushroom Liquid culture Syringe to make your own spawn at home. (RRP £12)
2 x spawn media bags with syringe ports (RRP £30)
A 15kg bag of mushroom growing substrate (RRP £12)
Printed resources covering course contents including kit lists, budgets, spawn recipes, inoculation recipes, timelines and more.
To register for a course please fill in this form. We will then invoice you and confirm your place upon receipt of payment.
Mushroom cultivation on logs and in woodland settings
Saturday 6th March 10:00 - 17:00
Many species of mushrooms grow on dead wood or indeed in symbiosis with living trees. This creates a wide variety of opportunities to integrate mushroom cultivation into woodland management, be that for commercial diversification into non-timber products or community benefit and engagement.
Who is this for?
This workshop is relevant to anyone managing a small woodland who is curious about ways to diversify their income and/or resilience and food security through the cultivation of fungi.
This one-day course will cover:
An overview of fungal ecology and the basic principles of fungi cultivation.
A deep exploration of and hands on demonstration of various techniques for growing wood decomposing fungi such as shiitake on logs. This Will include the use of dowels, loose spawn, and the use of trenching and totem techniques.
An overview of the economics of growing mushroom on logs commercially, including a breakdown of costs, projected revenues and routes to market.
A demonstration of how to grow a variety of decomposer species such as wine caps on wood chip in beds or containers.
An introduction to the cultivation of mycorrhizal fungal species alongside planted trees, including an overview of cutting edge research into the cultivation of boletes and truffles.
An introduction to the cultivation of the parasitic fungus Chaga, a high value medicinal fungus that grows on Birch trees.
All participants will take home:
A bag of 250 inoculated shiitake dowels sufficient to inoculate five to ten logs (£RRP - 30)
A 3 litre bag of wine cap spawn big enough to start a 1 sq m wood chip bed (£RRP -30) - a variety of print-outs summarising the content of the course
To register for a course please fill in this form. We will then invoice you and confirm your place upon receipt of payment.