Fresh mushrooms can be very costly when purchasing them from the local grocery stores, and foraging mushrooms can prove to be dangerous for those who are inexperienced. There are lots of varieties of gourmet mushrooms that are unavailable in most places due to the inability for them to withstand transport. Mushrooms prove to be extremely nutritious and have a wide variety of health benefits depending on the mushroom. 

I held a program that taught participants how to grow their own mushrooms in a cheap and easy way. This included starting the grain spawn or the "mushroom seeds" and also preparing the substrate that the mushrooms would continue to grow in. I allowed them to choose the mushroom varieties they would prefer to grow, and every person was able to grow two varieties of their choosing. 

Mushrooms are one of the only produce items that are a source of vitamin D, as they produce their own in a similar way to humans. It is also more environmentally sustainable to grow mushrooms, as opposed to most other forms of produce. It requires about the same energy as running a coffee pot in the morning, to produce 1 lb of button mushrooms. 1 lb of button mushrooms also require less than 2 gallons of water to grow. 

Of those that attended the programs:

100% said they would like to participate in the program again, to try different cultivars 

100% said the program was interesting and would tell others about future programs