John Michelotti on Mushroom Growing - A Way to Garden with Margaret Roach - April 1, 2019

Mushroom growing: Have you ever grown mushrooms? Or perhaps they've just grown themselves in different parts of your garden at different moments of the season and you've wondered: why there, and why then? I know I do; I'm fascinated by fungi. I asked John Michelotti of Catskill Fungi to encourage us to try cultivating some edible ones and to go take a mushroom walk too, to get to meet some of the incredible diversity out there.

John is a self-described “mushroom guy” and has studied fungi with some of the country's top mycologists. On his family farm in Big Indian, New York, he cultivates indoor and outdoor mushrooms, and provides guided mushroom classes, cultivation courses, private consultations, and even creates mushroom health extracts. John is also part of the Amazon Mycorenewal Project, researching the utilization of fungi to remediate oil spills in the Amazon Rain Forest.