Mushroom Cultivation & Bioremediation Project

Bon from Feed Avalon, with many fantastic volunteers, have built facilities to produce mushrooms at the Red Brick Building Community Garden. This includes a large growing shed, as well as outdoor facilities. A shipping container has been converted into a laboratory that will be used to produce spawn cultures and other material for fungi production. The mushroom enterprise will create livelihoods in the local area in community food production. After wages and costs, all profits will be re-invested in Feed Avalon and our wider grassroots community food work locally.

In addition to the mushroom farm, Feed Avalon is about to launch a grassroots remediation effort of the Morlands site. It is well-known locally, that there is a toxic legacy following tannery production in the area. Historical toxicology reports show elevated levels of chromium (not chromium VI), arsenic, zinc, petroleum hydrocarbons and other volatile and semivolatile compounds in the soil. There are also elevated levels of chromium, copper and ammonium in the groundwater.

Feed Avalon are currently seeking support from scientists and students to undertake further water and soil samples with the intention of designing and implementing a bioremediation project.

Bioremediation is the process of using the biological properties of naturally occurring organisms, primarily microorganisms, fungi and plants, to degrade, immobilize or sequester environmental toxins. (Kellogg, 2016). It includes microbial remediation (engaging the healing power of microorganisms like bacteria and fungi), phytoremediation (engaging the healing power of plants) and mycoremediation (engaging the healing power of mushrooms) to heal contaminated and damaged lands and waters. We aim to propagate the fungi needed to aid these remediation efforts locally. We are at the very early stages of this project and welcome volunteer input to make it happen.