A lack of rain on Vancouver Island this summer and fall is making things difficult for mushroom pickers who are usually able to find a bounty this time of year.

Generally, this far into October, collecting mushrooms is literally a walk in the forest. But this year is proving more difficult.

"This is an exceptionally dry year," said Thom O'Dell, a fungi educator who has been collecting mushrooms for more than 40 years. O'Dell even has the honour of naming a new species he and some others first discovered.

"The Cantharellus cascadensis. We named it after the Cascade range where it was discovered," said the Vancouver Island man.

O'Dell says he's finding far fewer chanterelles than he'd expect at this time of year, though he does stumble across some lobster mushrooms.

"It's not the most photogenic," he said with a laugh. "But these are some of the early ones that would normally come up with the summer rain."

O'Dell's problem finding mushrooms is being felt up and down Vancouver Island.

Please read the full article here.

‘fungi stool’ BY satoshi itasaka

In an effort to learn more about natural decomposers such as fungi and bacteria, Japanese designer Satoshi Itasaka unveils the ‘Fungi Stool’. As its title suggests, the stainless steel and wood stool is composed of fungi that grow and bloom, like flowers, into mushrooms.

‘It is no exaggeration to say that the cycles of nature are carried out by bacteria and fungi,’ Itasaka notes. ‘Bacteria and fungi have been the decomposers in the food chain keeping the earth’s environment in a healthy state. They are the ones we should follow for we are constantly putting a burden on the earth in terms of the global environment.’

Preserving fungi decomposers

Satoshi Itasaka’s Fungi Stool highlights the importance of preserving fungi decomposers as they play a crucial role in our ecosystem. It also proposes a more sustainable direction to furniture design. Its seat is made up of a circle of six discs that somewhat resemble mushroom caps huddled next to each other.

‘There are about 100 trillion bacteria in our bodies’, the product designer explains. ‘Therefore, we live in symbiosis with about three times as many bacteria as our own cells. Although we are sometimes tormented by bacteria, the environment in which we live would not be possible without decomposers such as fungi and bacteria. The world is in the midst of a sanitization boom, but I designed a device to learn more about these decomposers, not to get rid of them. I found that the fungi grew unexpectedly in that apparatus. The fungi grew and blossomed like flowers, producing numerous beautiful mushrooms.’

Source: Designboom

AMGA 2022 Conference

The AMGA conference is held every two years and is the principal meeting point for professionals involved in the mushroom growing industry in Australasia and welcomes numerous guests from overseas.
The conference is made up of suppliers, growers, farm owners and well respected national and international speakers. It’s the perfect occasion to gain pragmatic advice from the speakers, connect with other professionals through genuine networking opportunities, and to increase your knowledge of the industry.

One of our appreciated advertisers, GROWTIME, is also present on this conference with a stand. Please find their invitation here below:

Visit us at the 44th Australian Mushroom Growers' Conference
Are you part of the mushroom industry? You are invited to the 44th Australian Mushroom Growers’ Conference, which will be held from October 26 to 28 at the Crowne Plaza Adelaide Hotel. Come up to us and let's talk about the profitability of your mushroom farm!
Where can you find us? Below you will see our location on the floor plan of the event. See you there!

The energy-intensive production of edible mushrooms is currently particularly affected by the impact of the Ukraine war on the procurement of electricity and gas for food production. This became clear once again at an extraordinary meeting of the Board and Advisory Council of the Federation of German Mushroom and Cultivated Mushroom Growers (BDC) on 6 September 2022 in Hanover.

During the intensive exchange with representatives of the Federal Association of Energy Users (VEA), climate control in the cultivation rooms and cooling of the harvested products, but also substrate production as well as hygienisation of the substrate and disinfection of the rooms were named as extremely energy-intensive processes.

Despite this, mushroom farms have so far not been able to participate in the energy cost reduction programme of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), as they do not belong to the listed sectors. Given the amount of energy required in the cultivated mushroom sector, this is absolutely incomprehensible for the BDC representatives. The board estimates that the electricity and gas price increases alone could generate additional costs of more than 75 million euros for the industry, should the prices for electricity and gas remain at this level or even rise further. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

Please read the full article here. (in German)
Source: Bund Deutscher Champignon- und Kulturpilzanbauer e.V.