At the Telluride Mushroom Festival
posted by The Paititi Team on September 1st, 2013
One of my favorite shots that Shroom Fest shared from the weekend
For the past 32 years Telluride has held Mushroom Festival. This year the festival was under the direction of The Telluride Institute. our of Paititi’s family in the US – me (Kirsten,) Scott, Indira, and Anastacia – spoke about the work that we are doing down in the Amazon, held a screening of the Sacred Science, and had a booth sharing our information and selling items from the Shipibo and weavings from the Andes to help support the land purchase. Both of our sessions were well attended and with thoughtful comments and questions came through.
A lot of interesting things came up for Paititi during the weekend. For instance one of the presenters, David Gardella of Oakland, CA, was interested in learning more about Paititi’s center in Peru and asked is we were doing any myco remediation or cultivating mushrooms for food. Sadly, I answered that we were not because of some challenges in the past with edible strains getting contaminated by the vibrant local fungi. He gave us some tips on how to get our shrooms growing. The first suggested technique was to pack the sub-straight into worm bin trays and start them in a plastic bag until the mycelium that we are trying to grow can take strong enough hold to survive the jungle. The second was to soak the fresh logs in 0.3% Hydrogen peroxide (a 10th its usual strength) and then to inoculate the logs with wooden pegs. I know Ralph will be excited to try these because shortly after I met him at our Shamanic Permaculture course last year he was making a spore print of a mushroom that he found on a walk.
Graham not only brought our banner from Eastern Colorado, he also competed in the cook off.
Another effect of sitting at the booth was the opportunity to speak with the other people that had booths nearby. One of those someones was Ty Allchin, another presenter, who has been working with liquid inoculating and improving methods of working with the mycelium. His syringes contain the mycelium in a liquid which means that they can take hold faster once inoculated. If you are looking to get supplies, you should see if he has what you need; not just because he is knowledgeable and into what he is doing, but also because when he left the Festival he gifted the Eagle’s Nest, our sister site in Colorado, with nearly a dozen varieties of mushroom to cultivate on the property.
We are grateful for the tips and gifts that these wonderful people shared and look forward to staying connected as our projects progress!
Morels!
Other highlights included
*delicious food made from foraged mushrooms during the Mushroom Cook Off where twelve chefs competed,
*meeting an artist that is beginning to create sculptures that grow mushrooms,
*finding someone set up with Pu’ehr for Tea Ceremony and getting to learn more about that,
and, of course,
*spending time with my Paititi family
My love and blessings to all!
<3
Kirsten
This post can also be found on Kirsten’s blog.
Violet Alpenglow over Telluride
