Pottery and Fungi Foray
Mid Lachlan Landcare's main Mycology May event this year revolved around Fungi and participants also getting their hands into some clay.
Capacity building - LEP23_035_MLLG-05
The issue
With the extended dry period coming into the annual regional Mycology May our committee were concerned the fungi foray we had planned would not be very engaging due to a distinct lack of fungi to view.
Mycology May for the Central Tablelands Region is a very successful series of events each May aiming to raise awareness in our region of the importance of fungi in our ecosystems, farming and life.
It is also a challenge when an event has been running for a number of years to come up with new, interesting things to do that will still get across the important message we want to share as well as make it a fun event for people to take part in. Another challenge is to try and attract more people who may not have been involved before as well as continuing to engage those people who like being involved and learning more about fungi each year.
The solution
One of our wonderfully artistic Landcare members offered to run a fungi inspired pottery day in their pottery workshop. What a brilliant idea! A fungi foray outside in the earth and then participants creating fungi inspired works with clay from the earth. Everyone had a brief lesson on creating pinch pots which of course really are like little mushroom tops when turned upside down. These creations were fabulous!!
Next everyone was given a slab of clay in the shape of a rectangular or square platter so they would all be able to create a fungi inspired platter that could be discussed anytime they have visitors and bring the platter out to serve off. What a great way to further spread the message of the importance of fungi.
Once the platters were completed some people even had the chance to try their hand at the pottery wheel.
During the event soil test were conducted in the foray area with the MicroBIOMETER which added another dimension to the event as we were able to discuss with participants the different fungi/bacteria ratios as well as total microbes within the soils.
The impact
Combining our fungi foray with a creative event working with clay has been really inspiring. The event has also received a lot of interest from people that we may not always see get involved in Landcare events. It has had the ability to inspire people through creating and having an opportunity to pause and look at the ground under our feet in a different way. To see that the ground we walk on is alive. We look forwards to running more of these type of events in the future.