Clallam County Master Gardener Bob Blackett will offer his “Growing Mushrooms” presentation to the Sequim Prairie Garden Club at the group’s monthly meeting set for 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 7, in the clubhouse at Pioneer Memorial Park, 387 E. Washington St.

Blackett and his wife moved to Sequim about five years ago and became Clallam County master gardeners. He gave the Sequim Prairie Garden Club a presentation on succulents last October.

Blackett’s background includes three college degrees in science, two years teaching chemistry in Africa with the U.S. Peace Corps, and 32 years working in crime laboratories, mostly as a DNA analyst. In addition to caring for the succulent garden at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden, Blackett started an outdoor mushroom garden in the fall of 2021.

Mushrooms are likely the healthiest crop a gardener can grow, club members note, and this is an ideal climate for them. Blackett’s first crop included shiitake mushrooms on alder logs, wine cap mushrooms on a mixed straw/wood chip bed, and oyster mushrooms on straw bales.

His expansion last winter includes more of those as well as reishi, nameko, turkey tail and lion’s mane.

The meeting opens with social time from 10-10:30 a.m. followed by the program at 10:30 a.m., and lunch and business meeting at 11:45 a.m.