About Pat
As food activist & farmer, Patrick has over 15 years of experience in growing food and developing food systems. Patrick’s passion for growing food started at university, where he grew his own vegetables and began to learn the art of growing mushrooms. This hobby blossomed into a career when he started his own ecological & ethical business – Upcycled Mushrooms.
Patrick now consults with farms to create sustainable growing solutions, using systems which limit the energy required for fungi cultivation whilst also recycling natural waste materials from the local area into food to feed fungi.
Through Upcycled Mushrooms, he provided exotic mushrooms to local restaurants, rare local-origin strains of fungi for other growers, and a range of workshops & courses on how to grow edible mushrooms. To encourage people to grow amazing mushrooms at home, Patrick developed the UK’s first ready to fruit “grow your own” Lion’s Mane mushroom kits. He has also developed Pink Oyster, Grey oyster & Wine Cap grow-kits – are available from www.upcycledmushrooms.co.uk
www.easymushroomgrowing.com is his new venture to bring all this knowledge and understanding and explain in easy to follow steps how to grow a huge array of mushrooms in a variety of different methods to suit every situation.
Patrick has also helped set up other innovative & unique farming projects, including the community led urban micro dairy, Street Goat www.streetgoat.co.uk. As a food activist, he gives talks around the world on these projects and more.
We want to bring mushroom growing to everyone
I passionately believe that anyone can learn to grow mushrooms, it is not something you need any specialist equipment or formal education. I teach more than just cultivation and like to also explain the inner workings of the fungal kingdom in nature, inspiring everyone to want to nurture and care for these amazing organisms.