It's been raining for at least 24 hours. That's a lot for us. THere's a huge weather front over the east coast of Australia and we're copping some too. Everything is tremendously pretty in the rain. Not so much when you're running around with a raincoat gathering all you need for teaching someone how to grow mushrooms in a bucket. Ah, never mind. Sometimes life is a bit of fun discomfort followed by tea and cake. Or mushrooms.
Lisa and her family live on acreage in town, and have been undertaking a journey of self sufficiency, homeschooling their three children under eight given the times we are in. She's English, far from home, so we can relate to her - Jamie feels the same homesickness and struggle to get by far from family. So when she said she was really wanting to learn how to cultivate mushrooms in buckets, but was a bit scared, I felt helping was something I could do.
All of my bucket mushroom growing kit is pretty organised - I have tubs full of everything I need, so I piled it into the van and went over. I also had a bucket of mushrooms that had grown where I'd left the bucket outside the back door - I thought they were done, but they had other ideas, especially in this crazy wet weather.
What I didn't expect was how much I enjoying teaching the little ones. The two girls were eight and seven, and the little boy was 5. They were delightful, curious and polite, and just a joy to teach. I passed chunks of mushrooms around, getting them to touch them and smell them, rubbing their wet tops.
'What do you think this is called?' I asked, rubbing my nail along the gills.
'FRILLS!' the little one shouted. I love how kids come up with perfectly reasonable names to call things. By the end of the day, they had added 'substrate', 'symbiosis' and many other words to their vocabulary. They already had 'mycellium' - as a permaculturist, their father had already indoctrinated them with the wonder of this beautiful aspect of nature. Never presume kids are dumb - we talked about soil acidity, mutualism.
'Oh! is that what bees and flowers do?' the eldest girl piped up. 'The bees get the nectar and spread the pollen for the plants?'.
Repetition is key for any learning experience. When I returned to put the cooled substrate in the buckets later in the afternoon, I asked them what mushrooms need to grow. 'LIGHT! WATER! WOOD!' they shouted. They were fascinated, realising that anything can be a growth medium for mushrooms, that they could be all different colours, and that there was bad fungi that farmers hated because it killed their crops, and good fungi that made forests grow.
How wonderful that these kids were going to grow up to not be frightened of mushrooms. I can't wait to take them hunting for saffron milk caps next year. The eldest girl was excited by foraging plants as well and we had a big conversation about plantain. She brought me her book on weeds and we went over it and was telling her what could be found locally. Mum and Dad were still very nervous about eating weeds but were eager to learn.
In the end, it was a busy day and I was exhausted, but I had so much fun and so did they. Mum felt more confident about growing mushrooms herself and had two buckets to tend.
Wouldn't it be cool to do this for a living - a mobile mushroom growing education van for homeschoolers and people who might be intimidated about growing mushrooms but have always wanted to try? There's some great online mushroom growing courses out there, but sometimes people prefer hands on, as they're intimidated by the process.
I really love teaching - I hate being in a classroom, but today taught me I am a born educator and how much I enjoy it.
With Love,
The Fungi Lovers Community: Home of #FungiFriday
Join The Hive Garden Community! The HIVE GARDEN COMMUNITYhere! supports gardening, homesteading, cannabis growers, permaculture and other garden related content. Delegations to the curation account, @gardenhive, are welcome! Find our community
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here!
Lovely! Yes it would be great to teach that for a living. I’d certainly show up to a class.
Cultivating mushrooms like that is a skill I’ve wanted to learn for a long time, I’ve seen it done with lions mane mushrooms, and man have I spent a fortune on dried capsules of those bad boys in supplement stores. I’d much rather save my wallet and grow them myself, but like you say, that’s absolutely the type of thing I’d benefit from just someone showing me IRL what to do, EVEN ONCE! Rather than trying to get it all together myself from a combination of foreign articles and YouTube videos.
I get some people could self teach that in a matter of minutes, but we’ve not all got brains like that, I know I don’t. What is it about skills that transfer so easily IN PERSON rather than through videos or books or “wikihows!”?
You’re also absolutely right about not presuming kids to be dummies, they get called “sponges,” and I say with good reason, every time I’m ranting away like a college professor to my lil 3 year old nephew about any random subject I’m fully aware he could go on to become a Phd in the subject in a couple of decades.
Thanks for a great post! Keep doing the superb work you’re doing. 🙏
AW, this comment blew my mind and made me feel so encouraged!!!! I agree - it takes a special kind of brain to do all the research, compile it, put it into action and come up with results! Let alone having the time to do it! This comment is so encouraging I could cry!!!! I DO have the brain to self research and end up with results - but I'm learning not everyone does and that's okay, that's where I come in!
Ahaha gawd I adore three year olds. if only they could keep up their enthusiasm and curiosity! That's the real challenge as a parent and educator.
Honestly mate this comment made my day!
Also, just ordered some lions mane spawn - going to grow that next!
River your reply was equally as encouraging and inspiring to me! 🙏 I’ve only been on this site for a few days and had been a bit daunted but finding someone so positive and forward thinking and receptive and productive within a hobby I’m very interested is… AWESOME! Maybe if I take enough lions mane I can download all my skills from wiki how in a matter of seconds, and become an educator too, they say it’s good for the brain lol! 😝
I look forward to your future posts.
Oh there's a lot of amazing people here! I'm constantly inspired!!! Enjoy and sing out if you need a hand. I use the Peakd.com version of Hive which has some awesome features. Looking forward to being inspired by you in turn!
This reminded me off when I started learning about planting seeds and more about different plants from Mom.
We don't have mushrooms in our area and had planted some other veggies in basket but this mushroom right there is so fascinating.
Hehe, Seems like someone really enjoyed teaching! Awesome. Had added some new words in vocabulary through reading this.
Oh I also love how kids see the world and come up with their own terms. This sounds like such a lovely day, I think I should do this with my niece, she'll love it.
Hi @riverflows, what a productive day you had with the kids, they always surprise us with their witticisms and such genuine answers; learning about mushrooms must have been very interesting for the kids, ah and the answers they gave regarding the elements needed for mushroom growth shows that kids are attentive to learning and research.
Cheers!
Am also cautious of eating mushrooms..they can be poisonous.. But I guess yours aren't ☺
Haha no they aren't!
It's raining for last six months for us :)
oh gosh, wondering why I haven't heard from you! Hope you and the fmaily are well!
"Frills" will now be my new word for mushroom gills. 😁
Nothing can replace hands on education. You can learn so much online, but you just can't see and feel it like you can in real time and I think that's particularly important when you're dealing with forage items. You also can't really ask questions online.
How cute is 'frills'? They were SOOOO sweet!
A very interesting and important story indeed. I enjoyed it very much. Children are really afraid of mushrooms when they are young.
Personally I like very much mushrooms recipes.
What a great story! Kids are so energizing to be around. They don't yet know how to be cynical or politically correct. Their enthusiasm is genuine and they are free thinkers. I had not considered foraging for a young family. I am adventurous trying new things from the forest but I would be much more cautious even scared feeding my finds to young children. And I haven't even touched on the main topic - growing mushrooms in buckets. We need a how to post on that 🙂
I do think I have a how to somewhere.... But may I suggest gathering materials first? Sawdust, straw, 4L buckets or thereabouts, hydrated lime, gypsum, an Esky, a pillowslip. Then come back to me and I'll write a post just for you .
Esky? first I need an Aussie dictionary I think 🤔
Yes, I think it's a brilliant idea. Some people are afraid of mushrooms because they don't know what they are or what they can do. A little education goes a long way. Sometimes you can help the world by just holding up a mirror.
What a wonderful experience, and always nice to learn something about yourself.
You can take the teacher out of the classroom but...
Awesome how great you are with kids. I can't teach anyone for the life of me. Not enough patience. I'd probably tell kids to be quiet while we watch a Youtube video instead. :)
Those mushrooms look tasty!
Hahaha that's what we were going to do, but the kids were sooo good it was a joy to involve them.
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
That's brilliant... THANKS 🍄💚💚
Love this great idea of yours in educating little ones and repeating to them till it imprints in their brain. It sounds fun and interesting, my idea of mushroom farming so tiny but I learned a lot reading this🙌🙌🙌
Oh I love this idea, I might have to move over and join in lol.
Skill sharing is so important and learning about mushrooms and how to grow them, well that is right up there on the top for me. Well done educating those kids and their mama xxxxx
Wow! you're so kind to share your knowledge about mushroom to these little kids. How i wish to have someone to teach us about it here.
I am amaze how these little kids learned a lot about it. Me? honestly don't know those terms 😂.
That's what I enjoyed about homeschooling. The kids were so interested in what was going on, and could see the use of the information. But it is exhausting, especially when there's 3!
It would be a cool thing to do, taking the van to various homeschooling families who were interested.
Oh man yeah I had to come home and have a nap!!!!