Mycoremediation

Mushrooms truly will play an important role in saving the world! There has been research and experiments conducted using mycelium as a bio-re mediator, mycoremediator in this instance, and the mycelium has proved to be gloriously successful.

"Mycelium produces extracellular enzymes and acids that break down recalcitrant durable molecules like lignin and cellulose, which are the two main components of woody plants. Lignin peroxidases is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction of Lingin, which is highly resistant to biodegradation, so only higher fungi are capable of degrading the polymer via an oxidative process. This Lignin Peroxidases dismantles the long chains of hydrogen and carbon (and/or hydrocarbons) converting wood and pollutants into simpler forms, creating a substrate that can be decomposed. "These same enzymes are superb at breaking apart hydrocarbons, the base structure common to oils, petroleum products, pesticides, PCBs, and many other pollutants." (Pure & Appl. Chem.,Vol. 68, No. 11, pp. 2089-2096, 1996. Printed in Great Britain. 0 1996 IUPAC On the interaction of lignin peroxidase with lignin

Hans E. Schoemaker' and Klaus Piontek2" (an excerpt taken from a paper i wrote)

(photos above taken from the fungi perfecti website)

Mycoremediation according to Wikipedia: (below)

Mycoremediation, a phrase coined by Paul Stamets, is a form of bioremediation, the process of using fungi to degrade or sequester contaminants in the environment. Stimulating microbial and enzyme activity, mycelium reduces toxins in-situ. Some fungi are hyperaccumulators, capable of absorbing and concentrating heavy metals in the mushroom fruit bodies.

One of the primary roles of fungi in the ecosystem is decomposition, which is performed by the mycelium. The mycelium secretes extracellular enzymes and acids that break down lignin and cellulose, the two main building blocks of plant fiber. These are organic compounds composed of long chains of carbon and hydrogen, structurally similar to many organic pollutants. The key to mycoremediation is determining the right fungal species to target a specific pollutant. Certain strains have been reported to successfully degrade the nerve gases VX and sarin."

It's time for more emphasis to be put on this budding technology. We have the power and know how, now we need people ot jump on board. Come on, lets save this place.

Mycological societies!

There are some fantastic resources available to people interested in becoming involved in the mycological community in Olympia and Seattle. South Sound Mycological Society (SSMC) http://www.southsoundmushroomclub.com/links/ is a sweet organization based out of Olympia that meets on the third Wednesday of each month. When I arrived at the meeting everyone was completely warm and welcoming. Daniel Winkler, a mycologist from Seattle, was giving an informative lecture on Choice edibles of the Pacific Northwest. Each month there is a lecture and discussion of forays (mushroom hunts), club activities and events. It is really a Lovely experience.
The Puget Sound Mycological Society (PSMS) http://www.psms.org/ is another amazing resource. It is a bit more established and there is a number of avid mycologists that assure forays, events and activities happen. We just put on an event at the Burke Museum called "Mushroom Maynia" which is an event informing whomever cares to ask about: Microscopy, mushroom taxonomy, mushroom dyes, reference books, truffle harvesting, kids activities, etc.

I highly suggest becoming involved in these communities if you have interest in mycology. The people are knowledgeable and kind and the adventures are a-waitin'.

Provisions Mushroom Farm!

Outside of Olympia, WA, nestled in the majestic trees of capitol forest there is a sweet, budding, family run mushroom farm called Provisions. Christian, the founder of Provsions, is a soft spoken sweet natured family man who studied with Paul Stamets at fungi perfecti to establish a foundational understanding of commercial mushroom cultivation. They have had a Mushroom CSA (community supported agriculture) box available for a few years and have just recently started frequenting the Olympia farmers market which runs Thursday through Sunday from 10am-4pm. At the Farmers market they sell; plug spawn, mycelial inoculated bags(home growing kits), gourmet mushroom baskets and offer an aray of information and pleasant conversation to all whom are interested in learning more about mycelium. Over the last couple months I have trekked out through the beautiful forest to help out on the farm. One day for cooking sawdust and plugging some alder logs and a couple helping inoculate in the lab. (Amazing!!!) I was working with Christian and John for these days and they were both patient and informative. Below is a link to their website, check it out!!
http://www.promushrooms.com/

The Mycological Chapter

For the last year and a half I have been living in the Pacific Northwest studying an array of sciences with an end all focus on mycology. After years of not staying in one place longer than a week or two, I have found myself a sweet little home in Olympia, Washington; with a dog (Rumi), a cat (Gouda), periwinkle trim, and a wood burning stove (Lucy). I moved to the temperate rain forest to dive into the study of mushrooms and the wonders that lie in the science that they participate in. This spring quarter at Evergreen State College I am doing a mycology contract, an independent study based learning, to focus fully on mycological based science and community. A portion of this contract has been dedicated to keeping record of Scientific journal articles that are particularly inspiring, mushroom media and technology, community based mycology events and documentation of my own forays in the surrounding areas in search of fruit-bodies (mushrooms).

The opening of this chapter is dedicated to my home land, the Napa Valley in California. Upon searching different data based for scientific journals primarily pertaining to medicinal mushrooms and myco-remediation (using mycelium to clean up toxic waste) I stumbled upon a journal about "Recycling of Vineyard and Winery Wastes as Nutritive Composts for Edible Mushroom Cultivation" written by Marian Petrea and Alexandru Teodorescua from the University of Pitesti, Faculty of Sciences, Romania. Having grown up in a Valley of copious wine production, squashing grapes with my feet in a barrel as a little girl and touching the "agricultural waste" every year after harvest, this article hits close to home.

Here's a taste taken directly from the article:
"Abstract. Every year, in Romania huge amounts of wine and vine wastes cause serious environmental damages in vineyards as well as nearby winery factories, for instance, by their burning on the soil surface or their incorporation inside soil matrix. The optimal and efficient way to solve these problems is to recycle these biomass wastes as main ingredients in nutritive composts preparation that could be used for edible mushrooms cultivation. In this respect, the main aim of this work was to establish the best biotechnology of winery and vine wastes recycling by using them as appropriate growth substrata for edible and medicinal mushrooms. According to this purpose, two mushroom species of Basidiomycetes, namely Lentinula edodes as well as Pleurotus ostreatus were used as pure mushroom cultures in experiments. The experiments of inoculum preparation were set up under the following conditions: constant temperature, 23°C; agitation speed, 90-120 rev min -1; pH level, 5.0–6.0. All mycelia mushroom cultures were incubated for 120–168 h. In the next stage of experiments, the culture composts for mushroom growing were prepared from the lignocellulose wastes as vine cuttings and marc of grapes in order to be used as substrata in mycelia development and fruit body formation. The tested culture variants were monitored continuously to keep constant the temperature during the incubation as well as air humidity, air pressure and a balanced ratio of the molecular oxygen and carbon dioxide. In every mushroom culture cycle all the physical and chemical parameters that could influence the mycelia growing as well as fruit body formation of L. edodes and P. ostreatus were compared to the same fungal cultures that were grown on poplar logs used as control samples."

Mycelium made car parts and styrofoam alternative!

There are more emerging eco-tech products incorporating mycelium as an alternative to an array of caustic chemicals globally. This is a company based out of Green Island, New York that caught the news and subsequently my eye, called 'Ecoactive' that is widely implementing mycelial inoculated agricultural waste of many types (corn husks, cotton hulls, etc.) as an alternative to Styrofoam packing materials. They are providing a fully compostable waste based product as an alternative to one of the most toxic (in production and disposal) products on the mass market, and they are doing it effectively!
They gained notoriety through the popularity of their greensulate product (a highly effective home insulation product made from mycelium) and the products as well as popularity have grown from there. You can read about that product on their website (listed below) as well as in popular science.
A recent contract with Ford has Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, the founders of Ecoactive, experimenting using the same technology (mycelial inoculated agricultural waste) as car parts. Door paneling and dashboards for now, perhaps fuel in the near future (another research topic underway coming out of the amazon by a completely different research crew examining the hydrocarbons of a specific ecto-mycorhizal fungus).

Below I have pasted links to the Eco active web-page as well as a ted talk about the Styrofoam alternative and the CNN article about Ecoactive's work with Ford.

Amazing!
http://www.ecovativedesign.com/

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic.html

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/01/technology/ecovative/index.htm

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-05/green-styrofoam

free

Photos and silly Tales

Sitting in an apartment sick with a fever in Amsterdam. A Sweet friend Nick rented a flat overlooking a gloriously filthy canal with life bustling all around and trough it. I have been in the city of freedom an debauchery for two nights closing in on a third, never without the shady whisper from the man in the alley "cocaine, ecstasy, cocaine?"
The first sleeping experience must have been one of the more satirical attempts at sleep i have ever had.
Starting with a pouted decision to go to bed due to sickness I tried to fall asleep at 11pm only to be joined by 15 cockney rocker chicks. Shouting at the top of their lungs every terrible 80's pop song they could think, with interludes of sports team chants and dog barks, surely they were drunk beyond belief and high out of their minds on ecstasy. After forty minutes of serenade from them with hopes of actually falling asleep, the ogre of a sleeper on the top bunk above Jerzy starting snoring like a cartoon bear and moaning like goofy when he first wakes up. Hacking every once in a while and spastically sitting up every few minutes i could not help but laugh through my feverish delirium. Once he finally found a sweet spot on his side, the frustrated french boy across the room had put ear plugs in in order to sleep so he could not hear the carousel music that was screaming out of his phone for the next five minutes. Then the phone when off, the ogre stopped snoring and the cockney rockers were out chanting in the streets. I would be able to sleep....but no, the dolled up drunken rockers returned in full force and the cycle started again. What an introduction to Amsterdam.
so much more to share, delirium setting in..