Mushroom Farming

[figarofigaro1]

Whenever anybody asks me what I would do if I could do anything I wanted and make a good living doing it, I always respond with a mixture of beekeeping, mushroom farming, and baking. Of those three things, the only one I have ever done is baking. The other two things fascinate me and I love the products that result. Well, I decided to try an indoor shiitake mushroom growing kit.

When it arrived, it looked like a big dirty wedding cake. Bleh.



The directions said that if there weren't little brown blisters poking the bag it was in, there weren't mushrooms yet. The entire block and bag needed to be chilled for three to five days. We did it for four and then needed space in the refrigerator. The next step was to soak the block in water. It smelled like mushrooms, which I thought was a good sign.

Then it is drained and set on a plate, and misted several times a day. It has a plastic bag-tent to keep it humid. It's sitting on our counter. The directions said that it might take a week to ten days for mushrooms to pop up. It's been out since Monday, and when I misted at lunchtime, I noticed mushroom sprouts.

 

They look rather alien at the moment, and alarmingly similar to the dirty wedding cake they're growing on. But They should look better in a few days. I hope they don't attack us in the night while we're asleep!

Comments

[lunacow]

This is hardly as appetizing as your usual food posts, but I'm fascinated. It never occurred to me to wonder how anyone grows mushrooms purposefully (as opposed to finding them in the wild), let alone indoors. What *is* the dirty wedding cake?

[figarofigaro1.livejournal.com]

I got the kit from Fungi Perfecti because it was one of the few that didn't send an actual log. The catalog describes it as "a unique blend of sterilized, enriched sawdust fully colonized with a select Chinese strain."

The catalog has awesome pictures of mushroom farms with rows of logs with mushrooms all over them. Evidently one can lean logs against the north side of the house and do quite well.

[lunacow]

A "select Chinese strain" is what 2008 Olympians get when they don't stretch properly before their event.

Um, sorry. Really sorry.

Okay, mushrooms grow in wood and wood products. Got it. This is so educational!