Pharming of Useful and Medicinal Mushrooms in the Philippines

(Fulbright Alumni Kibitzer)

The combination of being cooped inside the bus for ten hours, missing lunch walking under the mid-afternoon sun, climbing flights of stairs and fear of missing the trip home was a perfect recipe for a really early night and staying in bed a little longer the next day. That translates to arriving to the workshop late. By late, it meant making it only to the Q and A and asking a lot of questions which answers clearly were already made known during the discussion and demonstration. Thankfully the presentors from CLSU were accommodating and made no hesitations in giving an explanation all over again.

The Workshop was made possible by the collaboration of the Fulbright Scholars Alumni Association, Silliman University, Department of Agriculture, the provinces of Negros Oriental and Siquijor and some other private businesses. Mainly the workshop aimed to provide alternative means of livelihood to local fisherfolks during spawning season. Topics included organic farming, pig raising, mushroom growing and a lot more. Mushrooms are a favorite especialy of sis and myself and I tried to absorb as much information as I could given the very limited time.


Propagation


A. Tissue Culture. My niggling doubts on aseptically accomplishing this task without a laminar flow and an autoclave has been put to rest. I, however, need to ask for literature on the recipe of the culture media as well as the proper steps of sterilizing it. For now, I have two bottles of tissues to grow after I have harvested all of the first batch.


B. Spawn to Spawn. I have no clear understanding on how the small bags were prepared. I will have to update this section once I get a hold of the literature. Meanwhile, this is how the bags look like.


Production

After so many days after "planting" the tissues, the "spawn" is transfered to a bag of sterilized substrate (about 80-100g) which can either be rice hulls or rice stalks and sealed until it displays a healthy straw color.

Once that is achieved, one end can be opened to introduce moisture by misting twice a day and thrice if the weather is too hot. Mushrooms are ready for harvest after four or five days.

To harvest, simply pull out the mushrooms just enough to expose an ample amount of substrate for the next week's production.

I have yet to get started. Maybe, over the weekend.

Certificate of Good Moral

I don't understand why I endured so much to get my hand into this piece of paper. When sis went to meet Clara in Cebu last January, she lodged an application in my behalf. Now, six months later, I found myself with an invite to tag along for the Fulbright Alumni Conference at Silliman. That was an opportunity I was waiting for in order to claim it, or so I thought.

What I didn't anticipate was that the one-way trip would already eat up five hours and that only one bus was available on my way back. All the time I was debating with myself whether to stay the night and finally meet Matt or take the bus back to Dumaguete. All outcomes considered, I chose the latter.

Once in Cebu and looking at the volume of vehicles in standstill at the Landbank intersection, I decided to walk my way to USJR. It was a feeling of deja vu, walking from Colon to Carbon. The familiarity of the place evoked some sentiments I wasn't aware I had in me.

As a result of my not asking the lady guard where to go for my purpose, I wasted a lot of time in queue at the wrong window. I should have been finished in less than thirty minutes with enough time to spend with the Baguioros. Before I left, I went to visit the Graduate school office and I was amazed at the face lift of the rather drab hallway on the second floor which we found eerie back then. Now, it has been installed with a glass door, air-conditioner and workstations by the window. Students "studying" are a sight to behold. The new restrooms need mentioning as well. The experience is akin to that found in new the malls. Oh, how time have changed. Well except for my graduate course. The curriculum hasn't changed yet but I'm still mulling over my capacity to pay for P1280 per unit course work. Until then.