Fall Events, Compost and Mushrooms!

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We are determined to stop sending carbon materials in our community to the landfill! We need to keep them on our lands, building soil. It makes for healthy lands for wildlife and local food, and it's a big thing we can do to sequester carbon. We need to keep it in the soil rather than creating toxic leachate in landfills or contributing to climate change by releasing it into the atmosphere. So we are offering a free composting workshop! Anything organic can go back to the Earth!
Also we were inspired by the Telluride Mushroom Festival. Come hear what we learned and share your own mushroom stories, challenges and ideas. Check out our Mushroom Convergence, and read our recent blog post about the festival.

Mushroom Convergence

September 23, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm

In the morning our panel of mushroom folk will share our inspirations from the Telluride Mushroom Festival. New research is always being done and new leaders arising in the field of mycoremediation and mushroom medicine. We would love to share what we have learned! Come ask questions and contribute your own experience.

In the afternoon mushroom cultivators of Northern New Mexico will give accounts of our successes and challenges. At Ampersand, we are interested to learn how to upgrade our mushroom laboratory, so we hope to learn from others about creating sterile chambers for cloning and successful fruiting environments. Come share and learn along with us!
Suggested Donation $10 to $25
Details Here

Mushroom Revival

I have to admit, I needed a bit of a revival. I read the New York Times Magazine article by Nathaniel Rich on climate change and it left me deflated. The story is important (called Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change), but it doesn't offer any reason for hope. It completely convinced me that politics will never address this issue.

My take-away is that we need to identify and follow the leaders who are pointing in the right direction. It's up to us. And it's easy to feel surrounded by folks who just don't care about reducing their contribution to this time of mass extinction on our planet. At this point, making decisions based on environmental impact in one's life and business is swimming up stream. Our western culture still has the backwards notion that money and status is more important than addressing the most pressing issues for our environment that we live within and that our future generations will inhabit.

So I was sort of wallowing in a depression around the inability of humans to adapt. But the mushrooms can! I've just returned from the Telluride Mushroom Festival. What the mushrooms can do is amazing. (read this blog post)

Fall Schedule

September 9- Backyard Compost Workshop

September 16- Sacred Plants, Sacred Planet at Body and Soul Series in Madrid, NM

Tune in to the plants of the Ortiz foothills in a ritual setting. Discover how to use them for
wellness in your daily life.

September 23- Mushroom Convergence

October 20- Introduction to Permaculture at Santa Fe Community College

November 3 and 4- Sustainable Land Practices for New Mexico at Santa Fe Botanical Gardens

November 17- Indoor Plant Propagation at Santa Fe Community College

I've been growing these Gogi berries shrubs from seed. They are finally ready to sell, and it's a good time to get plants in the ground. Contact amanda if you want to purchase any. $20 each!

We worked with local families to plant the rain garden at the Madrid Ballpark! The buffalograss and blue grama had fully grown through their tubes and the sunken garden had been flooded a few times from monsoon rains. Soon to be a lush lounging and play area!

ampersandproject.org