Becoming Indigenous & The Mushroom Hives Cornwall

Dear Supporters, 

Becoming Indigenous & The Mushroom Hives Cornwall...

are working towards creating a zero carbon, zero waste local mushroom farm within a market and food forest garden producing high value local food such as vegetables, herbs, nuts and fruit. The heart of our production will focus on the cultivation of gourmet mushroom, indigenous mushroom compost and strong and meaningful community engagement through courses, workshop, events and skill sharing. We aim to demonstrate regenerative agroecological land use on only a few acres of land with the help of mushroom to restore soil quality, ensure food security and enhance our rural community through food sovereignty and nature connection.

Food as Arena for Activism....

Market & Food Forest Gardens have become vital tools of a once again growing local food movement. Regenerative land use and agroecological farming can restore soil quality, revitalise rural community and local economies and tackle climate change and food poverty in our local communities. Small-scale local growers create niche markets providing a wider range of fresh high quality, often exotic produce to their local areas, creating rural jobs, contributing to regional food cultures and offering a lifestyle choice with food as arena for environmental activism.

What we do...

Becoming Indigenous Cornwall (BIC) facilitates and runs workshops, courses and community projects in land-based/traditional skills and crafts, as well as nature connection and environmental and outdoor education. 
BIC is strongly involved with the local food movement demonstration the value of regenerative land use, locally grown food and food sovereignty and the benefits that community involvement in food production and the sharing of land-based skills and craft can have on revitalising local communities, creating rural jobs and tackling food poverty and Climate Change on a community and grassroots level.

The Mushroom Hives Cornwall is a small-scale mushroom farm with the aim to cultivate a variety of organic gourmet mushrooms including Blue, Yellow and Pink Oysters, Shiitake, Lion's Mane, Wine Caps, Morels and Reishi, etc. We wish to grow mushroom crops outdoors (i.e. on logs and stumps as well as in mushroom beds and companion cultivations with garden vegetables) and indoors, in zero carbon wooden cabins/chambers. Our business is located at Ro Dama Farm, a small community farm near Camborne, Cornwall. Our Shiitake and Lion's Manes are currently growing on oak logs in a woodland valley on the farm. We are establishing mushroom beds for food production and soil improvement and are experimenting with cultivating indigenous mushroom compost. Find out more about our work, our journey and what we are up too on our website mushroomhivescornwall.co.uk, sign up to our newsletter or follow us on social media.

Who we are...

I'm a female land worker, grower of veg, herbs and fruit, cultivator of mushrooms, forager, ethnobotanist, and environmental/outdoor educator. I have worked many years for and with local growers in fruit and nut orchards and market and food forest gardens. I have coordinated community growing projects and taught traditional and land-based skills and crafts.  

What we wish to achieve... 

We aim to provide more locally grown gourmet mushrooms to our local community. For this our mushroom farm needs a bigger indoor cultivation space. We wish to build an off-grid, zero carbon indoor mushroom incubation and fruiting cabin with temperature, humidity, and air regulation. The cabin will be self-sufficient through solar/winds power and rainwater collection. This will ensure indoor mushroom cultivation throughout the year with up to an average of 70kg to 80kg of mushroom per square metre. We have set two targets for this campaign… 

1.) If we raise £4,000 we are able to convert a 15m2 shed/cabin which has been donated to us into an incubation and fruiting space with outdoor pasteurisation and inoculation area. Once fully operating this space can provide 80 to 90 household with 250g of gourmet mushrooms per week. 

Costs for converting a 15m2 shed include...

Insolation materials: £1,000

Solar panels, battery, controller, inverter, etc.: £2,000

Rainwater harvest (i.e IBC, gutter, pipes, fittings): £200

Low-tech mushroom cultivation equipment (i.e. humidifier, air vent, heating, etc.): £800  

2.) If we raise £8,000 we would be able to build a 30m2 incubation and fruiting space with outdoor pasteurisation and inoculation area. Once fully operating a 30m2 cultivation space can provide 160 to 180 household with 250g of gourmet mushrooms a week with potential to optimise production up to 250 households.  

Both spaces will be able to offer the opportunity for the local community and other small-scale growers to learn about low-tech mushroom cultivation

How we will achieve this...

Support our campaign by ….

Spread the word far and wide and support our fund raising by joining our workshops. Your pledges will help us raise fund for the indoor cultivation spaces and as rewards for your support we are offering workshops in traditional and land-based crafts and skills as well as in environmental/outdoor education and nature connection.