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UC Gardening Blogs
Nutgrass Can Drive You Nuts
Nutgrass, also called nutsedge, could easily be one of the top 5 nuisance weeds gardeners deal with...
Why Timing Is Everything in Bumble Bee Colonies
Timing is everything. Especially when it comes to bumble bee colonies. Postdoctoral scholar...
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenkii, nectaring on Anchusa azurea, of the borage family. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
One of Rosemary Malfi's bumble bee colonies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tower of Jewels: Aptly Named
Let's hear it for the tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. Native to the island of Tenerife and...
A honey bee heads for a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii, a biennual. This image was taken in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Nectar! Honey bees love echium due to its high nectar content. This one also yields blue pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
On the move! It's off to find another nectar-rich blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Time to head home to the colony and unload the nectar and pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Butterfly Summit Features UC Davis Expert Art Shapiro
How's the butterfly population faring in north-central California? What do you plant to attract and...
A male monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Entomologist and author Sal Levinson speaks at the inaugural Butterfly Summit. Seated next to her is Tora Rocha, founder of the Pollinator Posse. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This was the scene at the first-ever Butterfly Summit at Anne's Annuals and Perennials, Richmond. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tour of Mycopia Mushroom Farm in Sebastopol, CA
I reported in my last blog entry that in January 2018, I attended a mushroom camp in Occidental, California. There were many activities, one of which I will be discussing in this blog entry.
I opted to take a field trip to a mushroom farm in Mycopia located in Sebastopol, California, where we met one of the founders and managers of Mycopia (Mycopia also has a location in Scottsville, Michigan). For those unfamiliar with mushroom farms, a mushroom farm does not look like what we typically think of when we think of a “farm”—a mushroom farm looks more like a factory or warehouse with a sterile lab-like facility on-site connected to it.
Mycopia has been in business for decades and was founded by an immigrant from Hong Kong who noticed that there were no commercial growers of fresh shitake mushroom in the United States, so he decided to be one of the first, if not the first. The business has grown from there.
Mycopia only cultivates organic gourmet mushrooms. Such varieties currently include Alba Clamshell, Brown Clamshell, Forest Nameko, Trumpet Royale, Velvet Pioppini, Nebrodini Bianco, and Maitake Frondosa. They are all tasty, but their uses differ. Some are intended to be used in soups and broths (i.e., miso soup) while others, like the Trumpet Royale, is a very meaty mushroom, good for grilling or pan-frying and a great replacement for those who enjoy animal protein.
Mycopia is a hidden gem. Their products can be found at Whole Foods and at higher-end grocery stores. Best-kept secret: Mycopia offers a great program every Friday afternoon from 1-3 pm at their Sebastopol Farm where they sell their products directly to consumers at a greatly discounted price, subject to availability. This discount is not available any other time and they do not make any exceptions (understandably so, because it is a working farm).
For more information, please see https://www.mycopia.com/ and “like” their Facebook page to get updates on their sales, products, special events, mushroom articles, and recipes.
photos by Betty Homer
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