LEARN SKILLS – CONTRIBUTE DATA
Citizen Science at the RMC
Rad Mycoblitz
Find mushrooms and contribute to citizen science!
A mycoblitz aims to identify and document all of the macro fungi (mushrooms) encountered at site within a short period of time. The Rad MycoBlitz is the RMC’s take on this important contribution to citizen science, with attendees encouraged to bring any mushrooms found on Brown Bottle Farm to the centrally-located Blitz Tent for identification and processing.
During the Saturday and Sunday lunch sessions, attendees can stop by the tent to talk with Blitz leaders and get a cooking-show-style demonstration of how to identify mushrooms genetically and get up-close with the often-intimidating science side of mycology.
After the RMC, all of the samples will be sequenced, with all metadata documented at the RMC iNaturalist archive.
Learn it All!
Get A–Z Training Found nowhere else!
Want to learn more? Join Friday's unique 5-part Rad MycoBlitz training series where you can learn everything you need to know about documenting and identifying wild fungi.
Join Alan Rockefeller and Graham Steinruck over breakfast for back-to-back crash courses on mushroom photography and documenting wild mushrooms with the app iNaturalist. Then join the Mycoblitz foray with Graham and the subsequent genetics workshop with Allison of MiniPCR to process what's discovered. Lastly, over lunch, learn how to process genetic data.
If you plan to attend the genetics workshop, be sure to reserve a free space so that enough materials are prepared for all attendees.
All of this documentation aids in the global understanding of the distribution and fruiting patterns of the encountered mushrooms.
Soil Lab
Join Maria Loper during each lunch hour at her mobile soil science lab van to observe soil fungi under the microscope alongside the other organisms of the soil food web, and learn how they interact to build healthy, living soils.
Clone Zone
Located next to the Rad MycoBlitz station, the Clone Zone is where you can try your hand at tissue cloning – a central skill in the cultivation of mushrooms and the preservation of native fungi.
The Zone will be open during lunch sessions for demonstrations and practice. A portable flow hood and essential equipment will be available for experimenting. A limited number of sterile blanks plates will be available for attendees to take home after their cloning attempt. Experienced cultivators are welcome to bring their own sterile media containers for personal use or to donate to the Zone.
