Nibbling on leftover pizza, I mused that breaking my addiction to wheat is more difficult than quitting smoking ever was. I smoked a lot for a long time, read Allen Carr, had a horrendous month and now, 15 years later, I’ve never looked back. Smokers! You can do it too!

But when I alit upon this video demonstration of using fungi to break down cigarette butts, I knew that back in the day I would have tried this. Of course it would have been better to roll my own with nice tobacco and ne’er throw a filter into the waste stream, but it wasn’t like that.

This video also got me thinking that it would be fun to grow some mushrooms again. A few years ago I grew some oyster mushrooms in sterilized straw and used coffee grounds in plastic bags under the guest bed, and they were delicious. Given all the wild fungi growing everywhere this winter, I reckon in this mild rainy winter I could grow some outside.

So I’m collecting how-to resources for myself and others. This Milkwood Permaculture in Australia has an amazing collection of inspiring and really functional articles to get you and me going. Making spore prints is so beautiful and would be really fun to do with kids who were interested…. If readers have other great resources, please link below.

A nice piece on growing Shitakes in your Forest Garden here.

Here on PunkRockPermaculture there’s a really interesting audio piece about Radical Mycology. I also am really attracted to people like Paul Stamets and those he inspires through his work; there’s a utopianism and beautiful non-human-centric approach to healing the disasters humans so readily wreak– with chemicals, radiation, oil spills, ad nauseum–  with mycelium.

Permaculture people, experimenting, working with not against nature, keeping open minds and hearts, inspire me and keep me optimistic when my disposition might be to feel very sad indeed for the state of the world and the ecological future for my kids, and everyone’s kids.

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