Green Horizons

Approximately 75 land and forest owners, mushroom producers and mushroom hobbyists attended the Specialty Mushroom Workshop on Dec. 3 and 4th in Columbia, Mo., hosted by the Center for Agroforestry. Discussion topics included truffle, shiitake, stropharia and oyster mushroom cultivation, marketing strategies, winter production and log preparation. Tours of the mushroom research area at the Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center in New Franklin, MO., and a specially prepared gourmet wine and food tasting were also featured. Mushroom cultivation is a profitable component of the agroforestry practice of forest farming, and one element of the Center’s research programs toward identifying profitable options for land and forest owners.

Participants at the Specialty Mushroom Workshop observe logs inoculated with shiitake spawn at the HARC mushroom research site. The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry facilitates one of the nation’s leading research programs for truffles, shiitake and morel mushrooms, based at the Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center in New Franklin, Mo.