Event Details

Date

March 29, 2025

Time

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Location

Biotech Without Borders
43-01 21st St, Suite 319
Long Island City, NY 11101

Host

Cornell Small Farms and Biotech Without Borders


Mushroom Cultivation Demo: Making Spawn for Log Inoculation

March 29, 2025


Learn the fundamentals of mushroom propagation in this demonstration lab session. We'll review the essentials for:
  • sterile lab technique
  • DIY mycology equipment
  • cloning mushrooms to create starter cultures
  • creating liquid culture spawn
  • sawdust spawn development for inoculating logs to grow mushrooms outside
In-person participants will leave with a cloned mushroom sample and a liquid culture syringe of their chosen species.

No prior experience is needed--just curiosity and a love for fungi!

This is the first part of an event series with Biotech Without Borders and Cornell Small Farms Community Mushroom Educators to perform log inoculations across NYC in urban gardens. We will share links to those events here once they become available and also share details during this class.





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Upcoming Events

Intercropping with Mushrooms

October 14, 2025
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poughkeepsie, NY

Join us for an afternoon of hands-on learning at Pershing Community Farm, led by Urban Agriculture Specialist Yolanda Gonzalez.

2025 Agroforestry Field Day Series -- Agroforestry Implementation and Management

October 23, 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Highland, NY

Interested in incorporating agroforestry practices into your farm? Join us for a series of workshops co-hosted by CCE Ulster, Orange, and Harvest NY with Mastwood Farms, Black Creek Farm and Nursery and Scenic Hudson. 

On October 23, we'll return to Erik Schellenberg's farm, Black Creek Farm and Nursery, for a Fall tour of their agroforestry plantings. Erik will talk about harvesting and managing plantings while we see some seasonal crops and installations of different ages and types. There will be time for questions and discussion as we wrap up the series. covered.

Soil Health 101 for Community Gardens -- A Bilingual Workshop

October 24, 2025
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Staten Island, NY

Join Urban Agriculture Specialists, Karen Guzman and Yolanda Gonzalez, as they discuss the importance of soil health and testing your soil as you prepare for the incoming growing season. They will go into strategies for best practices when it comes to soil health management and highlight the current soil testing program through NYSDAM and CCE. This workshop will be in both Spanish and English.

Announcements

New Produce Auctions in NYS!

With the opening of the new Augusta Produce Auction on August 19th, New York State now has 11 produce auctions! See the new map of produce auction locations across the state and contact information.

New York Urban Farms Sustainable Pest Management Fact Sheet Series

Cornell Cooperative Extension has partnered with dozens of urban farms across New York State to demonstrate and evaluate sustainable pest management strategies. Together with farmers, we found success using control methods that prevent or reduce crop losses through exclusion strategies, crop timing, host resistance, the introduction of beneficial organisms, and more. Regardless of management strategy used, common requirements for success include a knowledge of the pest and disease complex, preventative deployment and commitment to the process. The New York Urban Farms Sustainable Pest Management Fact Sheet Series includes case studies highlighting pest management techniques that New York urban farms have found valuable.