Learn to Grow Mushrooms in NYC

July 17, 2019


Both a food and a medicine, mushrooms are easy to grow at home and on gardens and farms, with minimal start-up costs and materials you may already have on hand. Join Cornell Cooperative Extension, Farm School NYC, and Just Food for a workshop where you'll learn to inoculate a shiitake log, grow oysters on straw, and plant wine cap in wood chips. Everyone takes home materials that will produce mushrooms! We will emphasize the potential for growing mushrooms as a small enterprise for community and local markets.

Directions: B14 bus to Dumont Ave & Powell Street and walk 4 blocks up toward New Lots Ave, make a right on New lots Ave to Sachman and you are at the garden. L Train to New Lots Ave, When you Exit walk to the left 2 blocks down and arrive at the Green Valley Garden. 3 Train to Junius Street take right Exit walk to Sachman make a left on Sachman then walk 4 blocks to garden. B15 bus to New Lots Ave & Sachman, cross street and you are at the garden. 

INSTRUCTORS:
Yolanda Gonzalez is Urban Agriculture Specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY and lives in NYC supporting urban farmers.

Jie Jin is a mushroom grower and founder of Curiouseed, an education studio dedicated to cultivating eco consciousness through playful, experimental and hands-on programming and experiences.

Steve Gabriel is extension specialist for Cornell Small Farms Program and a mushroom farmer in the Finger Lakes Region of NY.

COST:
These workshops are FREE due to supportive funding from USDA and Cooperative Extension. We have limited spaces so please only register if you are committed to coming.

TO REGISTER:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NYCMushroomClasses2019

Want to learn more about mushrooms? Find more information on mushrooms or check out the Harvest NY Urban Ag Program on Instagram (urbanag.nyc)

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number ENE19-156-33243.

EVENT CANCELLED: Soil Health 101 for Community Gardens -- A Bilingual Workshop

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

EVENT CANCELLED: 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.

Biochar 101 for Community Gardens (Upper Manhattan)

October 25, 2025
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Upper Manhattan, NY

Join Karen Guzman and Dr. Rebecca Nelson of Cornell University, Bill Hilgendorf of White Feather Farm, and the NYRP Urban Ag team for a deep dive into biochar as a tool for waste management, carbon storage, and soil health in a community garden context. During this hands-on workshop, participants will have the chance to make biochar using garden waste and learn about best practices when applying it to a garden bed. Workshop attendees will all receive a small amount of biochar to take back to their garden.

Space is limited. Pre-registration required.

Biochar 101 for Community Gardens (Bronx)

October 26, 2025
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Bronx, NY

Join Karen Guzman and Dr. Rebecca Nelson of Cornell University, alongside the NYRP Urban Ag team for a deep dive into biochar as a tool for waste management, carbon storage, and soil health in a community garden context. During this hands-on workshop, participants will have the chance to make biochar using garden waste and learn about best practices when applying it to a garden bed. Workshop attendees will all receive a small amount of biochar to take back to their garden.

Space is limited! Pre-registration is required.

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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.