6th NAMC and Niagara Falls

 For the 6th North American Mushroom Conference we both traveled on July 15 of 1986 to Pennstate, Pennsylvania where we had the reception at Elks Country Club.

Always great to see many international mushroom friends.

We had lectures at Penn State next two days.

On July 17 we got up at 6:15 AM and after breakfast Pieter's colleague dropped us off at the 1st charterbus stop and we rode by bus towards the Niagara Falls 

Baljit Nanda, Pieter and myself

After lunch near Buffalo, New York, chatting with mushroom friends.

Klaus Grabbe from Germany, me and Pieter

We laughed about the size of that sundae!

We arrived by bus around 17:15 and did walk around

View from our room...

Beautiful gardens below...

Quite a view...

It was already getting dark...

But nevertheless an awesome experience for being there!

Quite a sight

Different angle

Pieter with his Pennstate Unitversity sweater

Sure the climate is perfect for a lush garden!

We enjoyed a nice dinner with view of the Niagara Falls.

Several people from my home town of Horst, The Netherlands were attending the Conference as well.

By 22:00 we went to our room.

Pieter is center photo in plaid shirt and I'm opposite him.

 Next day we left by 10:00 for Vineland Research & Innovation Centre where we got to see their horticulture and fruitgrowing under glass such as kiwis and peaches after wine and beer in their garden with a good barbecue.

Lots of wedding couples came to take pictures in their beautiful garden. Situated 100 m from Lake Ontaria, a peninsula with mild climate.

From there we went by bus to Toronto to our Hilton Harbor Castle and after unpacking we walked into the city.

On Sunday July 20, we got up at 10:00 and went on foot to St. Michaels Cathedral for the 12:00 Mass.

St. Michael's R.C. Cathedral opened in 1848

No iPhone back than with GPS info...

We further enjoyed the Conference where Pieter was speaker and panelist.

Had hoped to receive his lecture from Geoff Price but nope...

Did partially post about it: {Toronto Canada Then and Now} ←click link.

P.J.C. Vedder on Mushroom Cultivation during Technology Transfer Seminar—Pre–Wet

 Starting off, with our gratitude towards Mushrooms Canada, for allowing us to use their video.

Pieter J.C. Vedder Author of modern mushroom growing 2020 harvesting (click link)

For all those that never met him in person, as an educator, see video below.

Don't forget the basics.

The basic is, and you can come up with all kind of machinery and all kind of techniques, but it is as simple as this; pre–wetting means make every piece of straw or material what you are using for making compost, wet as soon as possible—every piece of straw and cover it with some slurry, some type of nutrients for those microorganisms, who are actually doing the job

We will go over the few factors later on. Composting means that we give certain microorganisms the opportunity to do in two weeks, what they normally do in half a year; just break down that material. And you should never forget the role of mushrooms in nature. People sometimes forget what the role of mushrooms in nature is.

Also shortness of the material. Aha, so we said try in an early stage to cover every piece of material with a layer of slurry. I'm not using water—and go back to what David said: if it is a kind of a slurry then there is a better water holding capacity of the particles. Yeah, water would run off easier but if it is a kind of runoff material with already some

food, some bacteria, some germs in it—yeah it sticks better to the pieces of straw. Try to crush them but not chop it because—because for two reasons—because you can't do the same in a tunnel Phase II, as you can do in a thinner layer if that material is short and a little bit on the wet side. That is the contradiction—then you can handle Phase II maybe in such a layer but not in a higher layer

Talking about composting what you are doing is you are burning off carbohydrates—not because our mushroom could not utilize them but it is too attractive for competitors and so on. So here we start pre–wetting. Pre–wetting means more or less prepare the material for the big happening. Here you start biological

activity. Microorganisms are breaking down that kind of material and that material of course is organic material. So if you start here at the beginning with for instance a C/N ratio. Everybody I suppose understands the C/N ratio. The ratio between the amount of carbon and nitrogen. In straw the C/N ratio is more or less 80, that means 80 to 1. 80 parts carbon against one nitrogen; that is straw.

P.J.C. Vedder on Mushroom Cultivation during Technology Transfer Seminar part 1 ←click link for watching video

Don't forget to click on 'CC' for seeing English caption...

Best also to view on YouTube as there are clickable points built in—below video in text!

Readers and/or viewers, should realize, that such a Technology Transfer Seminar was done in a 2nd language for us. Always so for the impromptu, without paper or any note points. 

Also, answering any upcoming questions from the audience.

Try doing this, for hours on end...

You must thrive on a lot of knowledge and experience for being able to do this spontaneously, time and time again, and with the same enthusiasm as you did for the very first time!

Being mighty proud of my Pieter as one of the BEST educators. His knowledge can still help numerous mushroom growers.

Pieter practicing Bach's Minuet

A happy Pieter on Sunday evening, October 25, 1998 while I was cooking supper...

Pieter points to section where he has to play 8 notes at once and also read them!

ENJOY: