Oak stumps from the Hudson Valley: collab on shiitake growing?
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If you are interested in participating please leave a comment explaining how you might contribute to this potential project and explaining the level of commitment you are able to make.
Initial Inspiration
I was at the Anable Basin Sailing Bar & Grill and I met the crew and captain of the Schooner Apollonia. They are interested in finding a stable business model to support their desire sail, to increase the awareness of low-carbon cargo transport, and to establish the viability of sail freight on the Husdon/East river. The captain (Sam) mentioned that last year they transported oak stumps to a farm in Redhook for shiitake cultivation which was paid for by some sort of Cornell grant which is no longer active. They want to build relationships that could lead to stable business for them.
Based on this meeting I proposed that Gil, Sneha, and I meet for a defined period to explore possibilities that could weave some local communities together and provide a useful application for the Biotech Without Borders lab. As with much of my outreach on Loomio, I also wanted to model possible ways the tool could be used to find collaborators. This also comes with a conceptual understanding of BwoB that has been made clear to me from reading about Microsolidarity. Briefly, microsolidarity seeks to build robust communities of purpose and belonging that can operate shared infrastructure. It makes explicit formats of human organization ranging from individuals to dyads, to crews, to congregations, and ending with a crowd. The size of these groups both limits the types of actions that can be done (because of challenges in coordination and trust) as well as what resources it has available. I want to do more explicit and deliberate work with this conceptual practice.
Navigating commitments and timing
Only Danny is a member of Biotech Without Borders in the current formulation of the crew. But he communicated that one does not have to be a member to participate in this "outer" level of the BwoB community. Indeed there are a host of folks who are not members who volunteer or otherwise help the organization. It's also possible that relationships built here may result in action taken outside of BwoB, as long as BwoB is part of the plans or a member of BwoB is involved Loomio can continue to be used for organizing.
He committed to convening the first 2 meetings which resulted in some notes (from July 15 and July 27) as well as the first of the next 3 meetings (following the microsolidarity principles each meeting to be convened by one participant, meetings are finite) which will take place monthly starting in October. This timing is loosely building toward late winter/early spring (2023) harvest of log stumps.
Potential Projects and Resources
Danny is eager to explore methods for quantitative trait loci (QTL) assisted breeding. But our crew does not have any expertise in growing from spore. However, Sneha is confident that this expertise does exist in her network. There may factors influencing the success of breeding if genetically distinct plugs inhabit the same log. Furthermore, log cultivation may be slower than some plants.
Sneha is interested in experimenting with atypical cultivars of mushrooms. She has noticed patterns of competition on logs she has access too. She has access to several sites where there are existing log farms. Gil and Danny are both members of Smiling Hoghead Ranch which may allow a log yard to be set up as well as cared for if the gardeners can partake in the harvest.
Gil is interested in mycoremediation. Although touching the water of the Superfund may be illegal, work on brownfields would be less so. Interestingly these logs would be in brackish water which is not thought to be conducive to mushroom cultivation. He is familiar with sites where experimental work on mycoremediation could be conducted. He is also working on a project that is in year 6 where the output is a large agricultural farm.
gil lopez Mon 25 Jul 2022 2:56PM
Online works best for me as I was gonna have to rush back from the Rockaways to meet y’all on Wednesday.
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Poll Created Fri 12 Aug 2022 7:43PM
New series of monthly meetings: meeting #1 Closed Thu 8 Sep 2022 3:01AM
This poll is being cancelled as Sneha is better served by dates after the 23rd of Oct. There is no understanding yet as to when a poll will be most appropriate. Gil has not participated (but perhaps he is occupied with his September travel [vacation?] as previously communicated)
This will be the first of 3 meetings spanning the course of 3 months to explore what it means to be a small crew and try to better pin down a project using our collective resources.
We will each convene one meeting. I will start.
Please indicate in your "reason" if you want to meet in cyberspace or meatspace.
An skeleton agenda can be found here. Please edit as you see fit.
Results
UTC | Votes | ![]() |
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Fri 7 Oct 2022 3:00PM |
1 |
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Sun 9 Oct 2022 4:00PM |
1 |
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Mon 10 Oct 2022 3:00PM |
1 |
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Mon 10 Oct 2022 7:00PM |
1 |
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Mon 10 Oct 2022 11:00PM |
1 |
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2 of 3 people have participated (66%)
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Danny Fri 12 Aug 2022 7:43PM
In person is my preference
Sneha Ganguly Fri 12 Aug 2022 7:44PM
Hi Danny, I’d like to propose something in person after October 23rd since I will be in Oregon until Oct 20 then preoccupied with Fungus Fest preparations. Can we repoll, a little bit later?
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Poll Created Thu 16 Mar 2023 7:45PM
Close this thread Closed Mon 27 Mar 2023 2:04PM
This thread is being closed because the nascent crew that this thread was proposed to help organize does not have the capacity to work on the project ideas we initially discussed. However Sneha did close the the thread with a comment that she is interested in researching log cultivation sites that are already set up.
I had started this thread with the intention of seeing if Gil and Sneha wanted to be a crew in order to weave together Biotech Without Borders, Schooner Apollonia, and Smiling Hoghead Ranch. While I still think that is an interesting idea and there were good discussions had under that pretense (see the meeting notes), I think the fact that we didn't revisit these discussions in the Winter is a good indicator that we should move on from this.
I also discovered through this process that the project that I initially was thinking about would take some time and at the moment I don't think Biotech Without Borders can engage such a long term project without a better understanding of how it would positively impact our survival.
Therefore I propose to close this thread to make space for other initiatives that may form instead.
Results
Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
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Agree | 100.0% | 3 |
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Agree, but want to suggest an alternative rationale | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Disagree | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Undecided | 0% | 0 |
3 of 3 people have participated (100%)
Sneha Ganguly
Thu 16 Mar 2023 7:46PM
Thanks Danny for revisiting this thread. I enjoyed meeting and sharing ideas regarding collaboration, but similar to BwoB, I am not sure I have interest in leading and conducting a communal long term fungi breeding project exploring Shiitakes and log cultivation. Also I need to consider how this opportunity will be equitable for me as a facilitator to commit. Since that is not clear, I think best to close this thread at this time.
Sneha Ganguly Fri 24 Mar 2023 9:12PM
However, I will add, there are a growing number of farms and community gardens that are installing mushroom log yards. Conducting a citywide research project in partnership with there orgs and reporting on the status of yields and environmental conditions, would be interesting to me.
Danny · Thu 8 Sep 2022 1:01PM
@Sneha Ganguly sure I am open to moving it after the 23rd. What do you mean by later? do you want to create the time poll instead?