SDWILLIAMS

In wanting to partner with my husband Doug's interests, I am surprised to find myself for 15 years owner and business manager of Lost Creek Mushroom Farm, selling shiitake mushrooms and shiitake mushroom log kits (http://www.shiitakemushroomlog.com). Wearing the hats I trained myself for, I am a writer and a theatre Artist-in-Residence. I am in my 60s and live in rural Oklahoma. My interests include the arts, biological sciences, health and alternative medicine, and animals. I went with both my parents through their years of old age and dying. I feel richly blessed in my friends and family. A life-changing event occurred in 2007: Loving adventure and different cultures, we volunteered for a Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Ghana, West Africa, working with oyster mushroom contamination problems and teaching about shiitake production. We became friends with Bernard Bempah, founder and director of the NGO agricultural training program, Bemcom Youth Enterprises/ Association (BYEA). We are bringing him to the US to tour shiitake operations and visit spawn producers. The Mushrooms in Ghana Project (http://www.mushroomsinghanaproject.googlepages.com) intends to send him home with the tools and equipment to produce his own shiitake and oyster mushroom spawn. We also worked at Jerusalem Farms in Edumfa, in the Central Region of Ghana, assessing their operations for oyster, shiitake, reishi, and straw mushroom production. The farm is tied to Edumfa Spiritual Retreat and Prayer Camp, where every day we heard stories of healing. We read an article that said, "Oyster mushrooms can end hunger in Africa." That is not true for Ghana at this time, but we are working toward that end.