This is a hands-on class in solid and liquid state fermentation of fungi, including edible mushroom cultivation, beverages and foods. Lectures on Wednesday will focus on mushroom biology, standard lab practices, culinary applications of fungi, along with a series of guest lectures. No previous course experience with fungi is needed and grades are based on participation, short essay responses, a semester-long fermentation project and a final deliverable for the rest of the class. The larger idea behind this DeCal is to provide tools of food sovereignty and closed loop food systems. Making use of waste products has become a major venture in the biotechnology and grassroots communities an overproduction and food insecurity become more prevalent. On a large scale, transgenes are being used to produce excessively nutritious agricultural products in smaller and smaller spaces, while smaller scale groups are focusing on stacking of functions in communal systems and empowering natural systems. We hope to provide the tools to create local food security and the biological concepts to allow for system engineering for innovation within classic fermentations.

Homework assignments will mainly be keeping up with your fermentation project,
optional readings and videos for students to watch. The course is made up of three main projects that will be followed throughout the 13-week semester. Students will first pick a fermentation then provide updates on their project’s progress. This can be in the form of pictures, timetables, or a written-up describing observations and connecting them to lecture material.

Students will be required to submit a writeup on three of their fermentations and a quick show and
tell in our final class. They will also be required to submit three short essay responses to readings of
choice throughout the semester. These will be no longer than a page in length. This totals six
homework writing responses. There will also be one in-depth paper submission for either a
fermentation or a reading that must include a biological background of the fungi active in the
fermentation process, the historical use, methods and materials used, and pictures from their own fermentation process. All information expected will be included in lectures, and outside research
would be recommended for further context. The in-depth paper should be in the form of a 4–6-page formal report or overview. Alternatively, students can submit and bring in a poster to coincide with
their class show and tell. This should contain all the same information as the paper.

The final section for the class will have a fermentation exhibit in which students all bring
in a product of their fermentation and we enjoy the fruits of our labors. This final feeding will be to support our own human fermentative process where we will indulge in our products and talk about our processes and ideas for what we hope to keep fermenting in the future.
This will also be when those who opted for the presentation final will show their visual aid, along with their fermentation for the class audience.