Grow Your Own Mushrooms with Darryn de la Soul & Margate Mushrooms

Grow Your Own Mushrooms! Learn the basics of mushroom cultivation, from spore to harvest, including substrates, growing conditions, and simple home techniques. This session is a hands-on workshop - and you’ll go home with your very own inoculated Grow Your Own kit ready to nurture and fruit! Expect to get your hands in the substrate (gloves provided), mixing in the spawn and getting your Grey Oyster Mushrooms ready to go. Once you get them home, you’ll see a daily difference in their growth - it’s like having a pet, without the lifelong commitment! Darryn de la Soul founded Margate Mushrooms on 2020 - a lockdown project that has mushroomed (see what I did there?) into a thriving local business supplying gourmet mushrooms to local eateries and creating hand crafted functional mushroom supplements. Becky McNally has been with the project for four years and is our Grower in Chief. We will be using straw as our substrate, and while we do supply gloves, you may well get bits of wet straw on you and your clothes. Suggest wearing clothes that can easily be washed. Accessibility : The workshop is running in the DOWNSTAIRS area of Gather& and is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. A standard ticket includes access for one adult with one grow bag OR one adult with a child and one grow bag to take home between you. Extra grow bags can be purchased. We will supply gloves, but you may choose to just get your hands dirty with straw and mycelium spawn! The straw is pasteurised with slaked lime, which is alkaline in nature, and then drained. It is unlikely to stain your clothes but do consider not wearing delicate or difficult to wash fabrics, or bring an apron.