Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Growing Mushrooms in the Kitchen!

Last month Gail and I picked up a Back To The Roots Mushroom Kit at our local whole foods. The kit is a block of used coffee grounds inoculated with Oyster Mushroom mycelia. Activating the kit was as simple as soaking it overnight in water (we initially tried it without this step with no results, however as soon as the block was soaked and drained mushrooms started growing). Once activated a few sprays of water 2 or 3 times a day is all the attention the mushrooms really need.  On the days that I was working from home I would check in on the mushrooms a few times a day and could visibly see growth! In 8 days we harvested a 4 oz clump of Oysters Mushrooms. After the harvest, we turned the kit around and are now trying a second crop on the back side! Here's a few pictures documenting the rapid growth, which was really amazing!

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
It was really cool to see how quickly these grew. Though they are not my favorite I am attempting to eat more mushrooms and have also been learning about mushroom cultivation and growth. I look forward to learning and growing more!

2 comments:

CallieK said...

I grew a shiitake kit last year and it was marvellous and so delicious to eat fresh mushrooms- I need to get another!

Fred said...

I am now looking into other kits and learning a lot about mushrooms!