Building Soil Health with Mushroom Compost

Join NOFA/Mass in their journey of diving deep into the world of compost and mushroom substrate. Throughout the day, they’ll be looking into the living world of soil and mycelium and sensing how to integrate spent mushroom substrate into home and small-scale farm composting systems. Learn about Woven Roots Farm’s no-till, hand-scale, growing, composting, mulching, and harvesting practices, and how mushroom substrate is being incorporated into their farming practices.

Mushroom substrate is an amazing way to increase the bioactivity of your compost, making your soil rich and nutrients more accessible to plants. The group will be looking at compost at all stages: mixing it ourselves, observing a well-inoculated sample, and spreading compost on our beds. This workshop will also take a close look at compost throughout the inoculation process via microscopes, guiding you to know what to look for on your own. For those that don’t have a microscope at home, this is a great chance to learn how to build one using simple materials and a smartphone. DIY kits will be for sale. Afterwards, you’ll be able to sense into making your own beautiful mushroom compost blend, look for the creatures who make compost happen, and apply this knowledge to your very own beds.