Bengal promoting horticulture, food processing in a big way

The Hindu Business Line reports - Targeting the “tremendous potential”, the West Bengal Government is actively promoting the horticulture sector through a central scheme that encourages food processing in the private, public and joint sectors to generate employment.

“Since the agri-horticulture sector in the State holds tremendous potential, there is immense potential for employment generation and growth of self-employment,” the Food Processing Industries and Horticulture Minister, Mr Abu Hena, told PTI.

The central scheme, the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), aims to promote the horticulture sector, covering fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, cashew and cocoa.

Read full article: The Hindu Business Line

Holiday Gift Idea - Mushroom Kit

This mushroom kit was first launched in March 2010 at the Berkeley Whole Foods in the hopes of bringing a sustainable urban mushroom farm one step more local...into your kitchen! Since then, the product has launched nationwide into Whole Foods Markets, nurseries, and science stores - creating a buzz by bringing sustainable, local farming right to your home. The best part...you don't even need a garden - it's all indoors! Just place the mushroom kit on a windowsill and mist twice a day with the mister we provide. Within ~7 days , you'll see little mushroom pinheads coming out...after that, it's off to the races as they double in size every day and you can harvest them before you know it!

Back to the Roots (BTTR) was founded in 2009 by Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora as a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm. Since, Back to the Roots has transformed into a unique company focused on bringing sustainable grow-at-home products into households across the country! BTTR's vision is to serve as a standard bearer of innovation and responsibility in their community in order to inspire others to work towards a more sustainable future

Click on link for more info and to shop: Back to the Roots Mushroom Kit, 3-Pound Packages

More holiday gift ideas: Holiday Shopping Ideas

18th Congress of the International Society for Mushroom Science - Beijing, Aug 26-30, 2012

The Congress of the International Society for Mushroom Science is a regular forum for the world's mushroom researchers to exchange research results and development activities across all segments of the mushroom industry and promote international communication and cooperation. An executive committee consisting of representatives from different regions of the world gives guidance to the conference planners. Being the top international conference for the mushroom research community and the industry at large, seventeen congresses have been held in different countries since its launch in 1950.

ISMS 2012 Website: http://www.isms2012.com/index.html

Program Highlights:

August 26, 2012	Registration
August 27, 2012	Opening Ceremony, Keynote Speeches, and Forums
August 28, 2012	Forums
August 29, 2012	Professional visit in Tongzhou District
August 30, 2012	Forums, and Closing Ceremony

On the way to an unmanned mushroom nursery

Johan van Namen en Methore develop futuristic vision

Johan van Namen mushroom nursery began 25 years ago with 12 cells. Together with Mari van Namen the nursery has grown to 7 locations which can produce 100 tons of mushrooms per week. The wholesale has all varieties of mushrooms. The company is growing with the newest technology or is participating in the development of it. Through this the company is orientated to the future.

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Video: Growing Mushrooms

Visit with the Oregon mycological society to see how they grow different types of delicious mushrooms for the home garden.

Mushroom a sexy find - with a racy name

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Tuesday, June 16, 2009

A bizarre African mushroom that triggers snarky laughter and double-entendre jokes, has brought a fresh measure of dubious fame to an eminent Bay Area botanist and his colleague working on a tiny cluster of African islands far older than Darwin's fabled Galápagos.

The fungus is a new plant species called Phallus dreweseii, and aside from provoking snide giggles, it bespeaks the extraordinary biodiversity of those remote islands that are now threatened by the world's appetite for oil.

The botanist is Dennis A. Desjardin, a world-roaming mycologist at San Francisco State University. His colleague - for whom Desjardin named the mushroom - is Robert Drewes, a herpetologist best known for the huge variety of frogs he has discovered throughout Africa.
Drewes has led three major expeditions to the island nation of São Tómé and Príncipe, located in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa. Because so little is known of the plant and animal life on the islands, Drewes has encouraged specialists in every field of biology to explore their mist-shrouded mountains, grasslands and forests.

Desjardin was there two years ago, and along with Bryan Perry, his San Francisco State student, has recently published a report on his latest discovery in Mycologia, the leading journal of fungus science.

The new plant species, he said in an interview, is "a tiny little thing, barely 2 1/2 inches long and thinner than your little finger.

"I found it growing out of an old rotting log in a forest on a mountaintop, and after I spotted the first one, I saw several more right in the same spot," he said.

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