Fungus as a food source

zeke · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 07, 2007 Posts: 181

recently heard a fascinating lecture about all of the benefits fungus offers humanity, but in terms of food, it's a pretty good (and tasty) source.

and it seems that logs can be used to provide food for fungus, which in turn can feed US.

the concept is that you innoculate a log of a hardwood tree with whatever, shitake, oyster, or whatever you like, and depending upon the size of the log, you can harvest mushrooms for up to 12 years.

Mushrooms are a good source of protein.

This tidbit of info seems good for all of us, but esp. for those of use who don't have a lot of land to play with at the moment.

zeke
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Fishman · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:20 am Post subject: Re: Fungus as a food source

Zeke
You are already among a fungusy crowd here. Several folks are already raising shitakes, I just inoculated coffee grounds with oyster mushrooms. (Anyone with prior experience with this model?)

LittleBoPeak · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 18, 2008 Posts: 24

Coffee grounds? How did you decide to do that? Please update as to how it goes!

alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 799

I am very interested, but don't know how to start. Do you have to have hardwood logs? We would have palm logs but I think they don't work.

You lay the log into the shade and buy the mycelium water and wathc it grow?
Can you put the log in the chicken run or do they eat the fungis?

zeke · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 07, 2007 Posts: 181

we have a mushroom kit which is just coming on now...oyster mushrooms..

we would like to keep it going after its 4 flushes are done - 4 flushes is what they said it was good for.

we thought a plastic bin filled with wood chips might be a good medium.

any thoughts on this, or on the best way to make our shroom kit keep on shroomin?

thank you

zeke
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gnm · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 10:05 am Post subject: Re: Fungus as a food source

Zeke, if you have some of the spore or mycelium mat then what you can do is shred some hay, sterilize it by steaming it in a big pot, and then after cooling add the spore and tie it into bags or bins with small holes in them. Keep it moist but not wet, in the dark, and it should quickly spread through the medium. Once it becomes thick with the mycelium, you can drill logs and plug it with that. Drill holes, soak them, then put a portion in and seal it. Keep a portion to repeat the growth procedure above...

-G Very Happy

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Fishman · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 8:30 pm Post subject: Re: Fungus as a food source

Little BoPeep
Picked up the idea from the i net. Placed the grounds from Starbucks in a 5 gal bucket and shoved some pieces of oyster mushroom in per the instructions. I also plan to try some oyster mushrooms blended then inoculated on the coffee grounds , will keep you up to date.

zeke · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 07, 2007 Posts: 181

well, we just harvested our first home-grown oyster mushrooms.. sauteed with oil and garlic, and with rice and with pasta...

I probably don't have to tell you all how incredibly tasty they are...
and it seems there is no end to the list of health benefits they offer...

zeke
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alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 799

I read a recipe for growing mushrooms:
You buy some mushroom in the supermarket, place them in a paper bag and wait for some days.
Then you shake the bag that the spores come out.
You sow the spores on compost in a container.

Anyone tried this?
If you grow mushrooms on homemade compost - can you be sure that there are no poisonous mushrooms as there may be already spores?
And mushrooms usually need a certain temperature to grow.

Can you do this with dried mushroom as well?

misterno · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:39 am Post subject: Re: Mushroom

himm I am curious too

for some reason mushroom got very expensive lately

dutchcyclist · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:02 pm Post subject: Re: Mushroom

Kingcoal · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:14 pm Post subject: Re: Fungus as a food source

I love mushrooms, big ones, small ones, as long as they aren't poisonous. You do have to be careful because I've heard the poisonous ones taste good.

You can buy mushroom growing kits which include the spores. A buddy of mine got a good crop from one of those. They are ridiculously easy to grow, just put them in a dark place, the basement is a good spot, and leave them grow.
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zeke · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 07, 2007 Posts: 181

method we're trying now is:

locate a chunk of hardwood with bark still attached to it

soak the chunk (6-14 inches diameter preferred)

drill holes 4" apart, from bark toward center (2" deep) in a diamond pattern

load each hole with a wooden plug innoculated with your spores and seal over with beeswax or cheese wax

keep log moist.

wait appx 9 months for the mycelia do permeate the log tissue, and for fruiting to commence.

depending on the size of the log, you can get 10 years' worth of fruiting.

now, I'd think anyone with hardwood trees on their land, and who has or might need to chop up felled trees would be sitting on a nutritional goldmine with respect to this method.

we found it pretty difficult even to locate a hardwood log of sufficient size as conifers are by far and away the most abundant tree here.

zeke
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alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 799

Sounds everything quite difficult. Except the kit, which is about $20 here, and I don't know if it is worthwhile.
Finding a hardwood log in the suburb, well we must have a look, and then we have to get the spores.
For champignones or button mushroom you need horse manure what we can obtain. Then I could inocculate the manure with spores from the shop?
And shiitake? We're subtropical so I guess some mushrooms won't do well here.
Do you grow them simply in a shady corner of your garden?

zeke · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 07, 2007 Posts: 181

perhaps somewhat tedious at the beginning getting stuff together and preparing it, but in return for countless tasty and nutritious mushrooms for when food might be quite nice to have?

bargain, IMO

shade, yes. 60s or lower, but not freezing.

in fact, dark is better than shade...not in a closet dark, but WELL shielded from direct and bounced sunlight.

you may have to google to see which edible mushrooms are good for your area.

z
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