A GREENOCK man is proving himself a 'funguy' by taking on an innovative mushroom-growing project in Port Glasgow.

Callum T. Daisley has helped Parklea Branching Out secure £500 from Grow Wild - the outreach arm of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.

The money will enable him and the team at the community hub to grow three types of mushroom in a wooden teepee.

Callum has been at Parklea for around five years and was approached last year by active options co-ordinator Susan Steell after she saw grants were available for mushroom-growing projects.

Callum teamed up with his friend Beth Robertson to make a two-minute video about what they would do in the project and sent it off to Grow Wild.

The funding was shelved for a year due to coronavirus restrictions but in April this year, the team were thrilled to find out that the application had been successful.

Callum will now be supported by the team at Parklea in growing King Stropharia and elm mushrooms, native to the UK, and shiitake mushrooms, native to east Asia.

The 23-year-old can't wait to get started.

He said: "I'm looking forward to seeing how they grow and learning about all the different stages.

"I enjoy gardening and I'm really looking forward to getting started."

The wooden teepee will be built by the team at Parklea and will give Callum an ideal damp and dark area for him to cultivate mushroom spawn on logs and in the ground.

Cardboard, wood shavings and used coffee grounds will help to cultivate the mushroom spawn.

Susan plans to approach local businesses about providing their coffee grounds in exchange for a fresh stock of gourmet mushrooms.

When the mushrooms are harvested, the team will use them to make tasty soup.

Callum's friends and Parklea clients Beth Anderson, Lindsey Bishop and James Murdoch will help him look after the funghi.

Susan says peer support and mentoring will be a big part of the project.

She added: "Everyone has different learning abilities and we'll all be supporting each other.

"We'll be finding out how important mushrooms are for the environment and linking up with other organisations to bring it all together.

"When we've harvested the mushrooms, the teepee could be moved somewhere else in our grounds or people could keep growing the mushrooms for years into the future.

"It's about the activity itself and not the end result."

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MAKE 'ROOM: Callum's friends and Parklea clients Beth Anderson, Lindsey Bishop and James Murdoch will help him grow the edible funghi.