The story is this: I
bought a mushroom growing kit as a gift for my husband as he is into gardening
and loves to watch things grow. The kit came with a roll of toilet paper, a bag
with a rubber band, mushroom spores and instructions (plus a 25% off coupon for
your next order). Golden Oysters were the ‘shrooms-to-be. The instructions are
lengthy and said if you didn’t start them right away to put the spores in the
fridge. They were not started right away
so I put the spores in the fridge. They sat there for months. Realizing that my
husband really wasn’t that interested I decided to try my hand at them. How
much fun was this! It is a process that doesn’t take much skill, mostly
patience but what an amazing thing to see happen. On the front end it takes
nothing to start, the incubating period is long, but then the fruiting happens
within days. Literally from the morning to the evening you can see the
mushrooms growing. I was shocked. Maybe because the first part took so long but
everyday I couldn’t wait to get up and check on my ‘shrooms to see their
progress! Although they only produced a handful of mushrooms (I think due to
the late start) I harvested them, sautéed them in some butter, sprinkled some
salt and WOW. They were delightful. I am a proud mushroom mom!
The process
starts (at least with the kit that I had) with soaking the toilet paper roll in
water, you then place it in the bag provided and pour the spores down the
center. Close up the bag with the rubber band and put it in a warm dark place
(like in a cabinet in your kitchen) and wait (this is the incubation period).
1-3 weeks is all it takes for the roll to be covered in fluffy mycelium, then
wait another 1-3 weeks, the longer the better and the faster the “fruiting”
process will take. At this point you
place the bagged roll in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours to stimulate the
fruiting process. Remove it to a room with light and open up the bag (I put it
in my office so I could watch it!). Wait another 1-2 weeks and those babies
will start popping! Once they do it is only a matter of a few days until the
reach full potential. Harvest and eat, then repeat. You can continue using the
same roll and spores over and over again…I am in my second run now and want to
continue trying other types of mushrooms. I encourage you to try it. It is fun
and is cool for kids (and adults!) to watch how they grow.
I ordered mine
from: www.zingermans.com and the
mushroom company website is:
There are several
kits out there a simple Internet search will result in many options!
In fact for my
birthday my husband gave me a new oyster mushroom growing kit that uses
recycled coffee grounds and claims ‘shrooms in as little as 10 days…as well as
a shiitake log, both from Farmer D’s: www.farmerd.com.
I also went to
the Grant Park Farmer’s Market and met a guy from Atlanta Gourmet Mushroom who
also sells kits and mushrooms. He invited me to his place to see how he does it
on a larger scale and also said they do foraging outings!!! How fun! Check him
out! www.atlmush.com
Happy Mushroom Growing!
Happy Mushroom Growing!
-Vanessa Parker McIntyre, the Urban Gatherer
Thing I find most interesting about mushrooms is their underground connection to each other. Amazing! cubensis spores
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