Our agroforestry workshop at our farm held on Saturday, October 5 was a magical day in partnership with K.C.F.A.R.M.E.R.S. Coalition, USDA's National Resource Conservation Service, Kansas City Black Urban Growers, KC Farm School, Lincoln University Cooperative Research and their new Midwest Forest Farming Coalition. We'll have a second workshop in the spring of '25.
The morning was spent in conversation with local experts. We then rolled up our sleeves and spent the rest of the day implementing the forest farming grant we secured from Catalyzing Agroforestry Grant Program. Over 35 signed up and most stayed for the entire workshop. We accomplished three projects in one afternoon.
1) Project one entailed sandwiching mycorrhizae spore called king stropharia between layers of cardboard around 40 orchard trees and some blueberry bushes. Mycorrhizae is a fungus that has a symbiotic relationship with plant roots. It mines minerals which it trades with plants for sugars. King stropharia is a fruiting mycorrhizae which is edible.
2) The second project was doing approximately the same thing but in with prairie transplants which we installed in the herb circle
3) The 3rd project was to plant ginseng and goldenseal rootlets in the forest. Before the workshop we cleared an area of the understory and even tilled a small test area. We used the understory trees and brush from the area we cleared to weave a fence to discourage deer. We also used some fiberglass 12 ft poles set at a 45 degree angle with fishing line running through it to create additional fencing.
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