Edibles from Your Woods: The Wild, Wild World of Ramps and Mushrooms
Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center
Saturday, May 15
Petersburg, Huntingdon County
10am – 3:30pm
$15 PASA members, $25 all others; lunch will be provided.
Eric Burkhart, Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center
Farming isn’t something that happens only in fields and pastures. During this field day, Eric Burkhart will guide participants on morning and afternoon walks in the woods at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, exploring the myriad of opportunities to engage in forest farming.
We’ll walk the woods, looking for late season wild morels, discussing their collection, “cultivation,” stewardship, processing and markets. We’ll also be looking for leeks and ramps, learning stewardship and cultivation – both of the ramps and of the market. Eric will explore growing shiitake and other mushrooms on logs and stumps, and there will be opportunity to actually drill and plug some logs. Forest management and stewardship considerations will be interwoven throughout this day.
By the end of the day, participants will have a sense that “stocking” of forestlands with non-timber forest products is a means of having fun as well as providing edibles for both personal consumption and forest-generated income.
This field day will consist of a mixture of activities including presentations, demonstrations and discussions. Come prepared for time in the outdoors and hiking in the woods.
Click here for directions, available on the Google Maps page.
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About the Presenter
Eric Burkhart is instructor and plant science program director for Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. He provides training and outreach in botany and horticulture including teaching courses for the Penn State School of Forest Resources on agroforestry, woody and herbaceous plant identification, and nonnative invasive flora. Working with partners such as the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Eric also conducts research on native plants of economic and conservation importance (e.g., American ginseng and goldenseal) and offers practical guidance through related workshops and publications.
Eric holds degrees in Economic Botany/Ethnobotany (B.A, Idaho State University) and Horticulture (M.S., Penn State University), and is completing a PhD in Forest Resources (Penn State University). A native of the Pittsburgh region, he lives in Pine Grove Mills, Pennsylvania.
