MUSHROOMS for KIDS, with ELLEN SCHINDLER

Wednesday 12 January - 1:30pm to 3:30pm (2 hours) [Family Session]

This workshop is an opportunity to bring your child along to learn about growing mushrooms, and to get amongst the materials and know-how to start your own NZ native oyster mushrooms project in small, repurposed containers at home!

Growing healthy food is something we're more and more disconnected from as supermarkets, restaurants, and shops have become our main source of what we eat day to day. Especially for our children, it's all too common to be unfamiliar with how food grows and why it's important for our health and that of our environment.

What if we could help connect some of these dots while demystifying the furtive fungus and teaching you how to grow top value, natural native NZ mushies easily at home?!

Join us for this family oriented skills-based workshop, and try your hand at Ellen's convenient container method for growing delicious mushrooms!

What to expect:

Join expert tutor Ellen Schindler for this crash course in growing NZ native oyster mushrooms over this two-hour session that will guide you step-by-step through the process of setting up a container with NZ native oyster mushroom spawn and bring home to your family the skills and confidence to harvest and create more containers on your own!

The introductory portion of the workshop provides a kid-friendly overview of the process of mushroom cultivation, as well as parent-essential tips for which mushrooms you can grow, what materials are best to use, and what to look out for along the way.

The remainder of the session is skills-based, where you will get hands-on to work with your child through each step, from the container and substrate preparation to inoculation and how to care for your container after you take it home at the end of the session.

Tickets include: Admission for one child and one guardian, guided instruction, growing materials (pasteurised substrate & NZ native spawn), follow-up resources.

Note: This session is designed as an opportunity for children and their parents or guardians to work together in approaching a new and exciting challenge. Tickets are for pairs of one child and one guardian, and instruction is intended to include younger participants. Children aged 16 and under must be accompanied.

Vaccine Requirements: A valid My Vaccine Pass is required of all eligible participants, which means anyone 12 years 3 months old and over. Anyone younger than 12 years 3 months does not require a My Vaccine Pass.

What to bring:

Essential:

a clean 2-litre plastic ice cream container with lid (for your container)
scissors and/or box cutter knife (for working your container)
a refillable water bottle (to stay hydrated)
weather appropriate gear (to keep comfortable)
a face covering or mask (to stop the spread)
your valid My Vaccine Pass, if eligible (to take part)

Recommended:

a notebook and pen (to take notes, if you like)
power drill (cordless + battery pack, for working your container)
drill bits, size 8 and/or 9 (to use with your drill)

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Ellen Schindler is a passionate gardener and community organiser. Since 2006 she has nurtured her home garden in Sandringham into a productive food system with about 55 fruit trees of all types and sizes, beehives, chooks, and abundant vegetable patches. She is also a committed volunteer who has been instrumental in establishing the Homestead and the Dignan Street Community gardens in Pt Chevalier, facilitating the Gribblehirst community site in Sandringham, and has been involved in planting and maintaining fruit trees in parks and grass berms across the Sandringham suburb.

Over the past few years, Ellen has indulged her interest in cultivating mushrooms on logs as well as in containers, experimenting with creating opportunities for valuable food production in the otherwise marginal, more overlooked spaces in her garden.

Ellen believes that healthy food should be accessible to everyone, and teaching hands-on DIY workshops is one of her favourite ways to achieve this goal. In this workshop, Ellen is looking forward to sharing with you her homegrown mushroom experience and encouraging you to explore the process for yourself, hopefully to find that it’s good fun and a lot easier than it looks!

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At Kelmarna, we strive to make education accessible for everyone. So where possible, we offer a 35% discount on our workshops to valid Community Services Card holders. If you book one of these tickets, please email us a copy of your valid Community Services Card, and remember to bring it along to the workshop. Please note that this option does NOT include Super Gold Card holders. Ngā mihi.

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IMPORTANT: This workshop takes place during the ORANGE setting of the COVID-19 Traffic Light System, which means proof of vaccination is required to take part for everyone 12 years 3 months or older. Please review our workshop vaccination requirements, and you will need to certify your understanding of these terms before purchasing your tickets. Kia ora.

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Image of Ellen and her mushrooms © Stuff Limited