Progress 04/15/19 to 04/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Existing and beginning specialty mushroom growerswho have already determined they can produce specialty mushrooms and want to enhance their production, efficiency, profitability, and understanding of trends and markets were the primary audience for this project. Wetargeted this group explicitly because they are invested in learning how to better optimize their production systems and have a stake in our program's efforts given we are the only research/extension program in this subject area. A second grower target audience are those existing and beginning farmers who already have the enterprise and market experience for selling ag products and are looking toexpand offerings or develop new crops with profit potential. As we cultivate our small farmer audience, these farmers oftenfind out about mushrooms after accessing our program for another reason. We target this group since they are committed tofarming and understand the realities of entering a new enterprise. Technical Service Providers are a target audience that includes anyone who identifies as an educator. Thisencompasses the traditional government,extension, non-profit and university roles that serve farmers as well as managers and coordinators of community gardens, food justice projects, educational farms, and community organizers. Thisbroad definition of technical service provider allows usto reach a more diverse audience who work with and can bring mushroom production to historically marginalized or socially disadvantaged communities. In our educator training objective of thisproject, we target a diverse set of educators including those that identify as black, indigenous, mixed race, Asian American,and other more specific identifiers. Urban farms and community garden organizations are specifically targeted as we seek to engage individuals in regionswhere Cornell extension has not worked extensively and because indoor mushroom cultivation provides an attractive optionin many urban agriculture contexts. It is also clear that experiences with growing food in gardens and small urban farms canbe a pathway to commercial entrepreneurship; hence, it is our priority to be present in these communities. A significantnumber of the ethnically and racially diverse individuals engaged in our project have connections to these small-scaleagriculture projects. We believe they are critical to the long term viability of this farming sector. Changes/Problems:We were unable to complete a qualitative analysis of the mushrooms from our block study, as the data collection proved to be too subjective with multiple students and staff monitoring harvests and the nature of on-campus research meaning that mushrooms were not able to always be harvested at peak stages. Timing of harvest is still likely to be essential to increasing shelf life and overall quality as previously reported, but advised would be a separate study to focus on this question as our marketing research indicated that high quality mushrooms were a critical element of small farmer success. Our dehydration study was determined to be inconclusive, as the method of determining safe dehydration of fresh mushrooms did not satisfy the ability to maintain quality. The method including blanching/steaming mushrooms to achieve internal temps above 165F, but since mushrooms are significantly high in water content the quality of them post treatment was not adequate for this method. More research looking at the effects of contamination on mushrooms needs to be explored. Mushrooms have been dehydrated for hundreds of years in basic dehydration systems without the need for an extra "kill step" but due to the limited funding toward this effort those impacts could not be verified. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Education capacity building (Objective 3) Community Mushroom Educator Training We engaged with the graduates of our initial Community Mushroom Educator Cohort to build their facilitation and teaching skills. We used in person andvirtual events including two online courses (January through March). These graduates helpedin designing and planning the second offering of our Community Mushroom Educator Training on a national level (delivered in April 2022 onward). Eight educators of the original cohort of 76 deepened their confidence in the ability to communicate on mushroom life cycle, cultivation methods, farm economics, and education methods during this effort. At the end of the grant cycle, we outperformed for both of our performance targets, which was originally 40 service providers trained with 12 advanced/certified educators. We ended the grant cycle with a final total of 146 trained and 30 who completed the requirements of the program for a certificate.We learned that it was important to clarify the requirements to obtain certification, which was highly valued by the CMEs. The following were the benchmarks to obtain a certificate: 1) make an educational material 2) deliver an educational event and report back on it 3) complete online content. We used the following verification methods and tools: CME application, pre and post knowledge assessment, mini class evaluation held online, feedback surveys at the end of each cohort and the educational programming survey.Of the responses we received from participants, we received a range of data and qualitative feedback. Our most precise measure was a pre and post knowledge assessment that provided questions in four topic areas: 1) Mycology 101, 2) Cultivation, 3) Markets, and 4) Popular Education. Each section had 5 - 8 questions where participants ranked their knowledge as 1 (little or none) to 5 (a lot). These numbers were averaged for each section, showing the knowledge change, represented by almost unanimous increase between the Pre and Post responses for each participant: Average per knowledge area of gain / loss expressed in points: Mycology 101: 1.74 Cultivation: 1.87 Markets: 1.32 Popular Education: .98 Overall the co-facilitation approach using popular education was a successful method, we attracted a large interest and outperformed the original amount that we estimated. Community Mushroom Educators (CMEs) participated in a wide variety of programming, including the online courses, in-person workshops and individual projects, going above and beyond what was required for the certificate. The ability to compensate CMEs also played a role in the success of the program as well. Additionally, we were able to attract and maintain a large network of diverse individuals with varying demographics, background, skills, and knowledge levels. The main limitations were lacking opportunities for hands-on training throughout the Northeast (largely due to COVID-19 pandemic), beyond New York City and not having the opportunity to develop cohesion within each of the cohorts, which would naturally lead to more active engagement outside of scheduled activities. The CME program will continue into the future, with online training by those who originally graduated the program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We share our progress through our Small Farms media channels (bimonthly newsletter, website, social media) with a newsletter reach of 25,884 and website traffic over 1 million, CCE Harvest NY newsletter (400 reach), and FarmSchool NYC contacts (800 reach). Each partner organization in the project also shares reports, announcements, and new resources with their respective audiences. Our project has actively cultivated networks and we currently maintain a grower listserv (610 members) as well as a separate listserv for the Community Mushroom Educators (167 members). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Production Research (Objective 1) Mushroom production on aseptically produced blocks For this trial, we evaluated two different size blocks, mixtures of substrates, production temperatures and strains of a given mushroom type.We chose to focus on four mushroom species over the trial, which are compatible to be grown in the same fruiting conditions and have interest among growers and markets. The species studied include Blue Oyster (Pleurotus Columbinus), Lions Mane (Hericium erinaceus), Black Pearl King Oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus hybrid), and Chestnut (Pholiota Adiposa). For cycle one, we added 50 lbs of inoculated blocks on 4 dates for each of three species (Lions Mane, Blue Oyster, and Chestnut) in two chambers (65F and 75F). For cycle two, we added blocks on four dates with a total weight of 50 lbs of inoculated substrate for three species (Lions Mane, Blue Oyster, and Black Pearl) x two chambers (65F and 75F). Average yields: Lion's Mane blocks of the same size show no difference in average yield/ lb media when grown at different temperatures. Blue oyster 10# blocks produced greater average yield/ lb media when grown at 75 degrees (p= .0002); but blue oyster 5# cubes produced lower average yield/ lb media when grown at 75 degrees (p= .002).Blue oyster produced greater average yield/ lb media than Lion's main on the same size cube (10# and 5#) at both temperatures (65 and 75); p =.0006, p= .0001, p < .0001; except 65 degrees, where no difference was determined. Black Pearl 5# cubes produced greater average yield than 10# at 65 degrees (p=.002), but less at 75 degrees (p=.005). Chestnut 5# cubes produced greater average yield than 10# at 75 degrees only (p<.0001); no difference was noted at 65 degrees.10# cubes of Black Pearl produced greater yield at 75 degrees (p=.03) but 5# cubes produced less yield at 75 degrees (p=.0001). The opposite was observed with Chestnut, where 10# cubes produced less yield at 75 degrees (p=.004) but 5# cubes produced greater yield at 75 degrees (p=.0001). There was no yield difference between species for either block size at 65 degrees. At 75 degrees, Chestnut produced greater yield than Black Pearl in 5# cubes (p=.003), but less yield in 10# cubes (p=.0006) Total yields: Within the same temperature (65 vs 75 degrees), 10# Lion's Mane cubes produce more total yield / lb media than 5# cubes (p= .04 and .001). Blue Oyster show the opposite pattern; 5# cubes produce greater total yield / lb media than 10# cubes (p < .0001).Within Species, equal cube size did not produce different total yield / lb media between the two growing temperatures, except 10# Blue oyters cubes which produced less yield / lb media in 75 degrees than in 65 degrees (p= .04). For 5# cubes at both temperatures (65 and 75), Blue Oyster produced more yield / lb media than Lion's Mane (p<.0001). Lion's Mane produced more yield / lb media than Oyster at 75 degree 10# cubes (p =.02); no yield difference in 10# cubes at 65 degrees was determined. Black Pearl 5# cubes produced less total yield than 10# at 75 degrees (p=.003), no difference at 65 degrees. Chestnut 5# cubes produced greater total yield than 10# at 75 degrees only (p<.0001); no difference was noted at 65 degrees.5# cubes of Black Pearl produced greater yield at 65 degrees (p<.0001). Chestnut 10# cubes produced less yield at 75 degrees (p=.02) but 5# cubes produced greater yield at 75 degrees (p=.003).Black Pearl produced great yield than Chestnut as 10# cubes at both 65 and 75 degrees (p=.02; =.003), and 5# cubes at 65 degrees (p=.03). Chestnut yield was greater in 5# cubes at 75 degrees (p=.0001). Oyster mushroom production on field produced straw bags We conducted research on an alternative method of mushroom production that would be more accessible for small-scale farmers. The goal was to model a inexpensive and feasible approach to on-farm production from inoculation of substrates through to fruiting. The entire preparation process was done outside in open air, with the incubation and fruiting occurring in climate-controlled chambers, indoors. Having completed initial research on mushroom yields aseptically produced sawdust blocks, we explored producing oysters on straw using a hydrated lime pasteurization process. This is less expensive and can be completed outdoors, without need of sterile technique.This method has only been suggested with oyster species, so we focused on the Blue Oyster varieties used in the previous block trial (from two different vendors) and sought to answer the following questions: What is the real cost of producing a 10lb bag of straw? How does it compare to blocks? What is the Labor cost for shredding, soaking, inoculating, fruiting, harvesting? What average yields can be expected from each treatment and at what harvest frequency? Does adding Soy Hulls increase yield? What are cost effective methods for neutralizing pH water prior to disposal? How is fruiting space usage and handling of straw logs compare to blocks? For the trial, we inoculated 50 pounds of dry shredded straw each week, soaking in lime for 24 hours and then inoculated with mushroom spawn. This produced 20 bags weighing about 10 pounds each. Five bags per batch received a different treatment: Spawn A / just straw or straw plus soy hulls and Spawn B / just straw or straw plus soy hulls. Four replicates of these treatments were inoculated for four consecutive weeks. Bags were placed in an incubation chamber for two weeks and then moved to a fruiting chamber for 4 weeks. Yields were harvested and weighed per bag, giving 20 replicates (5 bags x 4 weeks) per treatment. While there are many strains of oyster to trial, we selected two strains of Blue Oyster for the first cycle of testing (CNS and Grey Dove) and two strains of Yellow Oyster (3014 and Yellow) for the second. Statistical analysis found significant differences between the straw-only and supplemented bags for both blue oyster and yellow oyster. Days to first harvest was shorter with soy hull additives, resulting in the majority of the harvest completed faster. A nutrient addition (soy hulls) to the straw bags increased overall yields, increased the rate of spawn run, and resulted in a shorter harvest windows. Blue Oyster performed exceptionally well in this trial, with yields that surpassed those of 10# sawdust aseptically produced blocks. Yellow Oyster strains also benefited from soy hull additives but had lower overall average yields and more incidence of molds in the straw bags. The full report is posted to:https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/indoor-production/ Mushroom Marketing Research (Objective 2) Data gathered during a survey (139 respondents) coupled with 30 min interviews with 25 growers explored barriers to expanding their mushroom operations, qualities important to their markets, and challenges with supply chains and infrastructure. Results from the survey of specialty mushroom growers around the USA offer an interesting glimpse into this growing industry: Demand for specialty mushrooms was high for many respondents, 64% of them reported higher demand for their mushrooms than they could supply As a whole, respondents rely on farmers markets as the most important way to sell their mushrooms, accounting for 38% of mushroom sales. When combining all direct-to-consumer markets, a total of 71% of respondents' mushroom sales were made through direct-to-consumer markets. We asked growers to rate how important they feel various mushroom characteristics are to their customers. Our respondents feel that mushroom quality is the most important characteristic to their customers, ranking it 4.6 out 5 (Figure 12). Respondents also rated being local as very important at 4.2 out of 5. The final report was posted in January 2023 to https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/economics-and-markets as a downloadable PDF.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/21 to 04/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Existing and beginning specialty mushroom growers, who have already determined they will produce specialty mushrooms and can enhance their production, efficiency, profitability, and understanding of trends and markets through this project. We target this group explicitly because they are invested in learning how to better optimize their production systems and have a stake in our program's efforts given we are the only research/extension program in this subject area. Existing and beginning farmers already serving markets, who have the enterprise and market experience who are looking to expand offerings or develop new crops with profit potential. As we cultivate our small farmer audience, these farmers often find out about mushrooms after accessing our program for another reason. We target this group since they are committed to farming and understand the realities of entering a new enterprise. Technical Service Providers includes anyone who identifies as an educator and encompasses the traditional government, extension, non-profit and university roles that serve farmers as well as managers and coordinators of community gardens, food justice projects, educational farms, and community organizers. A broad definition of technical service provider allows us to reach a more diverse audience and impact socially disadvantaged communities. In our educator training objective of this project, we target a diverse set of educators including those that identify as black, indigenous, mixed race, Asian American, and other more specific identifiers (see section below). Urban farms and community garden organizations are specifically targeted as we seek to engage individuals in regions where Cornell extension has not worked extensively and because indoor mushroom cultivation provides an attractive option in many urban agriculture contexts. It is also clear that experiences with growing food in gardens and small urban farms can be a pathway to commercial entrepreneurship; hence, it is our priority to be present in these communities. A significant number of the ethnically and racially diverse individuals engaged in our project have connections to these small-scale agriculture projects. We believe they are critical to the long term viability of this farming sector. Changes/Problems:As mentioned previously in the "accomplishments" section, we transitioned from a custom built chamber to a retrofitted fridge as a proposed solution to growing mushrooms in smaller spaces. We documented and tested a build out during this period and are field testing the unit during the final period of this grant. We expect to publish a guide for the build-out as a accessible and affordable solution to mushroom growing on a smaller scale, which could serve to increase exposure to the production system and increase exposure to the cultivation of the crop. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As mentioned in previous "accomplishments" section, we engaged with training and professional development throughout this reporting period with Community Mushroom educators via close mentoring and the logs to NYC event. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We share our progress through our Small Farms media channels (bimonthly newsletter, website, social media) with an newsletter reach of 25,884 and website traffic over 1 million, CCE Harvest New York (NY) newsletter (400 reach), and FarmSchool NYC contacts (800 reach). Each partner organization in the project also shares reports, announcements, and new resources with their respective audiences. Our project has actively cultivated networks and we currently maintain a grower listserv (610 members) as well as a separate listserv for the Community Mushroom Educators (81 members). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Production Research: During the next reporting period we will finalize statistical analysis of the block dataset and produce a report of findings. The straw research data will also be organized, analyzed, and published into a report. Both methods will be described for a farmer audience in an applied method along with estimates of material and labor costs for each method. This information will be published to CornellMushrooms.org along with a video series we will develop outlining the straw inoculation process. An additional product that has resulted unexpectedly from the production research will be a "grading" guide with photos depicting the various stages of development in fruiting mushrooms to help growers maintain quality with proper harvest timing. We observed that timing of harvest was essential to increasing shelf life and overall quality, which our market research suggests is the most important aspect of small commercial mushroom farming. We also plan to implement a trial run of the mini fridge production system with a partner farm, Kelly St Gardens in Bronx, NY from May through October 2022. We will install and provide technical support to the staff and volunteers and receive their direct feedback on its operation and use, along with yield data from the ready to fruit mushroom blocks we provide to the chamber. Market Research: The final version of the markets report will be published in September 2022 and feature the data relevant to markets for specialty mushrooms based on our grower input. This document will serve useful to individuals in agriculture education, policy, and to farmers themselves. We also intend to develop and publish a report combining data about grower production systems along with elements of the follow up calls that serves more as a reference document useful to existing growers. Education Capacity: Community Mushroom Educators continue to participate as co-facilitators in public events and our online courses, supported to develop their teaching skills and compensated for their time. Complete curriculum will be finalized and published to the website for public access; tutorial videos and annual online course will offer this training to anyone interested. Current Community Mushroom Educators will be engaged with interactive (in person) events as well as online meetups throughout the fall and winter to further build the network. In April and May 2022, we will run a second Community Mushroom Educator training and accept approximately 60 applicants from an open public request to those interested in attending. This new cohort will be merged with the existing cohort and maintain communication through an email listserv and monthly meetings from June to October.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Production Research (Objective 1) Oysters on Straw During this reporting period, we initiated research on an alternative method of mushroom production that appears to be more accessible for smaller farmers in our audience. Having completed a set of baseline data for yields off sawdust blocks from previous research cycles, we are primed to compare with oysters on straw using a hydrated lime pasteurization process, which is less expensive and can be initiated outdoors.This method has only been suggested with oyster species, so we focused on the Blue Oyster varieties used in the previous block trial (from two different vendors) and sought to answer the following questions: What is the real cost of producing a 10lb bag of straw? How does it compare to blocks? What is the Labor cost for shredding, soaking, inoculating, fruiting, harvesting? What average yields can be expected from each treatment and at what harvest frequency? Does adding Soy Hulls increase yield? What are cost effective methods for neutralizing pH water prior to disposal? How is fruiting space usage and handling of straw logs compare to blocks? For the trial, we inoculated 50 pounds of dry shredded straw each week, soaking in lime for 24 hours and then inoculated with mushroom spawn. This produced 20 bags weighing about 10 pounds each. Five bags per batch received a different treatment: Spawn A / just straw, Spawn A / straw plus soy hulls, Spawn B / just straw, Spawn B / straw plus soy hulls. Four batches of this configuration were inoculated for four consecutive weeks. Bags were then placed in an incubation chamber for two weeks and then moved to a fruiting chamber for 4 weeks. Yields were harvested and weighed per bag, giving 20 replicates (5 bags x 4 weeks) per treatment. We are currently analyzing the data for yields, material, and labor costs. Mini-Fridge as Fruiting Chamber Since the beginning of our indoor specialty mushroom project our program staff and partners have expressed interest in a small scale, modular chamber that could provide the proper conditions to support mushroom production (generally, temps 65F - 70F / humidity 80%, low light, and Co2 levels below 800ppm). The vision is that these units, if successful, could help smaller growers produce mushrooms in a variety of settings economically. Our first prototype was a custom-built unit with corrugated plastic walls and could be broken down into smaller sections for transport. Initial testing showed we could achieve decent humidity/light/oxygen controls but that temperature was going to be the limiting factor; most spaces need the unit to be able to cool itself lower than the ambient air temperature ideally around 65F - 75F. In our research we came across efforts where people converted old refrigerators into chambers for beer brewing, cheese making, etc. - maintaining a temperature around 65F. We decided to apply this idea with the purpose of growing mushrooms.This concept became of interest since fridges are relatively easy to find and a used unit could likely be purchased affordably ($50 - $200) to retrofit for this purpose. During this reporting period we documented the necessary equipment additions and steps to convert a fridge to this purpose and tested the first prototype for 8 weeks in Jan - March 2022. Ready-to-fruit blocks were added weekly and monitored for growth and harvest. Based initial success we installed a unit at a partner farm and will report on those results in the next period. The results will be shared as a basic written guide for how a person or project could complete a conversion and grow mushrooms inside. Market Research (Objective 2) Following the preliminary organization of the survey data reported in the previous period, we solicited and engaged with 25 growers from the initial respondents (139) and conducted thirty-minute phone interviews during summer of 2021, asking to follow up with questions about barriers to expanding their operation, qualities important to their markets, and challenges with supply chains and infrastructure, in order to expand on the survey responses with qualitative information not captured in that format. A summary of grower experiences will be highlighted in an article produced from this data collection in the next reporting period. We also began authoring the first print report based on the survey data, focused on markets and sales questions we asked in the initial survey. This is expected to the published in September 2022. Education Capacity (Objective 3) Community Mushroom Education Effort Continued In this reporting period we engaged with the graduates of our initial Community Mushroom Educator Cohort previously reported to build their facilitation and teaching skills in several live and virtual events including our two online courses (January through March) and in designing and planning the second offering of our Community Mushroom Educator Training on a national level (delivered in April 2022 onward). Eight educators of the original cohort of 76 deepened their confidence in the ability to communicate on mushroom life cycle, cultivation methods, farm economics, and education methods during this effort. Logs to New York City (NYC) In the summer of 2021, a partnership between the Cornell Small Farms Program,Woodsman Forest Products,Schooner Apollonia,Hudson River Maritime Museum,RETI Center, andRed Hook Community Farms piloted the carbon-neutral transport of logs from upstate forests to community farms and gardens in NYC. The logs were provided by Tim Lindtveit ofWoodsman Forest Products, sustainably harvested from woodlands in the Catskill mountains and brought down to the water alongside theHudson River Maritime Museum. On July 24th, a mushroom growing workshop convened at this location, withCornell Small Farms ProgramandThe Mushroom Shedfacilitators teaching 25 participants how to grow shiitake mushrooms on logs and oyster mushrooms on cardboard and coffee grounds. With the help of the incredible youth farmers fromRed Hook Community Farm, the logs were unloaded and moved by bike and trailer to the main farm site, just down the street. With the help of over 50 volunteers over two beautiful sunny summer days, all 300 of the logs were inoculated with shiitake mushrooms. After inoculation, the logs were distributed among twelve inspiring urban agriculture projects around the city.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/20 to 04/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Existing and beginning specialty mushroom growers, who have already determined they will produce specialty mushrooms and can enhance their production, efficiency, profitability, and understanding of trends and markets through this project. We target this group explicitly because they are invested in learning how to better optimize their production systems and have a stake in our program's efforts given we are the only research/extension program in this subject area. Existing and beginning farmers already serving markets, who have the enterprise and market experience who are looking to expand offerings or develop new crops with profit potential. As we cultivate our small farmer audience, these farmers often find out about mushrooms after accessing our program for another reason. We target this group since they are committed to farming and understand the realities of entering a new enterprise. Technical Service Providers includes anyone who identifies as an educator and encompasses the traditional government,extension, non-profit and university roles that serve farmers as well as managers and coordinators of community gardens, food justice projects, educational farms, and community organizers. A broad definition of technical service provider allows us to reach a more diverse audience and impact socially disadvantaged communities. In our educator training objective of this project, we target a diverse set of educators including those that identify as black, indigenous, mixed race, Asian American, and other more specific identifiers (see section below). Urban farms and community garden organizations are specifically targeted as we seek to engage individuals in regions where Cornell extension has not worked extensively and because indoor mushroom cultivation provides an attractive option in many urban agriculture contexts. It is also clear that experiences with growing food in gardens and small urban farms can be a pathway to commercial entrepreneurship; hence, it is our priority to be present in these communities. A significant number of the ethnically and racially diverse individuals engaged in our project have connections to these small-scale agriculture projects. We believe they are critical to the long term viability of this farming sector. Changes/Problems:Marketing Research Focus Changed While the initial intent for market research included surveying direct consumers and distributors, due to the shifting and uncertain markets as a fallout from COVID our research team decided to shift focus on growers, who were active and adaptative in response to markets in an emerging pandemic. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As mentioned in previous "products" and "accomplishments" sections, we continuously engaged with training and professional development throughout this reporting period. The following is a timeline of the Community Mushroom Educator Program in 2020, including the intensive pre-course work, curriculum and Q&A webinars and guest speakers. A total of 42.5 hours of content was created and posted on a teaching platform called Teachable for the CME participants to access for future reference. The individual events are listed under other products of this report. At the end of the 2020 CME Program, participants had the following comments to say: "I basically started the course very excited about mushrooms but with very little knowledge about them apart from basic things like mycelial networks and a bit of anatomy (and how awesome they are!) So everything from morphology to growing indoors and outdoors tomarketing --all of it was newand I've learned so much in the past few months!" "I gained enough knowledge about growing mushroom indoors and in the garden to give a presentation. My knowledge, skills and confidence regarding mushrooms all grew because of this class." "I knew very little about mushroom cultivation, and this course was packed with a ton of excellent information." "The program is fantastic and the team really thought it through for folks to learn and share. I unfortunately could not take advantage of all the teachings as I would have wanted. I do appreciate having the access to the materials and I plan to get back to it." How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We share our progress through our Small Farms media channels (bimonthly newsletter, website, social media) with a newsletter reach of 25,884 and website traffic over 1 million, CCE Harvest NY newsletter (400 reach), and FarmSchool NYC contacts (800 reach). Each partner organization in the project also shares reports, announcements, and new resources with their respective audiences. Our project has actively cultivated networks and we currently maintain a grower listserv (610 members) as well as a separate listserv for the Community Mushroom Educators (81 members). Weekly updates are provided the educator list and monthly updates to the larger grower list. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Production Research: During the next reporting period we will complete statistical analysis of the block dataset and produce a report of findings. The production modeling tool will also be updated utilizing the data collected in the block study. We are also initiating a follow up research trial using straw that is lime pasteurized as a low-tech alternative to block production. We will utilize the same Blue Oyster strains as used in the block trial and compare yields for the cost of materials and labor. Market Research: Analysis of results from the form survey have informed follow up interviews with growers in July - Sept 2021 to ask questions that help expand upon grower responses to the survey. The written summary of the key findings from the form survey and grower interviews will be published in written form, with a public webinar in October 2021 to share results. Education Capacity: Community Mushroom Educators continue to participate as co-facilitators in public events and our online courses, supported to develop their teaching skills and compensated for their time. Complete curriculum will be finalized and published to the website for public access; tutorial videos and annual online course will offer this training to anyone interested. Current Community Mushroom Educators will be engaged with interactive (in person) events as well as online meetups throughout the fall and winter to further build the network.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Production Research (Objective 1) During this reporting period we initiated data collection on a block trial comparing yields of blue oyster, lions mane, chestnut, and black pearl king oyster in two chambers regulated to 65F and 75F, respectively. The trial consisted of adding 50 lbs of inoculated substrate from two different vendors and three different species each week for four weeks into each chamber, then left in the chamber for 8 weeks. Each block received a unique identification number and we collected and measuring yields for each block in order to quantify the expected yields per block, and when yields arrived relative to the date the block was place into the chamber. We completed two research cycles as follows: Cycle 1: Blocks added 8/7 through 8/27, data collected through 10/10/20 Species: Blue Oyster, Lions Mane, Chestnut Cycle 2: Block added 11/13 through 12/3, data collected 1/21/21 Species: Blue Oyster, Lions Mane, Black Pearl Oyster While we are currently engaged in the deep statistical analysis, there are some clear outcomes from this effort. We will be able to predict the average volume and timing of yield for each species, and provide guidance for growers to consider around the optimal residency for each species. For instance, Oyster and Lions Mane provided multiple flushes of mushrooms throughout the 8 week residency, with the majority of the yield harvested by 4 weeks. Chestnut mushroom was harvested in a few flushes. We will answer the following questions in our statistical analysis: What are the average pounds per block for each species? What are the average pounds per flush for each species? What are the average number of flushes for a block for each species? What is the yield curve for species with multiple flushes (avg yield for flush 1, 2, 3, etc) When do flushes happen? How many days from entry and how many days apart from each other? What are the implications of keeping blocks in for 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks? What is optimal residency for a given species? Are there any significant differences in the above when fruiting at 65 F vs 75F? In addition to this analysis, the dataset will be useful in modeling the productive potential of the growing space, in this case an 8' x 12' x 8' fruiting room. We will provide an economic analysis of the cost to outfit the space for mushroom cultivation, the potential weekly yields given an optimal cycle, and project multiple profit/loss scenarios given the choice of species, duration of residency, etc. During this reporting period we also completed the beta version of our grow room simulation tool, working in partnership with as spreadsheet developer who took our input and developed a simple tool where a user can change variables such as size of room, growing season, and costs of production, and the tool will generate a projection of the costs and income potential over the growing cycle. The values in the tool are initially from estimates and educated guesses, but much of the data from the above research trials will be able to directly inform the tool and we plan on integrating this in the next reporting cycle. A link to the current version of the tool can be found at: https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/indoor-production Market Research (Objective 2) During this reporting period we conducted a survey of United States (US) specialty mushroom growers, which was developed in partnership with the Dyson Business School at Cornell and GrowNYC in the late Summer and Fall of 2020 and released for public access on January 19, 2020 and closed on February 26, 2020.. 139 mushroom growers filled out the survey sent out by the and 81 respondents (58.3% of respondents) indicated an interest in a follow-up interviews, which are being conducted in Summer 2021. The majority of respondents were from the Northeast of the United States. New York was the state with the highest count of growers (38.6%), far ahead of the remaining leaders in Pennsylvania (6.3%), Maine (5.5%), and North Carolina (3.9%).Of the 139 respondents, the most common business structure was a limited liability company (LLC) (49%), followed in second by a sole proprietorship (20%), and third by a partnership (7%). This result indicates that mushroom businesses are generally smaller operations with more centralized ownership. Many of the growers started their farm businesses after the start of 2015 (32%). 55 respondents (41%) indicated being part of a socially disadvantaged group, and 14 (10%) indicated having a military background. As of the end of this reporting period, the dataset has been cleaned up, organized, and a preliminary write of the results is completed. Our market research team reflected on the survey results and develop a follow up questionnaire that is being delivered by phone and zoom with willing participants in Summer 2021. A completed write up of the form survey results and interview results is expected to be made public in the late fall / early winter of 2021/2022. Education Capacity (Objective 3) In this reporting period we implemented our COVID-19 adapted curriculum to an online program from May - October that started with a total of 76 accepted participants and in early April CME participants were notified of their acceptance. A majority self identified as non-white. (18% Black, 11.8% Latinx, 9.3% Asian, 11.8% mixed). Due to COVID related fallout and challenges, about half (35) were able to actively maintain participation in the training throughout the summer of 2020. CME Participants had access to previous recordings from the Cornell Small Farms BF 151 - Woodland Mushroom Cultivation and the BF 153 - Indoor Specialty Mushroom Cultivation Course starting from the last two weeks in April throughout the year. The new curriculum portion of the CME program started June 4th. More details are provided in the professional development section below and in the other products list. The Project Team originally set out to carry out this project as a hybrid model of online instruction and in-person training sessions set to happen in New York City (NYC), Albany, and Philadelphia. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, we adapted the program to be 100% online for 2020. Moving forward, the in-person component may be re-introduced as circumstances shift and it becomes safe to do so.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/19 to 04/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Existing and beginning specialty mushroom growers, who have already determined they will produce specialty mushrooms and can enhance their production, efficiency, profitability, and understanding of trends and markets through this project. We target this group explicitly because they are invested in learning how to better optimize their production systems and have a stake in our program's efforts given we are the only research/extension program in this subject area. Existing and beginning farmers already serving markets, who have the enterprise and market experience who are looking to expand offerings or develop new crops with profit potential. As we cultivate our small farmer audience, these farmers often find out about mushrooms after accessing our program for another reason. We target this group since they are committed to farming and understand the realities of entering a new enterprise. Technical Service Providers includes anyone who identifies as an educator and encompasses the traditional government, extension, non-profit and university roles that serve farmers as well as managers and coordinators of community gardens, food justice projects, educational farms, and community organizers. A broad definition of technical service provider allows us to reach a more diverse audience and impact socially disadvantaged communities. In our educator training objective of this project, we target a diverse set of educators including those that identify as black, indigenous, mixed race, Asian American, and other more specific identifiers (see section below). Urban farms and community garden organizations are specifically targeted as we seek to engage individuals in regions where Cornell extension has not worked extensively and because indoor mushroom cultivation provides an attractive option in many urban agriculture contexts. It is also clear that experiences with growing food in gardens and small urban farms can be a pathway to commercial entrepreneurship; hence, it is our priority to be present in these communities. A significant number of the ethnically and racially diverse individuals engaged in our project have connections to these small-scale agriculture projects. We believe they are critical to the long term viability of this farming sector. Changes/Problems:Production Research Due to unexpected barriers within the Cornell infrastructure we were unable to construct a shipping container based trailer for our research as the necessary site, code, and permits put the cost of construction out of the budget of this project. We have shifted the production research to a set of growth chambers that can module temperature and had initially planned to focus on the comparative trial of straw inoculation vs. ready-to-fruit blocks before campus infrastructure was deemed unsafe to steam the straw and the onset of COVID-19 limited the possibility to fix the equipment. We have redesigned the experiment to work with current restraints in such a way that still allows us to answer the main questions we set out to explore. Our main research questions for the current research period will be: What effects do seasonal climate variations have on production and unit management? What is the effect of harvest timing, days in storage, and storage temperature on quality: What are the material, labor, and energy costs of ready-to-fruit block production? Educational Trailer becomes Mini Chamber With stakeholder feedback we quickly realized that the trailer we proposed in the original RFP was neither practically feasible (cost of transportation, parking, and storage) nor was it going to achieve the stated goal of being able to act as a viable model and example for communities to see the components of controlled environment mushroom farming. Instead, the group articulated a set of goals: Portable: walls and parts can be disassembled and moved to a new location with a small truck/van Accessible: All the components can be found at local hardware stores or ordered online and assembled by anyone. Consistent: The unit offers a consistent growing environment for mushroom production Affordable: Ideally keeping the cost around $500 - $600, which can be recouped after 6 - 8 months of growing at least 5 lbs/week Adaptable: The design concept and materials allow for changes to be made to fit different contexts Open Source: The complete design and construction plans will be made available to the public to replicate and adapt This led to the design and building of the prototype "mini chambers" mentioned previously in this report. We are testing and improving this concept with project partners and also plan to explore an even smaller "tote" version as a portable and accessible way to show the components as an educational aspect of the project. Just Food partnership ending for years 2 and 3 After working in partnership with Just Food for year one of the project, the organizational board indicated that it was in transition and not able to fully participate in the subsequent years of the project. We have adjusted roles and funding to other partners, namely FarmSchool NYC, to be able to fulfill the parameters of the grant. Community Mushroom Educator training changes with COVID-19 Pandemic As with many aspects of extension work, we have had to pivot and adapt given that many of the educational aspects of this part of the project are not able to be done in person at the current time. The onset of the pandemic came just as applicants were being scored and so we delayed the start of the program until early June and readjusted the plan to include online components. This necessary shift along with the personal realities of many of the people involved has meant that about 40% of the accepted participants have been able to maintain engagement with the training. Our education team has worked hard to adapt, and we are pleased that we are able to continue the program despite these challenging times. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As mentioned in previous "products" and "accomplishments" sections, we continuously engaged with training and professional development throughout this reporting period. The free and accessible materials on our website (41,387 pageviews for mushroom project), monthly webinar series (over 11k views), online courses (81 participants) and in person workshops (108 participants) reached thousands of people interested in specialty mushroom cultivation. Our primary accomplishment in training has been the launch of the Community Mushroom Educator (CME) program. We opened applications on January 10th, 2020 and closed them on February 17th. Our target was to get 75 applications and accept 60 people into the program. With 2,747 views in the reporting period of the CME project page received 166 applicants from 14 states (we limited the pool to Northeast states) with affiliations of over 200 non-profit, farm, and community garden organizations. 57% of applicants indicated this professional development would be part of their professional duties. Over 56% who applied self-identified as non-white (15.4% Black, 11.5% latinx, 8.1% Asian, 21.5% mixed race or other identity) and 30.3% indicate they speak a language other than english at home, with over 20 langauges represented. A diverse team of 10 educators and partners reviews and scored applications in February and March, and near the end of March we accepted 76 people into the program, with a majority self identified as non-white. (18% Black, 11.8% latinx, 9.3% Asian, 11.8% mixed) While the online portion of the training was set to begin the last week of March and then in-person traininging commence in summer 2020, because of COVID this plan has had to change. (see changes section below). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We share our progress through our Small Farms media channels (bimonthly newsletter, website, social media) with an newsletter reach of 25,884 and website traffic over 1 million, CCE Harvest NY newsletter (400 reach), and FarmSchool NYC contacts (800 reach). Each partner organization in the project also shares reports, announcements, and new resources with their respective audiences. Our project has actively cultivated networks and we currently maintain a grower listserv (610 members) as well as a separate listserv for the Community Mushroom Educators (81 members). Weekly updates are provided the educator list and monthly updates to the larger grower list. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Production Research: During the next reporting period we look forward to completing the first cycle of production research at Cornell facilities, where we will prototype mushroom production scenarios and examine the effects of temperature on yield and quality of mushrooms, while benchmarking the labor and material costs of establishing a small enterprise. We will complete 3 cycles of 12 weeks each and have a robust initial data set for the next reporting period. Market Research: While the surveys and process has been developed, implementation proves more difficult given the COVID-19 situation, since markets are in flux and unknown into the future. We are holding off on surveying chefs, wholesale buyers, and direct consumers for at least summer 2020 and plan on engaging growers in a survey and follow up calls/interviews as the growing season winds down in fall and winter of this coming reporting period. Education Capacity: The educator training has been moved online and is actively engaging those participants who are able to connect remotely. We are working through the curriculum with participants in June - September and encouraging participants to develop educational plans that work with any restrictions and complications given the current status of in-person communication. By the end of the next reporting period we expect to have completed the initial educational work with the larger group and to have selected a smaller subset of 10-12 to offer more in depth and ongoing support as educators.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Production Research Small and Medium scale specialty mushroom producers in the US have not traditionally had the same extension research and education support as with other agricultural crops. Our research objective is to test production scenarios and model the economics of controlled environment systems to help growers make more efficient and cost effective decisions. During this reporting period we initiated the process of constructing our production unit and then adapted our facilities and production plan as needed (changes) multiple times in response to unexpected constraints. We developed a comprehensive list of materials needed to retrofit a space for CSA mushroom growing including infrastructure, materials, monitoring equipment, environmental controls, and harvest and cleaning supplies. We developed a workflow and protocol document outlining the procedures for setup, maintenance, cleaning, and reset of the production space. Data collection was initiated in January 2020, but had to be suspended in March due to COVID19 (see change section) but we are on track to restart data collection in early August, 2020 and complete the research cycles within the duration of the project. Market Research A major challenge specialty mushroom growers face is developing robust and reliable markets for their product. This objective is aimed at better quantifying and understating buyer preferences from various market sectors and communicating those results to our audience as part of outreach efforts. During this reporting period we indicated a literature review of existing market data in mushrooms and related products, identifying gaps and unanswered questions. Meetings with stakeholders and market outlets (chefs, wholesale buyers, direct consumers, farmers markets) to determine focus and feasibility were invaluable to informing the methods for data collection planned for the next reporting period. Along with the Dyson School of Economics at Cornell, we developed strategies for data collection for three market sectors; regional distributors, chefs, and direct consumer markets including CSA pickup and farmers markets. We also developed a survey for growers to describe their market experiences. These materials are planned for the next reporting period to be distributed as we are able, given the COVID-19 scenarios that are having dramatic effects on markets. Education Capacity For mushrooms to become a significant niche crop within US Agriculture, agencies, universities, and extension networks must actively collaborate to offer a more robust network that can support growers every step of their development. There are currently few service providers in the Northeast skilled in providing specialty mushroom producers with even the basic information to get started, while interest remains high. A recent survey of service providers received 38 responses with 51% of respondents indicating that demand for information on mushrooms was substantial or overwhelming, while 73% rated their ability to meet the demand with information to be fair or poor. In response we have initiated the "Community Mushroom Educator" (CME) training program that aims to train 60 new educators in a curriculum our education team developed to be interdisciplinary and to develop a network of collaboration across regions and differences. ?In this reporting period we developed and implemented the outreach, selection, and acceptance process for our first round of community educators. The timeline for this program, along with a description, promotional video, and application for participants can be viewed at: smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/cme/ We also created and tested part one of our curriculum "how to grow" at several workshops in New York City in the summer of 2019.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Specialty Mushroom Production in the Northeast. https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/specialty-mushroom-cultivation/
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Methods of Commercial Mushroom Production. https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/methods-of-commercial-mushroom-cultivation-in-the-northeastern-united-states/
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