During the 20th of May, Ferran Masip Valls visited Valldaura to teach a Workshop on Edible Mushroom growing.
At the beginning, Masip gathered the group of interns, and without further explanation, told them to collect different materials (strongly cellulose and hydrocellulose-based), which ended up consisting on straw, leaves, trunks, but also coffee grounds, paper, carton and whatnot. Those materials were, then, put into boiling tanks, in the oven, and in general terms under high temperatures for a long period.
What the interns had been doing was gathering the substrate on which the mushrooms would grow – substrate that now was being sterilized for the proper inoculation of mycelia. And while that happened, the real class was taught.
Ferran Masip taught about the nature of fungi in general, from a biological perspective; about the three different kinds of cultivation, which could roughly be explained as symbiotic forest-based mushrooms (such as Boletus), ground-ish based mushrooms (such as Agaricus), and raw materials – based cultivation (such as Lentinula). And about particularities and curiosities of the fungi kingdom in general.
For the class, the interns were provided with fresh mycelia for Oyster Mushrooms, or locally known as Girgoles (Pleurotus Ostreatus). Such mushrooms were chosen for being one of the strongest mushrooms, most productive, widely cultivated and easier to work with.
By then, all the substrates chosen were already sterilized. Provided with latex gloves, clean surfaces and containers in order to avoid contamination, the interns started inoculating their bags with their substrate of choice.
After a few hours, several kilos were inoculated, the bags sealed and left in a room with the proper conditions. A few weeks after that, the mushrooms should be ready to start growing from those bags, and hopefully nice meals will come after it.
