📅 Date: Sunday, February 22, 2026
⏰ Time: 2:00 - 5:00 PM
📍 Location: Nick’s House in Crestview
💗 Donation: $35+ (Members get a 30% discount, Only 25 seats!)
Ever wanted to grow your own huitlacoche, the celebrated "Mexican corn fungus"? Whether you're a curious beginner or an experienced gardener looking for a new challenge, this intensive workshop is for you.
Join Anamaria, urban farmer and garden manager at Este Garden and Nixta Taqueria to teach you the secrets of successfully cultivating corn in Central Texas.
Soil considerations?
Planting conditions?
Watering schedule?
Fertilizer schedule?
Pollination?
Harvest and preservation?
Disease?
Processing into flour?
and Nick, who has been dialing in his successful huitlacoche program for over three years, as he shares his hard-won tips. He'll guide you through the process:
Perfect timing for inoculation and cultivation.
How to harvest, prepare, and savor your homegrown huitlacoche.
Light snacks and drinks provided
Take-Home Kit: Every participant will leave ready to start, equipped with a syringe of live culture and a pack of selected corn seeds!
What is huitlacoche?
It's not a fungus you find, but one you cultivate! Huitlacoche is a delectable, mushroom-like delicacy created when corn is carefully infected by the fungus. The result is gourmet, blue-black kernels bursting with an earthy, savory flavor prized in traditional cuisine.
About the Instructors
Anamaria Gutierrez is an urban farmer and entrepreneur dedicated to building community through food in Austin, Texas. She manages Este Garden, where she is on her 23rd season cultivating a 1/3 acre edible garden for farm-to-table restaurants Suerte, Este and Bar Toti. Anamaria is also growing culturally-meaningful fresh food for renowned restaurant Nixta Taqueria in their backyard alongside their team. While tending to these urban gardens, Anamaria offers educational programming and hosts community events.
Nick Steinhauser is an educator and engineer whose passion for sustainable food systems bridges technology and agriculture. By day, he applies analytical problem-solving as an engineer at IBM. He channels this same meticulous approach into his work with the Central Texas Mycological Society (CTMS), where he leads the Huitlacoche Cultivation Program. For over three years, Nick has been "dialing in" his successful inoculation and cultivation techniques, demystifying the process of growing this celebrated corn fungus. He brings a unique, detail-oriented perspective to the workshop, translating complex biological processes into accessible, actionable steps for gardeners of all levels.
