December 2015 / January 2016
University of Arizona Yavapai County Cooperative Extension Yavapai Gardens Master Gardener Newsletter December 2015 - January 2016 Mushrooms for Your Kitchen and Garden By Lori Dekker The world of mushrooms Events & Activities is entering a new era. In the past gardeners and MG Association Meeting, NO MEETING IN DECEM- foodies have considered BER, next meeting Jan. 20 in Prescott. 6:30pm the mushroom to be a Alta Vista Gardening Club, Prescott, fourth Tues- garden novelty or a tasty day of the month, 12:30pm. Call 928-458-9508 for culinary delight, while a information. few of us have an interest in the possible health benefits or the psy- cho/spiritual/recreational uses of a few of the more famous mush- Prescott Area Gourd Society, third Wednesday of the rooms. For now, I’d like to consider the potential health benefits of month, 10:30am, at Miller Valley Indoor Art Market, fungi in your soil and therefore your garden. 531 Madison Ave, Prescott When left to their own devices mushrooms, or more accu- rately fungi, are decomposers and eventually constructors. In a nut- Prescott Orchid Society, 4rd Sunday of the month, 1pm at the Prescott Library, (928) 717-0623 shell, they build soil from the raw material of litter and waste found in the garden. Since they digest food outside their bodies, they are Prescott Area Iris Society call 928-445-8132 for date essentially “sweating” digestive enzymes and producing waste as and place information. they grow through their environment. To put it more simply and hap- pily for gardeners, the fungus breaks down complex compounds Mountain View Garden Club, Prescott Valley, Dewey into more simple ones that then become available, leaving behind area, 2nd Friday of month, 1:30pm, call 775-4993 for metabolites that can, in turn, be utilized by other microbes.
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