Spores For Thought

Sara Summers and Frank Cammidge drop in this week to tell us about their experience of working with the Onions in the community panel. They chat about Watchet's problems, it's successes, and how the community panel is involved in decisions. Sara calls the Onions leeches (But in the less common flattering sense) and Frank talks about how he originally joined the panel by getting accosted Lidl.  

Everything is new this week as Spores Tor Thought team tries to figure out if they are now indeed podcasters or not. Jess Prendergrast, Sally Lowndes and Naomi Griffiths talk about why they have indeed started a podcast, who they are, who BIOHM is, and why they think it could be the future industry of the small coastal town of Watchet in West Somerset. 

Sally is joined by Ehab Sayed and Samantha Jenkins this week to talk about the story and science behind why mycelium chooses to eat plastic, and the wide, exciting range of effects this could have in the world. 95% of plastics ever produced in the world still exist says Ehab, what can we do about that looking forward?

In this episode, the onion team gets together to answer a few FAQ's about what's going on and how they got to where they are now, why they chose the infamous plastic-eating mushroom industry whilst hopefully not using terms that are overly confusing. 

The team meets Dr David Greenfield this week. David is a Chartered Waste Manager, Fellow of the CIWM, Fellow of the RSA, Associate Member of the ICE and Chartered Environmentalist and has over 20 years of leadership experience in public and private sector roles. He pops in to talk about circular economics and there's even talk of a picnic. 

Hello! Jess, Sally, and Naomi talk us through about the problems they’ve faced with construction during the pandemic for the new site including the hunt for plaster, uneven floors, and piles of worms, yum. The team also talks about hiring staff from the local community and an infestation of seagulls. Plus there's an idea about using water sucking hoovers whilst not being 100% sure if they're actually a thing. 

Hello!

 This week Naomi and Sally are joined by industry partners, BIOHM. Founder and Director of Innovation, Ehad Sayed, and the Director of Operations, Harry Darkly. They tell us who they are, what BIOHM is, and why they were attracted by Watchet and working with Onion Collective and the incredible local community.