grow your own oyster mushrooms
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Giveaway in the post below – scroll down for Yuletide pleasure…
The boy’s study of fungi in biology happened to coincide with a dearth of decent mushrooms in my local store. I figured homeschooling was the perfect excuse to order a kit from Back to the Roots, something I’ve wanted to try for a while.
Man, oh man, these things are tasty. Mushrooms are a little like snakes to me. I am perfectly happy to interact with them as long as a genuine expert can assure me they aren’t poisonous. I don’t trust myself to identify either of them, so until we grew these, I’d never had a truly fresh ‘shroom.
BTTR kits grow pearl oyster mushrooms on a substrate of recycled coffee grounds. Super green stuff, here. And it’s all pretty easy. (Don’t follow my instructions! Be sure to read and follow the steps in the kit.)
We sliced open our bag of yuck (no smell, just unattractive) and soaked the bag in clean water for 24 hours.
(It helps to weight your bag down with Fiesta bowls. Maybe that’s just me.)
Mist your bag two or three times a day and wait ever so patiently.
About two weeks later…
Mushrooms as big as your head! (More or less.)
We sautéed these with onion in olive oil and served them over spaghetti squash. Oh, so tasty! We then resoaked the bag and started the process again – our second flush of growth (from the same side) was a little smaller, but just as yummy. Those were eaten in a burrito, with leftovers tossed in homemade veggie soup the next day.
We are currently awaiting another crop from the other side of the bag.
These are a lot of fun for homeschooling (all ages) and make a terrific green Christmas gift. They are available online (I ordered mine from Abe’s Market) and I have since found them at my local Whole Foods. Yum!
