Shiitake mushroom workshops are common in eastern Kentucky but novel for western Kentucky. Calloway and Lyon Counties collaborated on the first Shiitake Mushroom Workshop and Hike this April. Twenty-nine participants learned about shiitake mushroom culture and about mushroom identification and characteristics from Ellen Crocker, University of Kentucky Post-Doctoral Scholar. There were opportunities to view preserved mushroom specimens and to use what they had learned and identify mushrooms in pictures. The group drilled and inoculate logs with three different strains of shiitake mushroom spawn (cold weather, warm weather and wide-range). Logs were donated by two local volunteers.

 In the afternoon the group hiked in the Land between the Lakes National Recreation Area. At the workshop and on the hike, the group was aided by two local people, knowledgeable about the area and mushrooms. Nineteen evaluations were returned. Eleven indicated that they were confident they could grow mushrooms on their own and 7 said probably. Fifteen indicated that the log-inoculation was an excellent learning opportunity.  Thirteen rated the information on wild mushrooms as excellent and 6 as very good. The participants enjoyed the hike and finding morel and other wild mushrooms as a culmination of the day. They are looking forward to harvesting mushrooms in 9 months!