VAC to Host Mushroom Cultivation Workshop

Zach Mermel. PC: Volcano Art Center

The Volcano Art Center (VAC) is offering a tutorial on how to grow mushrooms later this month.

Instructor Zach Mermel will teach the basics of mushroom cultivation in the Food From Wood: Growing Edible & Medicinal Mushrooms on Logs, Stumps and Wood Chips workshop from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019, at Volcano Art Center Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village.

Mushrooms are a source of vegetarian protein and nutrition with the added bonus of being easy to grow, a VAC press release stated. Their health benefits are well known and their ecological advantages are just now being fully realized.

The workshop will provide information on basic fungal biology and how fungal mycelium colonizes different materials, particularly wooden logs, stumps and wood chips. You’ll also discover the health benefits of different edible and medicinal fungi in Hawai‘i.

Course fees are $50 for VAC members and $55 for non-members. Pre-registration is required. Each participant will depart with a shiitake mushroom log kit, as well as a King Stropharia mushroom kit, the release said.

Participants will meet at VAC’s Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village for a slideshow lecture then drive to Shaka Forest Farms on Wright Road in Volcano Village for the hands-on segment of the workshop.

For more information and to register for the workshop, call (808) 967-8222 or visit www.volcanoartcenter.org.