April COMC meeting Thursday, April 18th

Join us at Trinity Episcopal Church, 469 NW Wall in downtown Bend

Charles Bruder will join us in person to talk about the many benefits of cultivating fungi, from a home scale to a commercial agricultural scale. Listeners will go home with a practical understanding of how to grow edible fungi by themselves, and also how these fungi can be fit into a systems of regenerative communal design (permaculture). Listeners will also learn about how fungi are being incorporated into food systems and regenerative soil management practices.

Charlie is an aspiring mycologist, and farmer currently studying microbiology at Oregon State University. Passionate about foraging and community based agriculture, Charlie is certified in permaculture design, and aims to bring an ecological perspective to the rising popularity of mushrooms in our food system. Currently, he works at the OSU Dry Farming Collaborative and Wood Decomposition Lab, linking both his interest in fungi and farming. Charlie practices elements of Korean Natural Farming and other organic methodologies in his own farming and gardening, and hopes to find solutions to decreasing soil microbial diversity in agricultural systems.

although it’s early but be sure to bring any mushrooms and/or mushroom stories to share.  We will also have some exciting announcements about our Website and upcoming events.  Please join us.